Feb. 3, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



portion. If he is to become a discoverer, one who can 

 make some additions to the present sum-total of human 

 knowledge— and unless this is his aim we can feel for 

 him very little respect — he must concentrate himself upon 

 those subjects for which he has most inclination, most 

 aptitude, and most opportunity. 



Further, Professor Galloway has found that among 

 grammar-school pupils the juniors take up chemistry, 

 and doubtless other sciences, better than the older boys. 

 The reason of this is doubtless that classical culture the 

 longer it is pursued, unfits the mind more and more for 

 the observation of phenomena and for drawing right 

 inductions from the facts recognised. 



DEATHS FROM FEVERS, 



1875 to 1884. 



IN a paper read by Dr. Robert Barnes, F.R.C.P., at the 

 meeting of the British Medical Association, in Dublin, 

 last year, he gave some interesting tables showing 

 graphically the deaths from various fevers in the decade 

 from 1875 to 1884, and with his permission we now 

 reproduce three of these tables which were given in the 

 British Medical Journal. The general similarity of the 

 curves is remarkable, and it confirms the accepted opinion 

 that zymotic diseases are most prevalent in the winter. Dr. 

 Barnes believes this prevalence obtains all over the world. 



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Deaths from Fevers for all Ages, and both Sexes, Ten Years, 1875-84. 



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Deaths from Erysipelas for all Ages, Ten Years, 1S75-S4. 



The Salitrday Review some time ago declared that the 

 " vice of inobservance," which has long been common 

 among the upper classes, is now, by reason of our 

 peculiar system of primary education, being extended 

 to the masses. The "penny dreadful" is superseding 

 the book of nature, which many working-men at home 

 and many savages abroad were to some extent capable of 

 reading. We have gleaned not a few interesting 

 observations in natural history and meteorology from 

 illiterate gardeners, gamekeepers, and ploughmen. 



We need alike for all classes an education which shall 

 develop the power of observation, and for this end the 

 complete liberation of Science is essential. 



MICRO-ORGANISMS IN WATER. 



MR. A. WYNTER BLYTH, a public analyst in 

 London, devoted a year's study to the distribution 

 of micro-organisms in the different kinds of water in the 

 vicinity. As the original spores were invisible, he 

 examined the specimens of water after these had been 

 cultivated. This cultivation took place in the germinat- 

 ing gelatine, on glass plates 4 inches by 4 inches. The 

 nutrient gelatine is melted at a gentle heat, and suffi- 

 cient is poured into an enclosed division on the plate so 

 as to mix with a drop of the water to be examined, and 

 to form a layer of one-tenth of an inch in thickness. 



