Septembeb 13, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



353 



there Megatherium, Mylodon, Macraiichenia, 

 Hippidhtm, Mastodon and many other quad- 

 rupeds. Mr. Otto Nordenskjold has found 

 tertiary plants there; remains of quadrupeds, 

 will also be met with. 



The Antarctic world offers a magnificent 

 field for discovery to explorers. 



Albert Gaudey 



attention to the physical well-being of pupils. 

 — The New York Evening Post. 



QUOTATIONS 



THE PHYSICIAN IN THE SCHOOL 



The International Conference on School 

 Hygiene, held in London this month, raised 

 many questions which should search the hearts 

 of teachers, parents, and taxpayers in America. 

 Some of these questions we have already been 

 debating. In this city last winter Superin- 

 tendent Maxwell urged that the eyes of school 

 children be examined, and that glasses be 

 provided — if necessary at public expense — for 

 those whose sight is defective. The shortest 

 way with such a proposal is to give it a bad 

 name and damn it. Accordingly, the plan was 

 received by a part of the press with jeers and 

 cries of " Socialism ! " Mr. Maxwell's reply 

 was in effect that we are spending millions a 

 year for teachers, buildings, text-books, and 

 apparatus ; and that it is worth while to lay 

 out a little more in order to enable all the 

 children to profit by these facilities. In an 

 article in our own columns last April he said: 



It seems folly to supply books to children who 

 can not read them, or to place children in class- 

 rooms when they can not see what is written or 

 drawn on the blackboard. If the sight is de- 

 fective, the child is hopelessly handicapped. The 

 expenditure of a few thousand dollars for glasses 

 would enable thousands of children who are now 

 unable to do their school work to stand on the 

 same level with their fellows. 



These words sum up briefly the whole argu- 

 ment for the physical examination of school 

 children and the attempt to keep them in such 

 health that they can fairly avail themselves of 

 the advantages offered. We can not dismiss 

 the matter with a question-begging epithet. 

 Our American school boards must consider 

 the project on its merits, and decide whether, 

 in justice to the children as well as to the com- 

 munity as a whole, we should not devote more 



CVBBENT NOTES ON LAND FORMS 



OTAGO PENINSULA, NEW ZEALAND 



Otago Peninsula is a land-tied island on 

 the east coast of southern New Zealand. An 

 interesting account of its features is given by 

 P. Marshall, professor of geology in Otago 

 University at Dunedin, near the head of the 

 Otago Bay, which the peninsula encloses. 

 (" The Geology of Dunedin, New Zealand," 

 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, LXIL, 1906, 381- 

 424). The peninsula is a complex mass of 

 volcanic rocks, which, while the district stood 

 towards 1,000 feet higher than now, was sub- 

 maturely dissected; that is, the valleys, still 

 narrow and of rapid descent in their upper 

 courses, became more open and of gentler 

 descent in their middle and lower courses; 

 and the slopes came to have only moderate 

 declivity. During submergence to its present 

 level, the mountainous mass was cut off from 

 the mainland by the drowning of a connecting 

 ridge on its northwestern side; it thus became 

 an island, about 14 miles long northeast-south- 

 west, and not more than six miles wide, with 

 summits still reaching more than 1,000 feet 

 above the sea, and with much irregularity of 

 outline as would be expected. Since the dis- 

 trict assumed this attitude, the exposed head- 

 lands, on the mainland as well as on the is- 

 land, have been cut back in strong cliffs, from 

 300 to 800 feet high ; the smaller reentrants 

 have been filled with beach-fronted sands ; the 

 larger reentrants have been more or less com- 

 pletely enclosed by bay-mouth spits and bars; 

 and Otago strait, as the original water pas- 

 sage back of the island might be called, has 

 been closed at its southwest end, under the 

 guidance of the prevailing long-shore current 

 from the southwest, by a beach-fronted sand- 

 ■ isthmus, which converts the strait into a long 

 bay. The southward direction of growth of 

 several bay-mouth spits and reefs suggests 

 that they are controlled by backset eddies, 

 which sweep around the new-built shore lines 

 between the projecting headlands in a direction 

 opposite to that of the main, long-shore cur- 



