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SCIENCE. 



Vol. XXII. No. 5S0 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 



BY ALEXAMDEK MEEK, MUSEUM, PETERHEAD, SCOTLAND. 



Mk. Moese has recently, in the Atlantic Monthly, advo- 

 cated, and very ably, the extension of museums into_ the 

 smaller towns. The success of the public libraries is as 

 well known on this side as in America, and where 

 museums have been established they have also been 

 largely taken advantage of. And thus it is only fair that 

 some definite purposes should be kept in view in their 

 formation and in their arrangement. Such purposes the 

 writer has set down elsewhere*, and there is little indeed 

 to add or object to in the article above mentioned. 



I hope soon to publish a description of a local museum, 

 which has long had a quiet. and dark existence in Peter- 

 head, but which, with the institution of a reading room 

 and free library, is now properly housed. The removal 

 has been made the occasion of a complete revival and re- 

 arrangement in new cases. We hope to have it opened in 

 a week or two. 



There is no dovibt at all of the educational value of 

 such institutions. The pity is that so many are ham- 

 pered by want of funds to carry on the work and to pro- 

 vide a neat-handed, educated person to look after the col- 

 lection. Were it possible to build such museums and 

 libraries with other educational activities, I fancy the 

 solution of the problem of providing for education, even 

 in remote districts, would be brought to practicable 

 ground and might be gone on with at once. 



Let me tell those who read Science one direction which 

 education has recently taken in this country, and some 

 thoughts that are suggested for its continuance and fur- 

 therance. 



In towns, the youth who takes u]d a work or jDrofession, 

 is led at once, by contact with his fellows, to attend Uni- 

 versity or Evening Technical classes, where he learns 

 principles underlying his daily work. But in the country 

 districts, until lately, little attempt has been made to in- 

 striTct farmers and fishermen. 



And like all similar attempts, even when made in towns, 

 the failure of the v/ork was by many guaranteed. Those 

 who have passed from school to university, who have de- 

 voted themselves to some special department of learning, 

 furnish often the worst enemies to the scheme. But the 

 funds came suddenly, and the trial was made. Well, it 

 may be granted at once that an itinerant instructor can 

 do very little real teaching, but if he can successfully, 

 every night of his course, hold up an attractive picture of 

 scientific work and its results to those in front of him, he 

 should, if well trained, find that his work is not unavail- 

 ing, that it is possible to thus stimulate an interest in the 

 questions he handles, and then the free libraries are 

 called upon that the pupil may follow it up. I can vouch, 

 from my own experience in this field, for the interest 

 taken in the lectures and for the encouraging enthusiasm 

 evinced by those who attend — many travelling six miles 

 for the purpose. The interest shown, of course, is due, in 

 my case, to the country audience being so directly interest- 

 ed in my subject — the Farm Animals. 



But still there is here, as with the museums, the want 

 of co-ordination. Not only is such instruction very much 

 needed in the country, and the desirability of the school- 

 masters taking the great share of it, but a number of 

 good central institutions in the larger towns where such 

 a complex subject as agriculture could be taught by com- 

 petent teachers in all the departments and with which the 

 schoolmasters and itinerant instructors would have direct 

 connection. 



Should such an extension be adopted in America, I 



*Transactions of Buchan Field Club for 1893, etc. 



think you will see the desirability of having it emanate 

 from such institutions of agriculture as are to be found in 

 Germany, and as in Guelph, Canada, on your side. 



With the schoolboards, the Science and Art i)epartment 

 and the Technological Institution in London, and the 

 County Councils, not to add universities, free libraries 

 and museums, we have institutions enough in Britain, but 

 their want of connection and inde]3endence of effort are 

 much to be dej^lored. 



It would be invidious in a journal like Science to dis- 

 cuss how that may be done. But for the purpose alike 

 advocated by the writer in the Atlantic Monthhj and of ex- 

 tending education into the country, such co-ordination is 

 to be recommended. 



PALENQUE HIEROGLYPHICS. 



BY PH. J. J. VALBNTINI, 35 I LENOX AVE., NEW YOEK CITY. 



I HAVE prepared a memoir, in which an accurate ac- 

 count is given, both of the scu.lptured centre-picture set 

 into the rear wall of the so-called Temple of the Cross, 

 Palenque, and of the text contained in the 201 squares of 

 hieroglyphics on the two lateral tablets. 



Since the discovery of this temple by J. Lloyd Stephens, 

 in 1849, this text has been the subject of much specula- 

 tion. It was thought to tell the migratory and colonial 

 history of the fabled Toltec nation. It was imagined to 

 be written in hieroglyphics capable of being deciphered 

 by the aid of a proferred alphabet. Neither of these 

 speculations will stand the test. 



As to the structure itself, it stands on a small tumulus, 

 and was devoted to the memory of a defunct j)riest, whose 

 name does not appear. But his portrait seems to be rep- 

 resented in the large sacrificial scene. He is ofl:ering the 

 idol of Chac to the sacred Quetzal, this bird being perched 

 on the top of the Tree o/i?/e (yak-die), the latter standing 

 on a pedestal in the shape of a grotesque human skull. 



The purport of the left-hand tablet, as may be inferred 

 from certain jDeculiar features and their arrangement, is 

 that of a brief abstract of the records of the Palenque 

 Temple. The other lateral tablet appears to contain a 

 sort of biograj^hy of the dead priest. 



With the exception of only two symbols of the twenty 

 Maya days, the remaining exhibit the same features as 

 are known from Landa's work and the extant codices, 

 only that thej^ shov.' themselves in most elaborate form. 



No symbol for the month makes its appearance on these 

 tablets. Mr. Foerstemann's theory of reading double- 

 columns is untenable; consequently, also, that of his day- 

 symbols allied to month-symbols. The one is contradic- 

 ted by the conspicuous separation of the columns thein- 

 selves and hj many other reasons. The other is refuted 

 by literary statements. Landa's pictures of month-sym- 

 bols are not the traditional ones, but fanciful suggestions. 



There is no trace on the tablets of the Mexican Ton- 

 alamatl reckoning, but, rather, of that of the ancient Tu- 

 lan (Palenque) vigesimal system.' 



A phonetic base underlies the text neither as a whole 

 nor in part. The hieroglyphics are of ^^ure ideogrammatic 

 nature. Moreover, the eye will not meet any object pro- 

 fane. The squares show only objects sacred, belonging to 

 the cult, the temjjie, or such as were brought to it with 

 the purpose of sacrificial offerings. Their identification 

 offers no difficulties. Almost all of them were described 

 and discussed by Landa. 



At the suggestion of the lamented Professor Baird, 

 Smithsonian Institution, this memoir was begun in 1873. 

 Its substance was ready for print in 1877, when I made 

 an agreement with Dr. Ran, that he should first publish 

 the description of the Palenque tablet, No. II., which 

 stands preserved in the National Museum, and I then fol- 



