March 20, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



233 



the Cincinnati group, the inference is just, that 

 the markings from the latter had their origin 

 under the same conditions. There is no rea- 

 son for supposing that the Cincinnati Island 

 was not subject to elevations and depressions 

 alternately. The evidence here given, showing 

 the presence of three former shore-lines, seems 

 conclusive. Probably , were other localities and 

 other groups examined in a similar manner, 

 similar facts would be found. 



Joseph F. James. 



HUDSON-BAY ESKIMO. 



In the report of the Hudson-Bay exploring expedi- 

 tion, it is stated that the only inhabitants of Hudson 

 Strait and the northern part of the bay are the. Es- 

 kimo, who have become quite familiar with the 

 ways of civilization. The families are small, mothers 

 having rarely more than two or three children, which, 

 in consequence of the absence of farinaceous food, 

 are suckled till three or four years of age. The num- 

 ber of Eskimo appears to be diminishing, as there 

 are abundant traces of their former presence in force. 

 About six miles south of Port Burwell are the re- 

 mains of a large settlement, with subterranean dwell- 

 ings, in a fair state of preservation, where remains 

 of stone pots and implements are mixed with those 

 of more modern date. At Port De Boucherville dis- 

 tinct remains of a very ancient Eskimo camp, in 

 the form of heaps and circles of stones, are found 

 on a raised beach at the head of what had been a 

 cove when the sea-level was about thirty feet higher 

 than at present. At another place in the same vicin- 

 ity are more modern remains, consisting of rings of 

 tent-stones, several rectangular walls a few feet high, 

 and caches of a beehive form about six feet in height, 

 such as are now used for storing meat, or as hiding- 

 places from which to kill game. Around Port La- 

 perriere, also, camping-places are found, which, from 

 their elevation above the sea-beach, the decayed 

 nature of the larger bones lying about, and the man- 

 ner in which the circles of stones are embedded in 

 moss and overgrown with lichens, must be from 

 one hundred to three hundred years old. Still more 

 ancient Eskimo works are discovered in the valley 

 which comes down to the head of the harbor. These 

 consist of a row of stones running athwart the brook 

 at a contracted part of the valley, which would be 

 suitable for the Eskimo method of trout-fishing if the 

 sea were eighty feet higher than it is at present. 



Along the Labrador coast the Eskimo gather in small 

 settlements round the Moravian mission-stations; 

 Nain, with a population of about two hundred, being 

 the largest. Here they are educated, and the mis- 

 sions are self-supporting; the missionaries supplying 

 the Eskimo, purchasing their catch and shipping it 

 to London, and communicating with Newfoundland 

 during the summer by a mail-steamer which makes 

 occasional trips as far as Nain. Lieut. Gordon gives 

 the Eskimo the highest character for honesty and 

 docility. 



PHYSICS IN THE SCHOOLS. 



Pbofessor Wead has published the replies to a cir- 

 cular distributed by the commissioner of education, 

 Mr. John Eaton, in regard to the best method of 

 teaching physics in the secondary schools. The gen- 

 eral impression obtained from these replies, which 

 are from high-school teachers as well as from college 

 professors, is that a certain amount of laboratory 

 work in physics is desirable. Yery few, however, of 

 the teachers who have replied, can apparently speak 

 from actual experience of the advantages of the lab- 

 oratory method. Within a quarter of a century 

 there has been a marked change in the views of those 

 who have entered upon chairs of physics in our 

 various colleges. The earlier professors of so-called 

 natural philosophy looked at their subject from a 

 semi-literary point of view, and did not descend into 

 the laborious arena of the laboratory, where their 

 half-brothers the chemists had long preceded them. 

 To-day there are physicists who laugh at the old 

 method of teaching physics; and, although we are 

 somewhat conservative, we also are tempted to in- 

 dulge in a sly laugh in our sleeve. 



The problem of the best method of teaching phys- 

 ics in the secondary schools, however, can only be a 

 faint reflection of the methods adopted in the univer- 

 sities. We are inclined to believe that it should aim 

 to be a faint reflection, — popular lectures for stimu- 

 lating the imagination of the boy, and rough experi- 

 ments for the masses, in order to train the scientific 

 instinct and the powers of observation. 



The report contains valuable information in regard 

 to the teaching of physics in England, Germany, and 

 France. The general impression gained from this 

 report is that the new methods of teaching physics 

 have not been adopted in a large enough number of 

 cases to warrant any conclusions from a study of 

 those cases. The training of teachers is steadily 

 improving, and every year our colleges and universi- 

 ties send out men imbued with modern methods of 

 laboratory instruction. These men must have a 

 marked influence on the future methods of teaching 

 physics. 



HALL UCINA TIONS. 



When a patient is hypnotized, he imagines that he 

 sees all things as they are suggested to him, provided 

 he is a healthy subject. But in these hallucinations 

 a person who has lost the chromatic sensibility can- 

 not be made to see suggested colors to which he is 

 naturally blind. If the achromatopsy be limited to 

 one side, the left for instance, and the hypnotized 

 subject has the right eye closed, he obstinately af- 

 firms that he does not see the suggested color, and 

 cannot be made to see it until the right eye is opened. 



There is a second thing which shows, better than 

 the preceding, that hallucination and sensation have 

 the same cerebral origin: it is the property which 

 hallucinatory images have of provoking the same 



Abstract of an article by Binet and Fere in tbe Revue 

 Hcientifique. 



