FOR GENERAL READERS. 



Vol. I. — No. 13. {New Series.) 



MARCH 30th, I? 



rweekly, Price ScL. 

 L By l-o8t. 3Aci. 



Current Events 289 



The Sudeley System for Change of 



Gauge (illus.^ 290 



Scientific Table Talk 292 



Artificial Rubies (!7.'«J.) 293 



Acclimatisation. — 1 293 



General Notes ... ... ... ... 295 



Filter for Lubricating Oils (ito«.) ... 297 



The Doty Lamp (illm.) 297 



Social Animals 298 



Storms— IV 298 



Natural History : 



Edible Ants, a new chapter in 



Cookery [illu!.) ... ... 299 



Plants Destructive of Germ Life... 300 



A Step in Pisciculture 300 



Polynuclear Infusoria ... ... ... 300 



Miscellaneous Notes 300 



Extinct North American Birds ._ 301 



C ONTENT S. 



Early Scottish Evolutionists ... 

 Atmospheric Dust 

 Reviews : 



Home Experiments in Science for 

 Old and Young... 



Old and New AstroDomy 



A Treatise on Mathematical In- 

 struments 



Journal of the Franklin Institute 



My Telescope, and some Objects 

 which it shows me 

 The Enumeration of Organisms in the 



Air . 



Little Things that Kill 



Waste ... 



Abstracts of Papers, Lectures, etc. : 



Royal Institution... 



Photographic Conference of the 

 Camera Club .„ 



Royal Society of Edinburgh 



PAGE 

 302 

 303 



303 

 304 



304 

 304 



304 

 30s 

 305 



3c6 



306 

 307 



Geological Society ... ■•■e307 



Yorkshire College Engineering 



Society 07 



Royal Horticultural Society ... 08 

 Liverpool Geological Society ... 30S 

 The Formation and Function uf 10- 



mates. — I.... ... ... ... 30S 



Correspondence : 



Names of Animals and Plants — 

 The Introduction of Inventions — 

 Pseudo - Organisms — Spectro- 

 scopic Analysis — Higher Educa- 

 tion — Hand Lanterns — A Singing 



Hen Canary 309 



Recent Inventions ... ... ... 310 



Announcements 311 



Diary for Next Week 312 



Sales and Exchanges ... ... ... 312 



Selected Books ... ... ... ... 312 



Notices 312 



CURRENT EVENTS. 



A Lecture with — and without — Point. Which being 

 interpreted by Sir Frederick Bramwell, at the Royal 

 Institution, means that decimals should be sometimes 

 used and sometimes not. The lecturer not only spoke 

 strongly of the practical advantage of using vulgar 

 fractions for nearly all purposes, but he poured scorn on 

 the metric system. As was to be expected, the lecture 

 was clever and witty, but it was hardly conceived in the 

 scientific spirit which the subject deserved, and was too much 

 of an ex parte statement to carry conviction. We entirely 

 agree with Sir Frederick that for ordinary purposes it is 

 much better to make use of such simple vulgar fractions 

 as \, \, 5, ^, etc., instead of the rather cumbersome 

 decimal equivalents. Such fractions also more readily 

 lend themselves to addition, multiplication, etc., mentally 

 than is possible with decimals. Apropos of this, the 

 lecturer remarked that he had specially noticed in France 

 and Italy that mental arithmetic was seldom if ever 

 resorted to, and that even when the calculations were 

 made on paper there were very frequent errors, owing 

 to the misplacement of the decimal point. 



Having a somewhat intimate knowledge of the system 

 of education adopted in France, we cannot help thinking 

 that the little use made of mental arithmetic is not so 

 much due to the metric system as to the way in which 

 arithmetic is taught. Generally speaking, a distaste for 

 figures is engendered, and a mind thus prejudiced is 

 little likely to resort to mental calculations, when they 

 can be more easily done on paper. We might just as 

 well find fault with our vulgar fraction?, because the 



majority of women in this country dislike and dD not 

 practice mental calculation. With practice and aptitude 

 it is not after all so very difficult to calculate mentally 

 with decimals for ordinary purposes, as not more than 

 one or two places of decimals are then required. 



As to the convenience of the metric system, we think 

 Sir Frederick Bramwell hardly did it justice. Compare, 

 for instance, the addition of square metres, decimetres, 

 and centimetres with that of square yards, feet, 

 inches, and fractions of inches. Or again, compare the 

 ease with which cubic centimetres can be converted into 

 litres, with the conversion of cubic inches or of fluid 

 ounces into quarts and gallons. Again, compare the 

 conversion of grams mto kilograms with that of ounces 

 into pounds, quarters, hundredweights, and tons ; or 

 compare the addition of francs and centimes, or of dollars 

 and cents, vrfth that of pounds, shillings, and pence. 

 Little or no allusion was made to this in the lecture^ but 

 from a practical point of view it is of great value, and 

 should not be neglected. Sir Frederick seemed to rely 

 a good deal on the fact that in France, notwithstanding 

 the metric system, terms such denii-kilo, tonne, sou, etc., 

 are used in commercial circles ; but it appears to us to 

 have little to do with the question. All nations are 

 prone to adopt short names or titles and signs, just as 

 nick-names are used for the names of persons, and we 

 see no disadvantage whatever in their doing so. 



The Exhibition of the Meteorological Society. — 

 It was hardly to be expected that there would be much 

 that was new at this exhibition, but there were 



