340 



sciEJsrcE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 218 



purity of the ocean-air while crossing the Atlan- 

 tic. He had previously prepared capsules of ster- 

 ilized gelatine. One, which was exposed in a 

 state-room on the main deck of the steamer, de- 

 veloped five hundred points of infection in eigh- 

 teen hours ; one exposed in the cabin on the main 

 deck developed only five or six points in ten days ; 

 a third, hung over the bow of the ship for ten 

 days, remained un contaminated. 



— A parrot is reported to have died of diphthe- 

 ria contracted from children sick with that disease 

 in the same house. 



— A new and complete edition of the writings 

 of Galileo, in twenty volumes, is to be pubhshed 

 at Florence under the authorization of the Italian 

 minister of public instruction, who has nominated 

 a committee of scholars to edit the work. 



— We have received a communication from 

 Professor MacGregor in reply to Dr. HalFs last 

 letter on inertia-force, but we consider the subject 

 to have been sufficiently discussed for the present. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*^*The attention of scientific men is called to the advantages 

 of the correspondence columns of ^CVSiNCE, for placing promptly 

 on record brief preliminary notices of their investigations. 

 Twenty copies of the number containing his coTnmunication 

 xoill be furnished free to any correspondent on request. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with 

 the character of the journal. 



Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 writer^s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Elementary instruction in zoology. 



I WAS much interested in the letters of ' L. H.' and 

 Mr. Shufeldt in regard to the teaching of zoology, 

 and I am inclined to agree, almost without qualifica- 

 tion, with the latter. 



It is unnecessary to make any distinction between 

 a high school and a college course; for at the i^resent 

 time they are practically identical, inasmuch as few 

 college students Lave had any zoological training in 

 their preparatory course. Is, then, the course indi- 

 cated by ' L. H.' a wise course for the general 

 student ? My experience leads me to believe that 

 he is almost as far from the best course as the old 

 style of teachers whose work was undeniably stiper- 

 ficial. 



The theory of studying one animal thoroughly, 

 then taking iip nearly related forms, and grad- 

 ually extending the study to the whole animal 

 kingdom, is very plausible ; but has ' L. H.' tried it 

 with an ordinary college class, and in the time 

 allotted to zoology in the ordinary college course ? 

 He indicates a course that would require several 

 years of continuous work, while most colleges give 

 from one to three terms, and allow for only a limited 

 amount of laboratory work. 



Now, while zoology is a science worthy of being 

 taught /or iiseZ/ and for the discipline it affords, it 



has a bearing on other sciences, and this second ele- 

 ment must not be lost sight of. For example : to 

 understand geology, the student must know the 

 principles of classification of animals ; but the 

 method of 'L. H.' would never bring the average 

 student to knowledge of classification.. He would 

 know about crustaceans perhaps, but might in reality 

 know very little of zoology. 



I find I get the best results by following a method 

 which is essentially like that outlined by Mr. Shu- 

 feldt. First my students dissect, in a somewhat 

 superficial manner of course, a series of types. For 

 this work I find that even a manual like Colton's 

 tells too much : for I wish to have students, first of 

 all, learn to use their own eyes, and not simply to 

 verify some one else's description. For this stage of 

 the stiidy the less of text-book and the fewer works 

 of reference, the better. In order that material may 

 not be wasted, I furnish my students a little pam- 

 phlet of elementary instruction, which tells them 

 what to do, but not what they will find. 



This work forms a basis for teaching classification, 

 which I do largely by lectures, or rather talks. 



This elementary work gives the student a fair gen- 

 eral idea of the animal kingdom. That his knowl- 

 edge is superficial, I acknowledge, but I consider it 

 none the less A^aluable. Now the student is prepared 

 to make a thorough study of some higher animal. 

 We use the cat, and from the cat teach the compara- 

 tive anatomy of vertebrates. More advanced students 

 take up histology and embryology. 



I do not think that in this course we have reached 

 the ideal ; we may make great changes in it : but it 

 seems to us the best according to our present knowl- 



i am inclined to think that the compoimd micro- 

 scope is used too freely with elementary classes; 

 that it would be better if all of their work for the first 

 term or two were on macroscopic anatomy, and that 

 the microscope should be brought in only when the 

 student actually feels the need of it to i^ursue his in- 

 vestigations further. This is the method of nature, 

 and it seems to me more profitable. C. D. M. 



Kipon, Wis., March 30. 



Lepidoptera at sea. 



On the evening of March 5, 1870, it was my for- 

 tune to be on board ship, bound from Callao for 

 London, and at that time a little more than a thou- 

 sand miles from Cape Frio, the nearest i^ortion of 

 the coast of Brazil. We were in latitude 25° south, 

 longitude 24*^ west, just south of the border of the 

 south-east trade-winds. Late in the afternoon we 

 encountered several light squalls of wind and rain, 

 during one of which two biitterflies were driven 

 past. The weather continued squally all night and 

 for part of the next day, the wind coming from the 

 westward. The following morning it was found that 

 quite a number of Lepidoptera had been blown on 

 board, and ensconced themselves in various places 

 sheltered from the wind. They were mostly, if not 

 whollj', nocturnal species of small size, although one 

 large hawk-moth was among them. About twelve or 

 fifteen specimens, representing nearly as many 

 species, were captured, and others seen ; so that 

 not less than twenty or thirty individuals must have 

 reached our ship. 



It would appear from this abundance that the 

 total number swept out to sea must have been ex- 



