50 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 287 



In a recent number of The Forum, Mr. Lester F. Ward has 

 an article on ' What shall the Public Schools Teach ? ' In this ar- 

 ticle Mr. Ward maintains that in reiining upon the blessings of ed- 

 ucation we forget altogether what knowledge is for. His definition 

 of civilization being that it consists in ' the utilization of the mate- 

 rials and forces of nature,' he holds that so far as the improvement 

 of man's estate is concerned we know only in order to do, that 

 knowledge unapplied is sterile, and is only fruitful when it makes 

 two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, when it con- 

 verts ' raw material ' into useful objects, or when it directs into 

 some useful channel the forces of nature which were previously 

 running to waste or doing injury to man. Mr. Ward believes that 

 nowadays all inventions are in the nature of ' improvements ' upon 

 pre-existing inventions, and are chiefly made by the mechanics or 

 artisans of the higher grades, who are constantly using the original 

 devices, and who, through an intimate acquaintance with these, 

 eventually perceive how they may be improved ; that as artisans be- 

 come more intelligent this class of inventions will increase, and 

 that nothing but the stolid ignorance of the working-classes in the 

 past has prevented this from having always been the chief mode of 

 advancing the useful arts ; and the hope is expressed that in the 

 near future the artisan as well as the engineer may not only receive 

 a good education in the hitherto accepted sense of the term, but 

 may also have such a training of the eye and the hand as will ena- 

 ble him to perceive and to effect all possible reforms in his chosen 

 field of labor. Everywhere we see the lack of thought directed to 

 the improvement of our material surroundings. If this is because 

 the importance of improving those surroundings forms no part of 

 the education which is given to the youth of the country, there is 

 reason to believe that any system of education which will tend to 

 develop the human powers of dealing with materials and forces 

 will tend to raise the plane of civilization as defined. Mr. Ward 

 even looks forward to the day when the need for the use of the hu- 

 man animal for the lowest forms of unthinking labor will be done 

 away with, which would simply mean that there would be less op- 

 portunity for life among those of low intelligence, and that the 

 ' average man ' would be on a higher plane than at present. 



This tendency tg educate youth so that man may be the better 

 able to deal with his material surroundings is doubtless wise, but 

 brings forth a remonstrance occasionally front those versed in the old 

 ways, who hasten to point out the other sides to a man's nature 

 which come in contact with other conditions which he should be 

 equally ready to contend with, or perhaps better to appreciate. The 

 recently published life of the most illustrious and most amiable 

 man of science of this scientific age has suggested to many readers 

 doubts of the all-sufficiency of science to build up, not theories, but 

 men. Mr. Darwin's admirably candid avowal of the gradual ex- 

 tinction in his mind of the esthetic and religious elements has 

 proved startling to a generation which, even when it is ready to 

 abandon religion, would be direfuUy distressed Jo lose the pleasures 

 afforded by art and nature, poetry and music. Instead of lifting 

 the scientific vocation to the skies (as was probably anticipated), this 

 epoch-making biography seems to Miss Frances Power Cobbe, writ- 

 ing of ' The Scientific Spirit of the Age,' in the Conteinporary Re- 

 view, to have gone far " to throw a sort of dam across the stream, 

 and to have arrested not a few science-worshippers with the query,'" 

 as Darwin wrote : " What shall it profit a man if he find the ori- 

 gin of species and know exactly how earth-worms and sun-dews 

 conduct themselves, if all the while he grow blind to the loveliness 

 of nature, deaf to music, insensible to poetry, and as unable to lift 

 his soul to the divine and eternal as were the primeval apes from 

 whom he has descended ? Is this all that science can do for her 

 devotee ? Must he be shorn of the glory of humanity when he is 

 ordained her priest ? Does he find his loftiest faculties atrophied 

 when he has become a ' machine for grinding general laws out of 

 large collections of facts ' .' " 



THE COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY EXHIBIT AT 

 CINCINNATI. 



The exhibit of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey at 

 the Cincinnati Exposition shows the principal instruments used in 

 the geodetic, astronomical, topographical, hydrographic, and mag- 

 netic work of the Survey, with illustrations of the results of their 

 use, as shown by a series of the annual reports, a number of the 

 principal charts published, a collection of the more important sci- 

 entific papers or works printed by the Survey, a model of an ob- 

 serving tripod as used in geodetic work, and models showing the- 

 basins of the Gulf of Mexico and of the western Atlantic, or ' Bay of 

 North America,' constructed from the data furnished by the elab- 

 orate hydrographic surveys of those waters. The collection further 

 includes an exhibit from the United States Bureau of Weights and 

 Measures, which is under the care and direction of the Superinten- 

 dent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



The Exposition occurs at a period of the year when many of the 

 best instruments of the Survey, containing the latest improvements 

 in their several departments of use, are in the hands of field parties 

 and cannot be exhibited. To aid those interested in the exhibit, a 

 pamphlet has been issued by the Survey explaining the instruments 

 shown and their uses. 



The great end and chief object of the Survey is, and has been, 

 for a period of half a century, to furnish good and reliable charts 

 of the coasts of the United States, and of its harbors and navigable 

 rivers. These require in their construction a combination of skilful 

 labor, differing greatly in means, appliances, and methods. 



First in order is the reconnaissance and triangulation. Next 

 comes the topographical survey of all that portion of the earth's 

 surface which lies above the water. It includes all accidents of 

 ground, all natural or artificial developments of surface, and every 

 thing useful for purposes of commerce or defence. 



Third in the chronological order of conducting a survey, but 

 equal in its usefulness, is the development upon the chart of all that 

 portion of the earth's surface which lies beneath the water. This 

 important work is carried on by officers and enlisted men of the 

 navy of the United States. There are 67 officers and 280 petty 

 officers and seamen now engaged upon this duty. The instruments 

 used in the work are only partly shown. 



Although one of the minor branches of the operations of the Sur- 

 vey, the study and the application of the results of terrestrial mag- 

 netism from a practical point of view are of great importance, not only 

 to the surveyor, but also to the mariner, to whom they are indeed 

 indispensable. 



This will be readily understood by simply referring to the ex- 

 tended use surveyors have made of the magnetic needle for the 

 demarcation of land and the consequent frequent necessity of re- 

 tracing old lines so laid out aqd recorded. 



With reference to the use of the compass at sea, the charts of the 

 Survey require the impress of the compass, they record the varia- 

 tion of the needle, and state the annual change so as to render the 

 sailing directions applicable for other years than that of the issue 

 of the chart. With reference to the adjustment of the compass on 

 board ship, and the construction of deviation tables to answer for 

 different directions, inclinations, and positions of the ship, a knowl- 

 edge of the magnetic dip and the intensity is demanded. The 

 labors of the Survey and their results may best be shown by a 

 short historical review. 



In the early years of the Survey under its first superintendent, the 

 magnetic declination (the scientific term equivalent to the mariner's 

 'variation') was supplied to the charts as found by the ordinary 

 nautical instrumental means then in vogue. In the Transactions of 

 the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, 1S25), he pro- 

 posed to measure relative magnetic intensity by means of oscilla- 

 tions of a needle. The magnetic work of the Survey, however, 

 may be said to have commenced in its three-fold aspects, the decli- 

 nation, the dip, and the intensity, with his successor in office in 

 1843. Professor Bache had previously made a magnetic survey of 

 Pennsylvania, which, although a scanty beginning, was not fol- 

 lowed until in quite recent years by the magnetic survey of Mis- 

 souri. He imported new instruments suitable for more refined 

 measures of the declination than could be secured by the older in- 



