SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1886. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 Professor Fredericq of the University of 

 Ghent, who has previously published essays on 

 the modes of teaching history in Germany and 

 in France, has recently issued a pamphlet on the 

 study of history at the English and Scotch uni- 

 versities. At the latter he finds that little or no 

 university instruction in history is given, but 

 passes much favorable criticism on the methods 

 in the historical schools of Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge. Professor Fredericq makes one remark 

 that we may well take home to ourselves ; and 

 that is, that the English universities provide no 

 adequate education in what the Germans call 

 - Quellenstudie.' Anyone who has seen an his- 

 torical seminar at a German university knows 

 what an important part of historical instruction is 

 made up by the study of chronology, paleog- 

 raphy, and documents : in fact, the study of 

 authorities forms the basis of all historical teach- 

 ing in Germany. Edward A. Freeman, in his 

 inaugural lecture, on ' The office of the historical 

 professor,' delivered at Oxford in the autumn of 

 1884, touched upon this point, and announced his 

 intention of giving much attention to the study 

 of authorities. It is well known that Professor 

 Seeley of Cambridge, and Prof. S. R. Gardiner also, 

 have not failed of then duty in this particular ; 

 but with them we fear that the list ends. And 

 in America we have until lately almost entirely 

 overlooked this essential in historical knowledge. 

 But the Johns Hopkins university, and, in a less 

 degree, Columbia college, are pursuing the right 

 method ; and at both the historical student is 

 taught to estimate and handle original materials, 

 not merely stuffed with facts and dates at second- 

 hand. It is only in this way that the student can 

 ever obtain any thing more than a superficial 

 knowledge of his subject, and come thoroughly 

 in contact with the times he is investigating. It 

 is not too much to say that the study of history 

 without historical method is empty, and historical 

 method is the greatest part of the study of history. 

 If Professor Fredericq ever includes America in 

 his investigations, we fear that the list of historical 



No. 160. — 1886. 



teachers who appreciate the value of ' Quellen- 

 studie ' will be even smaller than in England. 



Mr. Bradford Leslie, in a paper read before 

 the British institution of civil engineers, ' On an 

 improved method of lighting vessels under way 

 at night,' attempts to solve the difficult problem 

 of enabling ships which are rapidly approaching 

 at night, to determine their respective courses in 

 time to manoeuvre with safety. To secure this 

 result, many arrangements of lights have been 

 proposed, but none, we believe, exactly like that 

 suggested by Mr. Leslie. His plan, in general, is 

 for a steamer to carry three white lights forward 

 (two for a sailing-vessel), — one at the masthead, 

 one on the forestay, and one on the stem ; the 

 three in line, and making an angle of 45° with the 

 horizon. These would be plainly visible for 

 eight or nine miles through a forward arc of 

 220°, or from two points abaft the beam on each 

 side. It is evident that the course of the ship, 

 under favorable circumstances, could be known 

 always by observing the divergence between the 

 line of the lights and the vertical. This angle 

 decreases from 45°, for a course at right angles to 

 the observer, to 0° when the ship is approaching 

 head on. The latter, and those which approxi- 

 mate to it, are obviously the most critical courses, 

 for which this system is especially valuable. The 

 apparent angle of the fine of lights with the ver- 

 tical coincides nearly enough, for all practical 

 purposes, up to 20°, or about tw^o points, with the 

 angle between the course of the approaching ship 

 and the line of vision. This fact is of great value 

 when there is no time to determine angles, either 

 by plotting or calculation. It is not proposed 

 to abandon the use of the colored side-lights, 

 although, if the arrangement were entirely satis- 

 factory in practice, they would be no longer ne- 

 cessary. The most serious obstacle to the success 

 of this plan is the rolling and heeling motion of 

 the ship, to which Mr. Leslie refers, but which, we 

 believe, he underestimates. The principle involved 

 in his suggestion is not new. It has been already 

 proposed to arrange the masthead and side-lights 

 to form an equilateral triangle in a plane parallel to 

 the midship section, and also to place the masthead 

 light so far aft that the line through it and either 



