Mar. g, i88S. 



SCIENTIFIC NE\VS. 



231 



{b.) That the teaching of elementarj' science be en- 

 couraged in the upper standards. 



(c.) That for the better teaching of drawing, modelling, 

 and science, every school be furnished with appropriate 

 models, casts, and examples, suitable to the requirements 

 of the scholars of each locality. 



((/.) That grants be made to schools in aid of collections 

 of natural objects, casts, drawings, etc., suitable for school 

 museums. 



{e.) That in connection with each elementary school, 

 or group of schools, a room be fitted up as a workshop, 

 with provision for the instruction of every boy in the 

 use of simple manual tools during his last year of 

 schooling, and that a grant be made upon workshop 

 fittings and'tools, and upon the instruction, in accordance 

 with regulations to be made by the Education Depart- 

 ment. This instruction to be given out of school hours 

 if possible, and factory half-timers to be exempted from 

 it if considered desirable. 



(/.) That in agricultural districts the use of tools and 

 the facts of agriculture be taught to boys, and that, where 

 possible, garden plots be secured for practical instruction. 

 {g.) That in addition to drawing and needlework, the 

 elements of cookery and household management be taught 

 to all girls in the upper standards. 



(A.) That Government grants on drawing, elementary 

 science, the use of tools, and cookery, be sufficiently 

 large as to encourage teachers and managers to give due 

 attention to these subjects. 



(/.) That children should not be allowed to work as 

 full-timers under fourteen unless (as in Scotland) they 

 have passed the 5th Standard. That this regulation be 

 subject to the following exemption, viz. : — That atten- 

 dance in an evening continuation school for one year — 

 subject to the restrictions as to regularity of attendance 

 and presentation at the examination under H.M. inspector 

 — be allowed as an equivalent to half-time attendance at 

 a day school between thirteen and fourteen. 



Beyond the above simple provisions, which would not 

 seriously affect the existing arrangements, or entail much 

 extra cost upon the countr}', it does not appear necessary 

 at present to introduce technical instruction into elemen- 

 tary schools. 



(To be continued.) 



Magnetic Separators. — An interesting application of 

 magnetism has been made in connection with the manufacture 

 of pottery. In crushing the hard, flinty, raw material, con- 

 siderable difficulty has been met with, by reason of the great 

 wear and tear of the iron rollers, between which the material 

 is passed, and the latter becomes so highly impregnated with 

 iron as to be almost valueless. To remove this iron from the 

 extremely fine dust or flour into which the flint or spar is 

 ground, a machine has been devised with a series of electro- 

 magnets, across the face of which the material is made to 

 pass, the iron dust being retained. It is said that, in one in- 

 stance, when a specially-prepared mixture was used, over 

 seventy-five per cent, of the iron was extracted at one passage 

 through the machine. 



Electric Lighting in Germany. — ft is estimated that 

 there are at present in use in Germany 15,000 arc lamps and 

 170,000 glow lamps, supplied with current from about 4,000 

 dynamos. On the assumption that an arc lamp requires on 

 an average J h.p. and a glow lamp J h.p., the total horse 

 power employed in electric lighting throughout Germany 

 amounts to 30,000 h.p. In Berlin alone there are 1,554 arc 

 lamps, 22,363 glow lamps, and 333 dynamos installed. These 

 statistics show that electric fighting is already much in favour 

 in Germany. 



SNOW, AND THE FORMATION OF 

 HUMUS. 



IN the Bavarian Highlands the peasants have a pro- 

 verb that " snow is manure." This applies chiefly 

 to the Alpine meadows, and illustrates the fact that sur- 

 faces of turf just freed from the winter's snow display a 

 peculiarly luxuriant growth. Indeed, mountain snow, 

 even if not very old, yields on melting a dark-coloured 

 residue, half of which, and even more, consists of organic 

 remains, fragments of pine-needles, leaves of the Alpine 

 rhododendron (R. fcrriiginciiin), bark, rosin, wood, bast, 

 moss, algae, fungi, pollen, seeds, hairs, wings of beetles, 

 etc. Even a small patch of snow, not containing more 

 than 1,000 cubic metres, and situate at the altitude of 

 of 1,800 to 2,200 metres has been known to yield on 

 melting more than i kilo of dry matter, more than one- 

 fourth of which was of organic nature (Deiitsch imd 

 Oesterr Alpenverein, 1S87, reproduced in Humboldt). 



The inorganic portions of this residue contain as much 

 as 32-4 per cent, oxide of iron. Whether this fact is 

 connected with the hypothesis of Nordinskiold on the 

 deposition of cosmic meteoric dust, the chemists and 

 mineralogists must decide. Doubtless an examination 

 of the snow-sediments would not fail to lead to interest- 

 ing results. The organic matter has chiefly been brought 

 by ascending currents of air, and caught by the snow, 

 and thus secured from being scattered further. We must 

 not overlook the organic masses produced by the Alpine 

 vegetation of Protococcus nivalis — commonly called red 

 snow — which often extends for miles, and penetrates 

 deeply into the snow-fields, as well as the remains— 

 often innumerable — of glacier fleas. The remains of 

 other insects form occasionally an important article of 

 diet for the snow-daws. Schultz could scarcely find 

 upon the ice-fields a square inch upon, which there were 

 not to be seen several gnats and flies. Snow which has 

 remained for a year betray these foreign admixtures at 

 a distance by its perceptibly dirty colour. The coarser 

 of such impurities lie on the surface ; the finer particles 

 sink down through the snow with the water as it melts 

 out, and are deposited at the bottom as a very fine sedi- 

 ment, soft to the touch. 



Sometimes beneath hollow masses of snow which are 

 melting rapidly the mud forms dense ridges or heaps, 

 which remind us of the casts of worms, and which may 

 contain as much as 75 per cent, of organic matter. Where 

 a snow deposit has been lying immediately upon ground 

 covered with vegetation, the sediment adheres closely to 

 the latter, and enriches it with finely divided matter, 

 which contains a proportion of organic matter, exceeding 

 the ordinary amount in humus soils. 



The upward extent of vegetation in the more elevated 

 parts of the Alps, as compared with the bareness of the 

 more elevated parts of the Appenines, the southern 

 portion of the Sierra Nevada of California, the Lebanon, 

 and other mountain ranges not covered with perennial 

 snow, to which the fine dust may adhere, is to be 

 explained by the action of the snow in forming humus. 

 The profusion of humoid earth in the Alps, in regions 

 where scarcely a green blade grows, is one of the most 

 remarkable phenomena. The ordinary soil of the Alpine 

 meadows contains from 16 to 20 percent., but the black, 

 fatty soil of the upper regions in parts contains more 

 than 60 per cent, of organic matter. The moorland 

 character of the high mountain flora is easily intelligible 

 on soils of such composition. 



