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FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I.] 



July, 1887. 



[No. 5. 



PAGE 



Current Events 97 



General Notes )oo 



Domestic Sanitation. — No. 3 104 



Basic Cinder as Manure 105 



Photography by Moonlight {ill us.) . . 106 



Fermentation. — II 106 



Photographic Paper with Gelatine 



Emulsion 108 



A Question in Physics 108 



The Spectrum. — II. {illi/s.) 109 



Devitalised Oxygen in 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Chemical Fire Extinguishers (lllus.) 112 



The Salt Industry 112 



Reviews of Books : — 



Chips from the Earth's Crust .... 115 



The Steam Engine 115 



The Journal of Microscopy and 

 Natural Science, etc 115 



Correspondence. Formation of Dew 116 



Papers read before Societies. 

 The Royal Institution : — 



Bridging the Firth of Forth .... 117 



PAGE 



The Society of Arts : — 



The»Chemistry of Putrefaction. . 117 

 The Institution of Civil Engineers : 



Accidents in Mines 117 



The Geological Society 118 



The Society of Chemical Industry : 

 Bacteriological Research and 



Water Supply 118 



Record of Scientific and Technical 



Societies 119 



Applications for Patents 120 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



Technical Instruction in Board Schools. — Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, in conjunction with Sir Lyon Playfair, Mr. Dixon, 

 Sir John Lubbock, and Sir Richard Temple, has intro- 

 duced an important Bill in Parliament to provide for tech- 

 nical instruction in elementary day-schools. Under this 

 Bill, any School Board, local authority, or managers of a 

 public elementary school may provide day technical and 

 commercial schools and classes for the purpose of giving 

 instruction in any of the follow^ing subjects : — The several 

 science subjects specified in the Directory of the Science 

 and Art Department ; the use of ordinary tools ; commercial 

 arithmetic and geographj' ; book-keeping ; French, German, 

 and other foreign languages ; freehand and machine draw- 

 ing. Other subjects may from time to time be added, if 

 sanctioned by the Committee of Council on Education, or 

 by the Science and Art Department. To provide for these 

 schools and classes, the power of School Boards, other local 

 authorities, and school managers, is to be the same as that 

 for providing elementary schools. They are also to have the 

 power of providing or contributing to the maintenance of 

 laboratories and workshops in endowed schools for the 

 purpose of carrying on classes or instruction under the 

 Bill. 



These schools and classes are to be subject to the 

 inspection of the officers of the Committee of Educa- 

 tion, or of the Science and Art Department, and no 

 scholar is to be admitted who has not passed the 

 Sixth Standard, or some equivalent examination. The Com- 

 mittee on Education and the Science and Art Department 

 are to have power to give grants, on such conditions as 

 they may lay down, for any of the subjects taught ; and 

 School Boards or other local authorities are to have the 



power of raising loans to provide the schools and classes 

 named in the Bill. For the purpose of obtaining these 

 grants, a technical school or class is to mean a school or 

 class carried on under minutes to be made by the Science 

 and Art Department, and laid on the table of the House in 

 the same way, and subject to the same conditions as the 

 minutes regulating the educational grants of the Education 

 Department. It will thus be seen that the aim of the Bill 

 is of a far-reaching character, and if it is passed into law, it 

 will doubtless give a great stimulus to the technical training 

 of our handicraftsmen. It is true that the middle and 

 lower-middle classes in this country are already over- 

 burdened with taxes, and at first sight they may think that 

 they are not likely to benefit by affording their poorer 

 brethren greater facilities for technical training. If, how- 

 ever, the question is viewed broadly, and if it is remembered 

 that after all we have to seek the greatest good for the great- 

 est number, it will be seen that directly and indirectly all 

 classes of the community are interested in the improvement 

 of our arts and manufactures. It is chiefly on these that we 

 as a nation have to depend for existence, while at the same 

 time foreign countries are pressing us hard, and show them- 

 selves to be keenly alive to the importance of giving their 

 workmen and manufacturers the best possible technical 

 instruction. 



Gymnastics and Exercise. — We extract the following 

 useful remarks from Dr. Angel Money's excellent book on 

 " The Treatment of Disease in Children," just published. 

 He says : — " Great is the good gymnastics may effect in 

 many diseases ; second only to exercise in the open air, it 

 ranks high as a therapeutic agency. ' Try gymnastics ' is 

 very good advice ; but the thing is how, when, where. The 

 exercises must be adapted to each individual case. Every 

 carefully and neatly performed muscular act is a gymnastic 



