Mar. 1 6, iSSS.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



25; 



The Fresh-Water Fauna of the Tanganyika Lake- 

 — According to Humboldt, the examination of the recent 

 fauna of this lake, effected by Tausch, proves a strange 

 similarity to that of very remote regions. The snails, 

 which possess a very decided marine habitus, have their 

 nearest affinities in the Laramie formations of North 

 vVmerica and in certain strata of the Upper Chalk of 

 southern Europe. 



PoLYDACTYLisM IN Man. — Dr. Anton Stuxberg, Director 

 of the Natural History Museum at Gothenberg, writes 

 that at Oerebro, in Sweden, there are now living a shoe- 

 maker and his son, each of whom has two efficient 

 thumbs on both hands. A brother of the shoemaker 

 and four of his children have the same peculiarity, but 

 in these five persons the extra digit is useless. The 

 motherof the two brothers had six toes. Of the maternal 

 grandmother nothing is known in this respect, but the 

 great-grandmother had six fingers on each hand. Poly- 

 dactylism has therefore been hereditary for five genera- 

 tions. 



Habits of Otters. — Mr. E. Price writes to a weekly 

 contemporary to learn if otters are known to pursue rats ? 

 He found one in his barn, situate about two hundred 

 yards from the nearest pond or watercourse ; it must 

 have entered the barn through a hole some twelve inches 

 square. It escaped into the water and disappeared. 



Discovery of Fossil Remains. — In a cavern near 

 Rubeland, in the Harz, more than 1,000 kilos of fossil 

 bones have been dug up, although only a part of the floor 

 of the cavern has been examined. 



A New Silk Moth. — Father Paul Camboue has 

 observed in the interior of Madagascar an interesting 

 silk-moth, which is named Barocera bibindandy. The 

 caterpillars feed upon the weeping willow, and spin 

 cocoons about 7 inches in length by 3I in diameter. 



Worms in Hens' Eggs. — Dr. E. Linton (American 

 Naturalist) records the occurrence of Distoniuni ovatmn 

 in the white of a hen's egg from Wisconsin. Two cases 

 of the enclosure of nematodes in hens' eggs are recorded 

 in Pelleton's Journal de Micrographic. 



Land-snails of Europe and America. — Dr. W. Kobelt, 

 at the Wiesbaden Congress of German Naturalists, com- 

 pared the land-snails of Europe, recent and fossil, with 

 those of America. In modern times the two differ 

 widely, but the miocene forms of Europe so resemble 

 those of the West Indies and North America that these 

 latter may be supposed to be descended from the former. 

 Kobelt believes that the two continents must have been 

 connected by land to the north of the Sahara, 



A Stimulant for Vegetation. — According to the 

 Monde dc la Science, a solution of camphor in water 

 stimulates vegetation and acts as a tonic for sickly 

 plants. The Flore Illustr'e recommends that bouquets 

 should be placed in camphor water, as they thus retain 

 their beauty longer. 



The Spring Note of the Cuckoo. — According to Mr. 

 J. Rowell {Newcastle Observer), the note of the cuckoo, 

 early in April, may be rendered as " Hoo, hooh, ooh, 

 ooh." 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION.— II. 



Abridgment of Paper Read at the Society of Arts 

 BY Mr. Swire Smith on the Technical Education 

 Bill. 



^Continued from page 231.) 



The modifications suggested would tend to lighten 

 rather than to burden the tasks of the scholars, by making 

 school work much more interesting than it is at present. 

 Such instruction would supply the rudiments of a techni- 

 cal education for artisans, and would materially help all 

 boys and girls, irrespective of their intended career, to 

 be " handy." It would bring the day school into har- 

 mony with the workshop, and would prepare the 

 scholars for the scientific and technical instruction of 

 the night school, or for advancing into the secondary day 

 school. 



3. Continuation Schools — under School Boards and 

 voluntary school managers : — 



(rt.) The standard subjects should be taught as at pre- 

 sent, with the addition of drawing, modelling, elementary 

 science, and manual instruction for boys, and needlework, 

 cookery, and household management for girls. 



(b.) Increased grants should be given for attendance 

 and general efficiency, independent of the passes in 

 standard subjects. 



(c.) The admission should be free. 



{d.) The deficiency of income over expenditure to be 

 defrayed out of the School Board fund in the case of 

 Board schools. 



Under the Technical Instruction Bill the functions of 

 the School Board should terminate with the organisation 

 of elementary education, with the exception of such 

 powers as School Boards already possess for cond acting 

 instruction in higher grade Board schools. 



4. Secondary Technical and Commercial Schools. — 

 {a.) That power be given to municipalities or local 



Boards to establish, maintain, or contribute to the estab- 

 lishment and maintenance of secondary science and art, 

 technical and commercial or agricultural schools and 

 classes, including museums and art galleries connected 

 therewith under the Science and Art Department. 



{b.) That the limitation of building grants by the 

 Government to ;^5oo each for science and art be revised, 

 and the grants increased. 



(c.) That in addition to the Government grants at pre- 

 sent made on the purchase of fittings for chemistry, for 

 art furniture, examples, casts and copies, grants be also 

 made on tools for working in wood, iron, and other ma- 

 terials. That in addition to loan collections and the 

 grant of art reproductions at reduced cost, contributions 

 be made to provincial industrial museums of original 

 examples tending to advance the industries of the district 

 in which such museums are situated. 



(d.) That commercial subjects and modern languages 

 be included in the subjects upon which grants are made 

 by the Science and Art Department. That payments be 

 so regulated as to lead to the encouragement of the 

 teaching of advanced subjects of science, art, and 

 commerce. 



(c.) That power be given to municipalities by compe- 

 tition, or through the recommendation of head teachers 

 in elementary schools, to provide scholarships, admitting 

 artisan students from elementary schools to secondary 

 technical schools for free instruction. 



