April 8, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



207 



be overcome. The whole of the operations of forming the 

 strip into the finished tube are accomplished in one continu- 

 ous process by a single machine. The weight of the various 

 sizes of tubing now manufactured ranges from 2|- ounces 

 per foot for the -fg^-inch tubing, which is the smallest size 

 manufactured, up to 17 ounces per foot for the l^inch 

 tubing. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



,#** Correspo7idents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer^ s name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



On request in advance^ one hundred copies of the number containing his 

 communication will be furnished free to any correspondent. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consona7it with the ckaractir 

 of the jou7-nal. 



Zoology in the Public Schools of Washington, D.C. 



If there be one thing clearer than another to all thinking people 

 of this or of any other highly civilized nation at the present time, 

 it is that we are living in an age of great scientific progress. 

 Among the dominant, most highly cultured races of the world 

 this progress is characterized by its^great rapidity, the exactness 

 of its methods, and its far-reaching influence. It extends into all 

 departments of human activity; it is felt along every imaginable 

 line, both where the ends and aims are of a most utilitarian kind, 

 as well as in quarters where the results arrived at appear to be, 

 for a time, of a most impracticable nature. Solutions of abstract 

 questions solved by the scientific philosopher and student, no 

 longer, as of old, remain for an indefinite period hidden in an in- 

 accessible literature, but quickly see the light in many places, and. 

 in an incredibly short space of time, appear in the general litera- 

 ture of the day, in school and college text-books, and even in the 

 daily newspapers. This being true, it was with no scant measure 

 of surprise that the present writer had brought to his attention, 

 very recently, a most remarkable case of misinstruction on the 

 part of one of the teachers in a public school of Washington. It 

 is no more than fair to say, however, that the statement made by 

 the instructor to whom reference is made is supported by the 

 author of one of the text-books in general use by the public schools 

 throughout the District. The book in question is Mr. William 

 Swinton's " Grammar School Geography," and in that production 

 the author has adopted the plan of asking a series of questions, 

 and then printing the replies to them on one of the maps given in 

 illustration. On page 71 of his geography he asks, " What fish 

 are taken in the Arctic region ? " and on the accompanying map 

 leaves the student to choose among a number of forms there given, 

 none of which are fish, however, but where prominently occur 

 such animals as the whale and the narwhal, — both of the last- 

 named being typical and well-known marine mammals. 



One of my sons attends the school to which allusion has been 

 made, and it fell to his lot to get this queslion, and in making 

 answer stated that no fish were named on the map in the Arctic 

 regions ; wliereupon the teacher contended that both whale and 

 narwhal were fish. — " and very big ones, too," — directed him to 

 take his seat, marked the reply against him as a miss, and ap- 

 peared to be well pleased that the next scholar in turn replied 

 more in keeping with his own notions in the premises, by stating 

 that two large fish, at least, were found in the Arctic regions, and 

 cited the two that have just been named. Now if there be one 

 fact that zoology has made clearer than another, and it has been 

 given in all authoritative lexicons, encyclopaedias, and text-books 

 throughout the world, it is that both the whale and narwhal are, 

 as has been said, typical marine mammals, and belong just as 

 much to the class Mammalia as does a man or a bear. 



The believing that the whale is a big fish carries us back almost 

 to the time when people entertained such erroneous conceptions of 

 the earth and the creatures that live upon it, that it was popularly 

 thought that the former was flat, that bats were birds, and horse- 

 hairs could be converted into living hair-worms. My surprise is 

 so great indeed at such a state of affairs existing in these times in 

 our very midst that it absolutely forbids my making any comment 

 thereon for fear that language might fail me to do the matter 

 justice. It is surely high time that some effective course in ele- 



mentary biology be included in our public school curriculum, and 

 the sooner it is done, the sooner will our children come to be 

 familiar with common facts, the true nature of things as they 

 exist, and learn to appreciate the significance of a long-exploded 

 idea when they meet with it. R. W. Schtjfeldt. 



Washington, D.C, April 4. 



The Question of the Celts. 



Dr. Brinton, in the last number of Science, asks Dr. P. Majc 

 Foshay for evidence upon certain suggested points, and now I 

 should hke to follow his example, and ask Dr. Brinton for his- 

 evidence that Dr. Theodore KOppen "repeats the familiar error 

 of attributing the theory of the origin of the white race in Europe- 

 to Dr. Latham ; whereas, long before he mentioned it, it had been 

 urged* with clearness by Omalius D'Halloy, the distinguished Bel- 

 gian anthropologist" (Science, vol. xix., p. 174). Both Otto- 

 Schrader, "Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples" (Jevons's- 

 translation), p. 85, and Canon Isaac Taylor, " The Origin of the 

 Aryans," p. 20, agree in assigning this distinction to the late emi- 

 nent English philologist, as propounded by him in " The Germania 

 of Tacitus, with Ethnological Dissertations and Notes," London, 

 1851, Epiligomena, p. cxxxix. (now before me). Will Dr. Brinton. 

 refer me to the work of "the distinguished Belgian anthropolo- 

 gist," and inform me whether he is in any way related to the dis- 

 tinguished Belgian geologist, Omalius D'HaUoy ? 



Also, I should be glad to be referred to the work of Broca, in 

 which he states that " the small, brown, brachycephalic Celts are 

 a mixed type" {Science, ibid., p. 117). I have always understood' 

 Broca to maintain that they are a pure type, the real Celts of 

 Csesar's time, and that they are now represented by the inhabitants 

 of central France. 



Again, what is Dr. Brinton's authority for calling the type " of 

 tall stature, with reddish or blond hair, and dolicocephalic crania," 

 the Kymric ? Is not this the Scandinavian, or Teutonic type, of 

 Penka, which he regards as the original Aryan type? 



Dr. Brinton is surprised to find Professor Schaailhausen of Bonn 

 denying that "the bands who overran Italy in 393 B.C. were Cel- 

 tic. Surely the title of their chiefs, brennus, ' king,' is evidence 

 enough that they spoke a Celtic dialect" (Science, ibid., p. 146)^ 

 But speaking a dialect is no proof of blood relationship, and I 

 suppose Schaaffhausen thinks that the followers of Brennus were 

 really Galated, or of German origin. This is the problem dis- 

 cussed by Niebuhr, " History of Rome " (English translation), vol. 

 ii., n. 1,169, in which the testimony of Celtic authors is quoted to 

 show that the hair of the invading Celts was yellow, or red, while 

 all Celtic peoples now have black hair. Niebuhr thinks that 

 the law of permanency of physical constitution does not hold good 

 for the hair, since now yellow or red hair has become uncommon 

 among the Germans and Scandinavians in most parts. Thus it 

 would seem that we can rely neither upon linguistic nor ethno- 

 logical arguments wholly to settle the vexed question of the 

 Celts. Henry W. Haynes. 



Boston, April 6. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



The famous geographer, Elisee Rectus, has just received',. 

 says The Publishers' Weekly, an unusual honor from the Paris 

 Geographical Society. It has long been one of the traditions of 

 this society that its gold meJal should be awarded only to ex- 

 plorers who make discoveries of the first importance. This year 

 it has deviated from its time-honored rule and has awarded its 

 medal to a writer instead of to an explorer. The honor was given 

 to M. Reclus to commemorate the approaching completion of his 

 great work, " NouveUe G6ograpliie Universelle." The work is in 

 eighteen large volumes, and Reclus is now at work on the last one 

 Reclus began this immense task in 1875. It is a monument of 

 geographical learning, and, though intended for the people and 

 written in a popular style, it is thoroughly scientific in spirit and 

 treatment. It is an interesting fact that if it had not been for 

 the intervention of Darwin and other great scientific men of 

 England this greatest of all popular geographies would probably 



