740 | SCIENCE. 
domain; finally, he acquires the scientific method 
of study in the field, where that method was origi- 
nally perfected. In our day the spirit in which a true 
scholar will study Indian arrow-heads, cuneiform in- 
scriptions, or reptile tracks in sandstone, is one and 
the same, although these objects belong respectively 
to three separate sciences, — archeology, philology, 
and paleontology. But what is this spirit? It is 
the patient, cautious, sincere, self-directing spirit of 
natural science. One of the best of living classical 
scholars, Professor Jebb of Glasgow, states this fact 
in the following forcible words: ‘‘ The diffusion of 
that which is specially named science has at the same 
time spread abroad the only spirit in which any kind 
of knowledge can be prosecuted to a result of last- 
ing intellectual value.”? Again: the arts built upon 
chemistry, physics, botany, zodlogy, and geology, are 
chief factors in the civilization of our time, and are 
growing in material and moral influence at a marvel- 
lous rate. Since the beginning of this century, they 
have wrought wonderful changes in the physical 
relation of man to the earth which he inhabits, in 
national demarcations, in industrial organization, in 
governmental functions, and in the modes of domes- 
tic life; and they will certainly do as much for the 
twentieth century as they have done for ours. They 
are not simply mechanical or material forces: they 
are also moral forces of great intensity. I maintain 
that the young science, which has already given to 
all sciences a new and better spirit and method, and 
to civilization new powers and resources of infinite 
range, deserves to be admitted with all possible honors 
to the circle of the liberal arts; and that a study 
fitted to train noble faculties, which are not trained 
by the studies now chiefly pursued in youth, ought 
to be admitted on terms of perfect equality to the 
academic curriculum. 
The wise men of the fifteenth century took the 
best intellectual and moral materials existing in their 
day, — namely, the classical literatures, metaphysics, 
mathematics, and systematic theology, —and made 
of them the substance of the education which they 
called liberal. When we take the best intellectual 
and moral materials of their day and of ours to 
make up the list of subjects worthy to rank as lib- 
eral, and to be studied for discipline, ought we to 
omit that natural science which in its outcome sup- 
plies some of the most important forces of modern 
civilization? We do omit it. I do not know a single 
preparatory school in this country in which natural 
science has an adequate place, or any approach to an 
adequate place, although some beginnings have lately 
been made. There is very little profit in studying nat- 
ural science in a book, as if it were grammar or his- 
tory; for nothing of the peculiar discipline which the 
proper study of science supplies can be obtained in 
that way, although some information on scientific sub- 
jects may be so acquired. In most colleges a little 
scientific information is offered to the student through 
lectures on the use of manuals, but no scientific train- 
ing. The science is rarely introduced as early as the 
sophomore year: generally it begins only with the 
junior year, by which time the mind of the student 
(Vor, IIl., No. 71. 
has become so set in the habits which the study 
of languages and mathematics engenders, that he 
finds great difficulty in grasping the scientific method. 
It seems to him absurd to perform experiments, or 
make dissections. Can he not read in a book, or see 
in a picture, what the results will be? The only way 
to prevent this disproportionate development of the 
young mind, on the side of linguistic and abstract 
reasoning, is to introduce into school courses of study 
a fair amount of training in sciences of observation. 
Over against four languages, the elements of mathe- 
matics, and the elements of history, there must be 
set some accurate study of things. Were other argu- 
ment needed, I should find it in the great addition to 
the enjoyment of life which results from an early 
acquaintance and constant intimacy with the wonders 
and beauties of external nature. For boy and man 
this intimacy is a source of ever fresh delight. 
— Some questions having been raised in relation to 
the distance travelled by the Lapps of Baron Norden- 
skidld’s party in their excursion into central Green- 
land, Mr. Oscar Dickson arranged for a series of races 
on skidor (‘snow-shoes’) at Quickjock in Lapland. 
The distance which they claimed to have travelled 
over the Greenland ice was two hundred and thirty 
kilometres, going and returning in fifty-seven hours. 
For this reason the courses were arranged so as to 
have a total length of two hundred and twenty-seven 
kilometres. The races took place on the 3d of April 
last, and were spread over six days. The following 
results were obtained : — 
The first prize, three hundred and fifty francs, was 
gained by Pavo Lars Tuorda, one of those who had 
visited Greenland with Nordenskiold, and who trav- 
elled over the above-mentioned distance in twenty-one 
hours twenty-two minutes, including all stoppages. 
The second prize was gained by Pehr Olof Landta, 
who came in half a minute later. The third and 
fourth prizes were awarded for the times of twenty- 
one hours thirty-three and a half minutes and twenty- 
one hours and fifty-six minutes respectively. Four 
others received a gratuity of thirty-five francs for 
having covered the distance in less than twenty-six 
hours. All arrived in good condition, unexhausted, 
and took part in the festivities which followed the 
races. Many of them had also travelled from seventy 
to a hundred kilometres before the race, to get to the 
point where the course began. It will be observed 
that the result completely confirms the claims of the 
Lapps on their journey in Greenland, as far as a par- 
allel performance can do so. 
— In an article in Nature of May 15, upon the re- 
cent earthquake in England, Mr. W. Topley gives a 
map of the affected district in which an attempt has — 
been made to mark the positions of all places at which 
the shock was felt, so far as can be learned from pub- 
lished accounts; but in Essex, Suffolk, and North 
Kent, only a few of such places could be marked. By 
marking the outcrops of the older rocks (carbonifer- 
ous and earlier), the possible connection of these with 
the travel of the earthquake-wave may be seen. This 
is made clearer by the section. The position of the 
