138 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 158 



nected with the Indian railway system by a line 

 via Mandalay, the Chinwin valley, and a some- 

 what difficult mountain-pass. Then, again, the 

 proposed route lies almost wholly within Siamese 

 territory. But the government of Siam lives in 

 great dread of French encroachments, and would 

 probably welcome the English. At any rate, the 

 Shans everywhere assisted Mr. Hallett, and ex- 

 pressed the greatest anxiety for better communi- 

 cations. Finally, it would tap only a portion of 

 Yunnan, and would depend to a great extent for 

 success on the building of railroads by Chinese 

 themselves. 



It must not be supposed that Mr. Hallett spent 

 all his time in taking altitudes and other survey- 

 ing work. He kept his eyes wide open, and has 

 added vastly to our knowledge of the resources 

 of Siam and of Siamese ethnology. In short, to 

 use the words of Mr. Colquhoun, his work "has 

 shed a bright ray of light upon a hitherto dark 

 blot in our geographical knowlege, central Indo- 

 China." Edward Channing. 



LONDON LETTER. 



The British association for the advancement 

 of science will meet in Birmingham on "Wednes- 

 day, Sept. 1, under the presidency of Sir William 

 Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., of the McGill university, 

 Montreal. It will derive more than usual interest 

 and importance from the exhibition of local 

 manufactures within a radius of fifteen miles of 

 the city, which is to be held in connection with 

 it. The association has meet thrice previously in 

 Birmingham, — in 1838, 1849, and 1865, — and on 

 each occasion such an exhibition was held. To 

 the example of the first of these are due all inter- 

 national and other exhibitions since conducted on 

 so large a scale. 



The names of the royal commissioners on the 

 working of the elementary education act of 18C9 

 have just been published. The list comprises 

 twenty-two names, all of those interested from 

 various points of view, in the working of the act. 

 The present government deserves great credit for 

 the constitution of the personnel of the commis- 

 sion, which is a very strong one, all the chief 

 religious, social, and political interests being well 

 represent* -d thereon. Sir John Lubbock is per- 

 haps the strongest and most influential advocate 

 for a place for pure science as an instrument of 

 education, that could he found. His utterances 

 thereon always command the respect of the house 

 of commons and of the country. Sir Bernard 

 Sanmclson represents technical education; Mr. 

 Samuel Rathbone (chairman of Liverpool school 

 board), the official school board; Mr. Thomas 



Heller, the body of teachers ; and so on. Until 

 this commission has reported, no legislation on 

 the subject is likely to take place, although for a 

 long time a feeling has been growing in the public 

 mind that changes are necessary. 



One result of the present educational system is 

 that young persons leave the elementary schools at 

 the ages of twelve or thirteen, and in the majority 

 of instances go to w T ork during the whole or a por- 

 tion of the day, and scarcely ever pursue their 

 education further. Inquiries set on foot by Canon 

 Percival in Bristol, for example, elicited the fact 

 that not five per cent of the children who thus 

 leave school continue their education, in the scho- 

 lastic sense of the term. To meet this difficulty, a 

 system of evening classes has been devised, differ- 

 ing from such ordinary classes, inasmuch as the 

 instruction is recreative, scientific, and practical. 

 Attractive methods of teaching and demonstration 

 are employed, in which the optical lantern has a 

 large share. To Dr. Paton of Nottingham is 

 mainly due the initiative of this movement, which 

 was inaugurated for London at a crowded meet- 

 ing held at the Mansion House on Jan. 16, pre- 

 sided over by the lord mayor, attended by the 

 Princess Louise, and addressed by representatives 

 of all shades of theological, political, and social 

 position, from the Bishop of London and Mr. 

 Mundella (who gave some startling figures as to 

 the compulsory attendance on evening-schools in 

 Germany) to representative workingmen. It was 

 stated that in London alone there were nearly 

 half a million (420,000) young persons to whom the 

 scheme would apply. 



An important change in the matriculation ex- 

 amination of the University of London was, on 

 Tuesday, Jan. 19, recommended to the senate by 

 convocation, which, on the motion of Mr. W. L. 

 Carpenter, B.A., B.Sc, adopted the report of a 

 committee upon the subject. Hitherto three sci- 

 entific subjects have been compulsory, — mathe- 

 matics, natural philosophy (so called), and chem- 

 istry, and no alternatives were allowed. Under 

 the proposed scheme, the ' natural philosophy ' is 

 subdivided, and a portion only is made compul- 

 sory. It is headed ' mechanics,' and the syllabus 

 comprises those elementary but fundamental no- 

 tions of statics, dynamics, etc., which are at the 

 basis of all science. A candidate is then allowed 

 an option between three branches of experimental 

 science; viz., chemistry, heat and light, magne- 

 tism and electricity. Chemistry, therefore, ceases 

 to be a compulsory subject (a change which may 

 meet with the outcry directed some years ago 

 against the abolition of Greek as a compulsory 

 subject), while encouragement is given to the 

 study of other branches of physics. 



