56 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 234 



1885. The disinfecting-chamber is a room ten by twelve feet, and 

 seven feet high. It is made fairly tight, and has one window, on 

 which is a thermometer so arranged as to be read from the outside. 

 A hole two inches in diameter in the door admits a rubber hose, which 

 discharges superheated steam from a boiler on a steamboat. The 

 temperature of the room can by this means be raised in seven 

 minutes to 230° F. It may easily be raised to 250° F. or more, but 

 is generally brought to 230° F., and maintained at that point for 

 twenty minutes. The articles to be disinfected are hung about the 

 room loosely, and when removed, which is done as soon as the 

 heat will permit, are found to be perfectly dry, not even the polish 

 on freshly laundered shirts being damaged or changed. Boots, 

 trunks, valises, and all other articles made of leather, are quickly 

 destroyed by the high temperature, and should not be subjected 

 to this process. Wood-work and paint are also damaged, and 

 articles which are joined by cement fall apart. This process 

 can be quickly applied, easily managed, and is without ap- 

 preciable cost. Its trustworthiness as a disinfectant has already 

 been established. Dr. Durgin describes the experience of the 

 Boston board of health with the disinfection of rags in bales 

 by means of superheated steam admitted to the interior of the 

 bales through perforated hollow screws. In the first trial of this 

 method a pyrometer indicated the temperature of the steam after 

 it escaped from the bale to be 300° F. Bacteriologists had already 

 shown that disease-germs of the greatest resisting power had been 

 sterilized within the bale of rags which passed through this process. 

 The evidence seemed sufficient to establish the claim that this pro- 

 cess was effectual in its power to disinfect bales of rags. Subse- 

 quent tests showed that the rags might be intensely hot in one 

 place, while in another they were perfectly cold. In one of these 

 trials the moist heat used was at 300* F., and the time of exposure 

 was four minutes. In some parts of the bales, after being removed 

 from the steam-boxes, the intense heat could not be borne by the 

 hand a moment, while at other points the rags were found to be 

 cold. A still further test was made with steam at 500° F., and the 

 time of exposure increased to eight minutes. Three bales were 

 examined after being thus treated, and the cold places were found 

 as before. Dr. Durgin was informed by the overseer of the process 

 that a large number of bales had been set on fire by this intense 

 heat, and that water had been required to extinguish them. The 

 conclusions drawn by Dr. Durgin from these experiments are that 

 the moist heat passing from the centre to the surface of a bale of 

 rags must encounter knots or bunches of rags varying in degrees 

 of density and of resistance to the penetration of heat ; that while 

 the temperature of the principal part of the bale is raised to a 

 degree far above what is required for disinfection, other parts of 

 the bale are found to be wholly unaffected by the heat. That 

 anthrax bacilli have been killed and metals melted at 240° F. 

 within bales of rags subjected to this process are facts not incon- 

 sistent with the experiences in Boston, and do not prove the disin- 

 fection of the whole bale. The degree of heat, the amount of 

 pressure, and the time necessary for moist heat to penetrate and 

 raise the temperature of all parts of a bale of rags to a degree 

 necessary for disinfection without burning the rags, have not yet 

 been declared. 



Ethik ah Grundwzssenschaft der Pddagogik : eitt Lehrbuch fiir 

 Seminaristen, Sttcdierende wid Lehrer. Von Dr. Max Jahn. 

 Leipzig, 1887. 



Both theoretically and practically the two foundation-stones of 

 a system of education are psychology and ethics, — the one to set 

 forth the nature of the mental activities, the other to expound the 

 actual and ideal tendencies of human action. The systems of edu- 

 cation that are prominent in its history derive an important charac- 

 teristic from the kind and amount of attention they give to one or 

 other of these underlying sciences. The history of educational 

 methods similarly shows a recognition of this twofold origin in all 

 stages : it may be as the education of the State or of the army, and 

 that of the Church or the home. To-day our education has taken 

 on a scientific tone : this advance was conditioned upon the scientific 

 development of psychology and ethics. Any system of education 

 that shall have the slightest chance of gaining a hearing in the 

 future must take full account of the modem aspects of psychology 



and "ethics ; and any teacher anxious to command success must 

 have within himself the power to healthily unfold these two sides of 

 human character. 



Dr. Jahn's handbook is intended to present a convenient sketch 

 of the natural basis of a moral education. It is an excellent exam- 

 ple of the useful kind of a book which a German teacher can pro- 

 duce. It is admirable as much for what it does not do as for what 

 it does. The danger in all such books is to deal in meaningless 

 generalities, to drift into long casuistical discussions, to neglect the 

 important moral aspect of little habits, and in general urging the 

 teacher to present to the child an ideal from which its healthy in- 

 stincts revolt as from something artificial and pitiable. 



The first section treats of the self-regarding and the social 

 instincts and feelings. These furnish the material upon which a 

 moral education is to be built. They present themselves in the 

 earliest days of life ; they are the deepest elements in human 

 nature ; a child in whom they are weak is defective quite as much 

 as one born without eyes. The development of these instincts is 

 the beginning of a moral education. That is essentially a wrong 

 method that allows the child to act as whim directs, excusing it on 

 the ground of ignorance, and then suddenly deciding to begin its 

 moral training, and subjecting it to an internal revolution, — quite 

 as wrong as that other current method that begins at once to appeal 

 to the child with high motives and far-reaching theoretical con- 

 siderations, and is satisfied with the consciousness that the child is 

 learning what is the maximum bo}Mim, while constantly neglecting 

 to exercise the little virtues. A moral training that keeps pace with 

 the emotional susceptibilities as founded upon the growth of mind 

 and body utilizes each element when it is at its best, and produces 

 that firm tissue in which morality is embedded as a habit. 



Passing from the consideration of morality as conditioned upon 

 the psycho-physical organism, the main ethical conceptions and 

 ideas that inspire the acts of mankind are described, ingenious dis- 

 tinctions are drawn, and suggestive hints are given, which any good 

 teacher can illustrate and enlarge upon for himself. 



It is not sufficient to feel what is right or to know what is good : 

 the deep emotion and the high ideal find their true purpose in 

 action. Weakness of will is a greater source of crime than lack of 

 sympathy. That breach between knowing and doing — which 

 Socrates could scarcely realize — is to-day a widely current source 

 of break-down. The will needs to be trained by action : the daily 

 occasions which call for the exercise of emotional kindness must 

 find to hand a habit that does them without effort. Thus the will- 

 power is left free for the larger occasions of life, on the same princi- 

 ple that allows us to walk and talk at once, because our automaton 

 does the former, leaving the higher centres free for mental work. 



The moral will realizes itself in the social government and cus- 

 toms of families, of tribes, of nations. The altruistic feelings here 

 find an appropriate field of action, and the good man becomes a 

 good father and a good citizen. The relations of life are diverse, 

 but a common idea of final good runs through them all. Again : 

 these relations are the result of a development ; they are connected 

 with a history which explains their defects, and shows the dear price 

 paid for their virtues. It is in this way that Dr. Jahn understands 

 the educational function of ethics. What is new about it is more in 

 the spirit in which the position is upheld, and in the order and pro- 

 portion in which the several points are emphasized. It is a book 

 well adapted to present needs, and will doubtless find wide use in 

 Germany. Would that we could substitute some such work as this 

 for the dry compends of mental and moral science that we put in 

 the hands of normal-school students. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At the last session of Congress a considerable sum was 

 appropriated for the purpose of the establishment of several stations 

 throughout the countr)' for the distribution of fish by the United 

 States Fish Commission, similar to the central station situated in 

 Washington. The law provided that these stations should only be 

 established in places where sufficient protection is afforded by law 

 to the fisheries. For the purpose of investigating these conditions, 

 and of making some observations relative to the propagation and 

 distribution of young fish. Col. M. McDonald of the commission 



