FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I. — No. ii. {New Series.) 



MARCH 1 6th, il 



"Weekly, Price 3d. 

 . By Poat, Sjd. 



CONTENTS. 



Current Events 



Scientific Table Talk 



Storms — III. (illus.') ... 



Luminosity in Animals 



The Induction Top [illus.) 



Zoogeography ... 



General Notes ... 



Gas-heated Kettle (27/a.r.) 



The Weather Guides of Nature 



Self-Luminous Buoy ._ 



Natural History : 



Freshwater Mussels (illus.) 

 Old Ants and Aged Spiders 



Technical Education : 



Mr. Swire Smith on the Technical 

 Education Bill ... 



PAGE 

 241 

 242 



243 

 244 



245 

 246 

 247 

 249 

 249 

 250 



251 



252 



253 



Mirage ... 

 Reviews : 



Animal Biology ... 



Sixth Annual Report of U. S. 

 Geological Survey 



Transactions of the Manchester 



Geological Society 



The Time in which we Think 

 Abstracts of Papers, Lectures, etc. : 



The Royal Institution 



Royal Geographical Society 



Glasgow Philosophical Society ... 



Geological Society 



Edinburgh Association of Science 

 and Arts 



PAGE 

 255 



256 



256 



257 

 257 



258 

 258 

 258 

 259 



260 



Bradford Scientific Association 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh 

 Society of Chemical Industry ... 

 The Victoria Institute 



Correspondence : 



What Kind of Lever is an Oar } — 

 Coloured Words — The Screeching 

 Water Beetle— Heights of Water- 

 falls 



Recent Inventions 



Technical Education Notes ... _ 



Announcements 



Diary for Next Week 



Sales and Exchanges 



Notices ... ... ._ 



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 260 

 260 

 260 

 261 



261 



262 

 263 

 263 

 264 

 264 

 264 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



Scientific Study. — The students of the London 

 Society for the Extension of University Teaching were 

 fortunate in securing Sir James Paget to deliver the 

 customary annual address. His text was, "Scientific 

 Study," and in pointing out many of its advantages,, he 

 made some very useful and telling remarks. He said 

 that some persons objected to the Society's doings on 

 the ground that its teaching did not go far enough, and 

 because "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." This 

 objection he fairly disposed of by reminding his hearers 

 that the danger depended not so much on the quantity 

 as on the quality of the knowledge. In some cases a 

 little knowledge might doubtless be very rashly and 

 unwisely used, but much more easily might total ignor- 

 ance. He also referred to the common belief that 

 scientific pursuits are not compatible with the ordinary 

 business pursuits of life — that a man could not be at the 

 same time a man of business and a man of science. He 

 knew of no greater fallacy, and instanced some 

 names equally well known in commercial as in scien- 

 tific circles. There had also been many striking 

 examples where great facts of science had been 

 within the reach of men of science, who, as they did not 

 see any practical utility in them, ceased almost to 

 observe them. 



Sir James Paget considers that scientific education has 

 four great advantages. There was first the teaching of 

 the powers of observing ; then the teaching of accuracy ; 

 the teaching of the difficulty of attaining to a real know- 

 ledge of the truth; and lastly, the teaching of the 

 methods by which one could pass from that which was 

 proved, to the thinking of what was probable. To 



many it seemed to be a very easy thing to do what they 

 called observe, but observation was really a very great 

 difficulty. This was shown by the fact that every dis- 

 covery had been made by the clear observation of facts 

 which had been manifestly within the range of sight ot 

 many, but had been overlooked by all but the discoverer. 

 On the second point, he remarked that accuracy would 

 readily be admitted to be a useful thing in all the paths 

 of life ; science would teach it well. People owned the 

 necessity of accuracy, but it was curious to notice what 

 very different standards of accuracy they set, and many 

 persons who would not for their lives tell a lie, never- 

 theless always seemed as if for their lives they could 

 not tell the exact truth. On the third point Sir James 

 Paget remarked that here again the popular impression 

 was that it was not very difficult to learn what was 

 true. He, on the contrary, showed that a very rare 

 value of scientific education was that it required and 

 proved again and again the utility of most careful in- 

 vestigation, of repeated observation, of repeated test, 

 and of repeated examination. In dealing with the last 

 point, he instanced the work of several well-known men 

 of science, and specially referred to the unceasing labour 

 which Darwin spent in collecting facts, in comparing 

 them, in inquiring upon every side before he arrived at 

 the point of enunciating his general law of the survival 

 of the fittest. 



Technical Education in Excess. — It appears that in 

 Germany the supply of trained intelligence now exceeds the 

 demand, and that in consequence its market value is falling. 

 Out of every three educated engineers, electricians, tech- 

 nical chemists, etc., not more than two are said to be able 

 to obtain employment. Hence we find such men offering 



