January 80, 188." 



SCIENCE. 



85 



elevate, rather than cater to, the present standard of 

 physical instruction in the schools. W. 



[The 'master mind' was distinctly recognized, and 

 its presence cheerfully acknowledged, in the review 

 to which the above refers. The reviewer heartily 

 joins his critic in his desire for a ' closer examina- 

 tion ' to determine the justice of the comments made. 

 Such an examination will unquestionably show that 

 every criticism made in the review is well founded. 

 It will be generally admitted that an explanation 

 which needs explaining is not extremely satisfactory. 

 The points under discussion are such as are not usu- 

 ally considered in books with which the teacher is 

 likely to be familiar; and erroneous and confusing 

 statements will generally be accepted, although not 

 understood. The result must be disheartening, if 

 not disastrous. It seems wiser, therefore, to warn 

 him to be on the lookout for errors which have not 

 been eliminated from this first edition, but which are 

 not likely to be found in a second. And this is es- 

 pecially true of a book which contains as many really 

 good and original things as the ' New physics,' and 

 which carries the weight which naturally and neces- 

 sarily goes with any thing Professor Trowbridge 

 writes. — Rev.] 



The earthquake of Jan. 2. 



Supposing that reasonably exact determinations of 

 the time and character of seismic phenomena are 

 useful, I send the following note on the shock of 

 Jan. 2 at Washington. 



I recognized the character of the shock at the in- 

 stant of its occurrence, aud timed it. On the follow- 

 ing day, comparing my watch with one set to the 

 standard (not local) time adopted for this city, I found 

 the shock occurred at 9h. 16m. p.m., civil time, to 

 which the correction to the Washington meridian is 

 to be applied. My residence is close to Ascension 

 church, on the highest land away from the bound- 

 aries of the city: the grade is ninety-two feet above 

 mean level of the river, and two feet higher than the 

 base of the capitol. I was in the third-story back 

 room, facing east into the back-yard, and south into 

 an alley. The house is of brick, and above the mid- 

 dle of the second story is isolated. The shock was 

 a distinct and very heavy and sudden jar, not accom- 

 panied by noise, unless by a slight rattling of the 

 windows, and lasted less than a second. The sen- 

 sation was as if a very heavy body had struck the 

 earth, yet also as if the jar were partly upward rather 

 than downward. There was no second shock within 

 fifteen minutes, although I saw a paragraph in the 

 daily press to the effect that one individual alleges 

 that he felt a second shock about 11 p.m. at Alexan- 

 dria, Ya. W. H. Dall. 



Itinerant science-teachers. 



In Nature for Dec. 25, 1884, there is described an 

 'itinerant method of science-teaching,' which "has 

 been carried out on a large scale and with the most 

 gratifying success by the school boards of Birming- 

 ham and Liverpool." A science demonstrator is ap- 

 pointed for a number of schools ; and he is provided 

 with apparatus, which is conveyed from school to 

 school in a handcart ' by a strong youth.' 



" The system," it is said, " fairly meets the objec- 

 tions which have been urged against the introduc- 

 tion of science-teaching, on the grounds of want of 

 qualified teachers, want of time [to prepare for the 

 lessons], and cost of apparatus. It also secures syste- 

 matic and continuous teaching: throughout the school- 



year. The teaching is practical, and every fact or 

 law is demonstrated experimentally." 



Would it not be well to try a similar plan here? 



J. R. W. 



[It would answer in large centres, but would be 

 limited in its application to places where it might 

 be said to be least needed. — Ed.] 



The voice of serpents. 



The text-books upon zoology represent that the 

 vocal apparatus of serpents is very scantily developed, 

 only enough to enable some of these creatures to hiss. 

 A fact lately brought to my attention by Mr. George 

 W. Leitch of Ryegate, Yt., is worthy of mention, 

 and may lead herpetologists to search more carefully 

 for the vocal apparatus of serpents. Mr. Leitch was 

 stationed for several years at Manepy, Ceylon, as a 

 missionary of the American board of commissioners 

 for foreign missions. One day a serpent entered an 

 apartment containing lumber, and it was deemed best 

 to kill him. It became very angry, and made a loud 

 noise, which Mr. Leitch says reminded him of the 

 bellowing of a bull two years old. Perhaps others 

 may know of instances in which these creatures 

 make loud noises. This animal was of an uncommon 

 variety, and was not preserved. It was of consider- 

 able size? say, seven or eight feet in length. 



C. H. Hitchcock. 



Hanover, N.H., Jan. 16. 



The incandescent light on steamers. 



In No. 102 of Science, in the article on 'Recent 

 advances in electrical science,' Professor Trowbridge 

 makes the statement that the Fall-River line took 

 the initiative in adopting the incandescent system. 

 This is certainly a mistake, as I myself saw it in full 

 operation on the Yirginia, of the Bay line (running 

 between Baltimore and Norfolk), in the autumn of 

 1882, about a year before the Pilgrim was launched. 

 Whether the Bay line was the first to adopt it or 

 not, I do not know. 



Everett Hayden. 



U.S. geol. surv., Washington, D.C., 

 Jan. 19. 



Rainfall and crops. 



Professor Snow's statement {Science, v. p. 13), 

 that an annual rainfall of eighteen inches is entirely 

 inadequate to maintain successful agriculture, is, I 

 suppose, meant to apply only to Kansas, and, with 

 that limitation, may be correct. In California, and 

 especially in this portion of it, our experience is very 

 different. Properly distributed, a rainfall of ten 

 inches is ample to mature the cereals, and excellent 

 crops are frequently raised with less. In the season 

 of 1881-82 this place had 4.89 inches of rain, and 

 there was an almost complete failure of crops, except 

 on irrigated land. In 18S2-S3 there were 5.86 inches; 

 and the distribution could hardly have been worse, 

 almost all the rain falling after the 26th of March. 

 Even under such circumstances there was some pro- 

 duction on dry land, and the opinion was general 

 that the crops would have been fair if the same 

 amount of rain had come at the proper times. Last 

 year the rainfall was almost unprecedented, reaching 

 18.32 inches. It was altogether too much. The 

 crops were good, but they would have been far better 

 if the last inch or two had been omitted. Of 

 course, under different conditions of soil and climate, 



