SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 315 



SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



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N. D. C. HODGES. 



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The CHARTER of the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua 

 has at last been granted by Congress. The plans for this great 

 enterprise have been laid out so carefully, and the difficulties and 

 advantages of the various routes have been considered so conscien- 

 tiously, that the attempts at obstructing the passage of the bill 

 were in no way justified. The feeling of the House on this subject 

 was well e.xpressed by the applause with which the passage of this 

 important bill was greeted. The resistance offered on the alleged 

 ground that the United States might be obliged to take up the 

 work of the company was the more absurd, as the concession by 

 the State of Nicaragua expressly states that no government e.\cept 

 those of Central American States is allowed to hold shares in the 

 icompany, and that the concession cannot be ceded to the govern- 

 ment of any nation. The work will certainly be pushed with as 

 much vigor as the surveys have been carried on, and we do not 

 ■doubt that the canal will be completed in a very few years. The 

 company has fulfilled the requirements of its concession by the 

 State of Nicaragua, referring to the commencement and completion 

 of the final surveys, and for the organization of an executive com- 

 pany ; and the work of construction will also be begun in due time- 

 \While the prospects of the construction of the Nicaragua Canal are 

 Ihopeful in every respect, the formation of the new Panama Canal 

 'Company has proved a failure. It will largely depend upon political 



events in France, whether the work can be carried on or not ; but 

 recent events have proved that the confidence of private capital in 

 M. de Lesseps' enterprise is not sufficient to enable him to carry on 

 the enormous work that has to be accomplished towards the com- 

 pletion of his lock canal. It remains to be seen whether the gov- 

 ernment of France will be able to withstand the pressure exerted 

 upon it in taking up the work. The long delays and evident diffi- 

 culty of the route cannot but be of advantage to the Nicaragua 

 Company, which will be able to absorb a large proportion of the 

 working force kept idle at Panama. 



The CAUSE OF progress and reform in New York City 

 schools received a great impetus last Wednesday, when the Public 

 Education Society submitted, through its committee, a memorial to 

 the Board of Education on the state of the schools. This memorial 

 was received and referred without comment to the committee on 

 reform, to whose own report we have recently made reference in 

 these columns. The memorial opens with the statement that the 

 Public Education Society believes the New York City schools, as 

 at present organized and conducted, to be deficient in respect to 

 accommodations provided, in respect to courses and methods of 

 instruction, and in respect to administration. In support of its 

 belief, the society submits a number of facts. From the perusal of 

 these, we leain that during the past year there were 150,312 pupils 

 registered in all the schools. Of this number, 55,018 were regis- 

 tered in the grammar schools, and 95,294 in the primary schools. 

 For the grammar schools there weie provided 1,575 teachers, and 

 for the primary schools 1,741 teachers. F'rom this the society goes 

 on to show, that, although the conditions in the grammar depart- 

 ments are bad enough, those in the primary schools and depart- 

 ments are infinitely worse. The primary schools or departments 

 are invariably placed on the lowest floor of the school-building, 

 where there is the least light, the greatest amount of dampness, 

 and the greatest amount of exposure to foul and unpleasant or un- 

 healthy surroundings. It seems that in the lowest primary grade 

 the classes average in size 87 pupils to every teacher. This fact is 

 in itself astounding, and a sufficient indictment of the entire system. 

 It must be borne in mind that these children are the youngest and 

 most impressionable in the schools, and that many of them are 

 not six years of age. In the next lowest primary grade the classes 

 average 58 pupils to the teacher; and in the grade above that, 56 

 pupils to the teacher. 



It is then shown, that although the regulations of the Board of 

 Education call for very meagre allowances of floor space and cubic 

 air space per pupil, yet the law is violated in hundreds of instances. 

 A list of 185 school-rooms is given in which members of the society, 

 by actual inspection, have found fhe law to be violated to an alarm- 

 ing extent. For instance: school- rooms meant to hold 52 pupils 

 are found to have 75 in average attendance, and one room which 

 was meant to hold only 44 had 73 little children crowded into it 

 daily. In spite of this overcrowding, 3,873 pupils were denied ad- 

 mission to the schools during the first week in September, 1888. 

 The lack of play-grounds is adverted to, and an admirable sugges- 

 tion made that the authorities should follow the example of London, 

 and place the play-grounds on the roofs of the school-buildings in 

 cases where the value of real estate does not permit the purchase 

 of ground adjoining the school-houses. In illustrating the defi- 

 ciency of the courses and methods of instruction, the memorial is 

 very forcible. It shows, that, while the school-children in New 

 York City are hard-worked and the curriculum overcrowded, the 

 progress is not nearly so great as it is in the elementary schools of 

 a number of European countries. It is chargeable, too, against the 

 New York City system, that the course of study is arranged for 

 the sole benefit of those who pursue it throughout, whereas not less 

 than 6o,0QO. children annually leave the public schools, before they 

 reach the age of twelve years. These children have had no 



