FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I. — No. 6. {New Series.) 



FEBRUARY loth, if 



r Weekly, Price 3d. 

 L By Poet. 3^. 



Current Events 



Scientific Table Talk 



Chinese Kites — II. (illus.) 



Atoms and Molecules ... 



Dial for Chronographs {illus.') 



Sound Waves (illus. ) 



Rational Development of Photo- 

 graphy 



Mutual Relations of the Senses 



General Notes ... ._ 



Thermic Ventilator ((//ax.) 



Weights at Different Ages 



Haya Poison 



The Jet Industry _ 



Natural History : 



Beavers as Dam- Builders (illus.) 



Swallows Hybernating 



The Senses of Insects .". . 



The Norwegian Fisheries 



Trained Intelligence 



122 



123 

 125 

 125 



125 



126 

 127 

 129 

 129 



130 



C ONTENT S. 



PAGE 

 Proposed Teaching University for 



London ... ... ... ... 134 



Reviews : 



Short Studies from Nature ,... 135 

 Elementary Treatise on Light and 



Heat 135 



Morphology of the Caiinps upon 



the Septa of Rugose Corals ... 135 



Expansion of Structures by Heat 136 



Playground of Science ... ... 136 



The Rate of Animal Development — I. I j6 



Progress of Botany in Calcutta ... 137 

 Abstracts of Papers, Lectures, etc. : 



Royal Institution ... 138 



Royal Astronomical Society ... 138 



Royal Botanic Society ... ... 138 



London Institution ... ... 139 



Royal Scottish Geographical Soc. 139 

 Liverpool Science Students' 



Association 140 



Southampton Literary, etc.Society 

 Forest Hill Scientific, etc., Society 

 Silloth Literary and Scientili; 

 Society ... 



Aristotelian .Society 



Correspondence : 



Spawn of Fresh-Water . Fish — 

 College Examinations — A Curi- 

 osity in Calculation — Tempera- 

 ture and Rainfall of tS87— Will 

 Men Ever Fly?— What Winds 



bring Clouds? 



Answers to Correspondents 



Recent Inventions 



Technical Education Notes 



Announcements 



Diary for Next Week 



Sales and Exchanges 



Books Received 



JNotices _ 



PAGE 



140 

 140 



141 

 141 



141 

 142 

 142 



143 

 143 

 144 

 144 



144 

 144 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



Mr. Goschen's Aberdeen Speech. — Mr. Goschen's 

 speech at his installation as Lord Rector of the University 

 of Aberdeen must be considered as thoughtful, original, 

 in some points well-timed, but yet alarming. The 

 speaker evades the subjects usually brought into 

 prominence at university gatherings. He pushes on one 

 side, as incapable of decision, the contest between science 

 and the "humanities." He pleads "not for any 

 particular form of study nor for any particular branch of 

 knowledge, but for a temper, an intellectual habit, an 

 altitude of mind which is applicable to every kind of 

 study and every sort of work." He means " the habit of 

 intellectual interest in all that is studied, learnt or done." 

 Applying this principle to commercial training, Mr. 

 Goschen went on to contend that British clerks would be 

 found inferior to their alien rivals, no matter how our 

 systems of education may be improved, unless the said 

 clerks can be brought to feel an interest in their work 

 itself, altogether outside considerations of profit or even 

 of duty. Such an interest, he contended, was felt by 

 Germans engaged in commercial pursuits ; but was not 

 felt, or was felt to a less degree, by Britons. If this 

 distinction really exists, it is a serious one : systems of 

 education may be improved, but how can the interest 

 here required be created ? 



CLERKE.NWELL AND THE PuBLic LiERARiEs' AcT. — Not- 

 withstanding the success of the libraries established 

 under this Act in note few provincial towns, the attempts 

 at its adoption in London parishes have met with the 



most obstinate opposition. In Clerkenwell a poll of the 

 ratepayers seems to have resulted in favour of the Act, 

 but the opponents have issued pl.acards alleging that the 

 poll was conducted in an illegal manner, and calling 

 upon the local authorities not to act upon the result of 

 the poll. It does not appear what interests or parties 

 are conducting this movement, nor whether their motive 

 is economy or an objection to this particular expenditure 

 of public money. 



Obituary Notices.— We regret having to put on 

 record the death of Asa Gray, of Harvard Univer- 

 sity, well known as the greatest American botanist. 

 He was born in 1810, and graduated in medicine, but 

 never practised as a physician, devoting himself entirely 

 to botany. He was an intimate friend of Darwin and of 

 Sir Joseph Hooker, and was one of the earliest converts 

 to Evolution, and its ablest champion in America in oppo- 

 sition to Agassiz and his school. He was a Fellow of the 

 Royal and Linnean Societies, a corresponding member of 

 the French Academy of Sciences, a Regent of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and filled the office of President 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science at its California meeting. Some idea may be 

 formed of the extent of his researches when we mention 

 that the mere titles of his original contributions to science 

 occupy seven columns in the great catalogue compiled by 

 the Royal Society. 



Anton D£ Bary, for many years Professor of Botany at 

 the University of Strassburg, died on the 19th of January 

 after a painful illness. The deceased was born in i8?i 



