596 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS, 



[Dec. 14, i5 



the wind blows, which they ascertain by means of sacred 

 banners set up for the purpose. On February 14th, 1888, 

 at the beginning of the twenty-fifth year of the seventy- 

 sixth cycle, which is not yet completed, they ascertained 

 that the wind was north-east, a point considered as the 

 most favourable omeu. They drew hence the conclusion 

 that all kinds of felicity might be expected during the 

 next twelve months. 



The observatory is placed on a terrace of some yards 

 in height, and of a square form, situated along the fortifi- 

 cations of Pekin. It is traversed by a tunnel, through 

 which passes the road, and in case of need it could be 

 u ilised for the defence of the city. 



Our figure No. 1 shows this terrace with the collection 

 of instruments which the Chinese astronomers use, or 

 are supposed to use, in their observations. The other 

 figures show in detail the manner in which they are 

 constructed. Fig. 2 gives an idea of the luxury and art 

 with which some of the instruments are mounted. 



Father Lecomte, who had to manage these instru- 

 ments at the end of the seventeenth century, says that the 

 workmen who executed them had been much more con- 

 cerned with the perfection of the figures of dragons with 

 flames issuing from their throats than with the accuracy 

 of the graduations. He thinks that a quadrant of 

 eighteen inches executed at Paris by the opticians of his 

 time would give more useful results than the great six- 

 foot circle executed at Pekin. The limb is divided into 

 graduations of ten minutes, which is the limit of accuracy 

 attainable if the graduation had been carefully executed, 

 and if the instrument had been fitted with sights. 



Father Lecomte describes the installation of a quad- 

 rant of a very careful construction, probably the one 

 which Louis XIV. sent to the Emperor Kang-hi. 



The lead which marks its vertical position weighs a 

 pound, and hangs from the centre by means of a delicate 

 copper wire. The index is movable and slides freely 

 on the limb. A dragon, coiled up and surrounded with 

 clouds, comes from every side to seize the bands of the 

 instrument, lest they might move out of their plane. 

 The entire body of the quadrant is in the air, traversed 

 by the centre of an immovable axle, upon which it turns 

 towards those parts of the heavens which are to be ob- 

 served. Because its weight might cause some oscillation, 

 or cause it to leave its perpendicular position, two shafts 

 are placed at the sides. They are secured at the 

 bottom by two dragons, and connected to the middle 

 shaft by clouds which seem to descend from the air. 

 (To be continued.) 



EXAMINATIONISM. 



THE Medical Press and Circular writes : — It has for 

 years been painfully evident that the effect of the 

 examination mania on education is not productive of the 

 good that had been anticipated. The great vice of 

 examinations as at present conducted, is that a strain is 

 put on one department of the memory to the quasi- 

 exclusion of others. The acquisition of facts is an 

 essential part of general training, but it is, after all, only 

 a means to the end, the end being to furnish the reason- 

 ing powers with the requisite data to proceed upon. To 

 be available, facts require to be thoroughly assimilated, 

 so that they can be perceived at the same time. This 

 perception is the basis of judgment and so-called experi- 

 ence. If the mind be over-weighted with ill-assimilated 

 facts, the reasoning powers are unable to act to the 



best advantage, and become stagnant. The amount of 

 acquired knowledge that can be utilised in a given time 

 varies considerably in different persons. It is as with 

 food ; what will suffice to give one man an indigestion, 

 will only make another one feel comfortable. The 

 analogy, indeed, can be pushed a good deal further with- 

 out overstraining. The same food will not suit every 

 stomach, so success should reward, not the ingestion of 

 the largest amount of food, but the utilisation thereof." 



So far so good; but our contemporary adds, "The 

 difficulty is of course in estimating the latter, and until 

 the adversaries of examinations succeed in finding a 

 means of measuring assimilation, the present system, 

 with all its drawbacks, will perforce continue." 



This is a somewhat lame and impotent conclusion. In 

 some departments means of testing assimilation are 

 already known. In almost every science the production 

 of original work is proof positive that the student has 

 assimilated the instructions given, and he ought, there- 

 fore, to be spared the superfluity of examination in that 

 science. 



There exists also a test better than examination in the 

 case of candidates seeking to rise from a lower to a 

 higher grade, e.g., in the choice of surgeon-major or 

 surgeon-general in the army. Let the aspirant bejudged 

 rebus gestis, by his practical results, by the skill and 

 \ attendant success which he has already shown in the 

 discharge of his duties. In fact, we may say that if it 

 once becomes known that officialism is willing to admit 

 that examinations are of very doubtful efficacy, sugges- 

 tions for a better method of selection will not be lacking. 



THE UTILITY OF BEES. 



AS the benefits derived by man from bees are by no 

 means fully understood, we take the opportunity 

 of laying before our readers certain results observed on 

 the Continent, and which have been in part published 

 in La Nature. M. Eugene Jobard, editor of the Lyons 

 paper, Le Bien Public, has recently published a very 

 important work on this subject. 



He does not lay the greatest weight on the direct pro- 

 ducts of the hive-bee, the honey, and the wax, although 

 these have a considerable commercial importance, but 

 on the part played by the bees in the fecundation of 

 fruits, vegetables, cereals, and the natural and artificial 

 grasses. A study of their activity in this respect enables 

 him to declare that rational bee-keeping would 

 revolutionise agriculture by doubling the production of 

 vegetables and fruits. 



In Saxony, he tells us, there are districts where the 

 farmers grow nothing but seed-wheat, which they sell at 

 a high price. All these farmers possess hives 

 which, instead of being fixed, are installed upon little 

 carts, and nt the moment when the wheat is in flower, 

 each farmer removes his movable hive to the midst of 

 his wheat fields. 



When the fact was mentioned one day at Velars in 

 presence of several farmers, one of them exclaimed, 

 " This is the reason why my finest wheat is always that 

 which I reap near my hive." 



A similar declaration was made some time after by 

 the Mayor of Lanques, an extensive farmer of Haute 

 Marne. He says, " As I intended, I have sown with 

 wheat all the fields near my hive. This year, as here- 

 tofore, the grain from these fields is incontestably 

 superior to that of all the neighbouring land. The ears 



