552 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VII., No. 176 



of mountains above the snow-line ; then to take 

 a piece of ice, and, by means of a wire with 

 weights attached, to show how the ice may be 

 slowly cut, and how it will refreeze, and thus to 

 illustrate the passage of the glacier aloug its bed ; 

 to show by illustrations, preferably photographs, 

 the nature of the moraines, the final melting of 

 the glacier, and the formation of the resulting 

 river. In this way the pupil's knowledge of 

 glaciers is real and permanent, and he is prepared 

 to read of them, and of theories about them, with 

 appreciative interest. And in the process some 

 elementary facts of physics and mechanics, and 

 the simpler laws of heat, have been learned. 



Again : if a child draws a map himself, and 

 locates, say, a hundred places on it, he will proba- 

 bly remember them all ; while not ten per cent of 

 thera, if learned from an outline-map, would be 

 retained. The influence of geography upon his- 

 tory is one of the most potent of facts to the 

 trained scholar, and, although it admits of very 

 elementary demonstration, it is almost invariably 

 disregarded in teaching geography. Surely it 

 could easily be taught that there is a connection 

 between tropical climate and despotism, between 

 temperate climate and freedom ; that vast pas- 

 tures have implied a feudal society of chiefs and 

 dependents ; that aristocracy is the natural con- 

 stitution of a pastoral state ; that the sea and the 

 mountains have in many instances directed the 

 current of civilization and of political develop- 

 ment. Books like Huxley's ' Physiography,' 

 Geikie's 1 Elementary lessons in physical geog- 

 raphy,' and Grove's ' Class-book of school geog- 

 raphy,' should form part of the instruction of 

 every pupil. 



Finally, the connection between geography and 

 various phases of political and commercial life 

 should be pointed out. It should be shown why 

 it is that various portions of a country have 

 various pursuits, why manufacturing, mining, agri- 

 culture, the carrying trade, respectively, are car- 

 ried on in certain sections and from certain centres. 

 From this the transition is simple and evident to 

 the lines of trade and commerce, — whence we 

 receive our various imported goods and why, and 

 what we export in exchange. Then, as a means 

 of teaching concerning peoples and products, 

 every school should contain a museum, that the 

 pupils might see and handle the objects of which 

 they have read and studied. In this way, and 

 only in this way, can the study of geography be 

 placed upon a scientific basis, and made the 

 vehicle of practical knowledge instead of a 

 task in committing dry details to memory. If 

 our teachers are to do their part in this work, 

 they must be shown how to do it, and trained to 



do it. For this we must look, we hope not in 

 vain, to our normal schools, training-classes, col- 

 leges, and universities. 



THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE BRITISH 

 PEOPLE. 



The London Times of May 21 has an interesting 

 report of a paper read by Mr. Charles Booth before 

 the Statistical society, on the occupations of the 

 people of the United Kingdom, and on the changes 

 that have occurred in the distribution of labor 

 during the present century. 



The Times says, "The inquiry is a difficult one, 

 owing to the imperfections of the earlier returns, 

 and the changes which have taken place in the 

 mode of recording social phenomena. It was not 

 until 1831 that any attempt at detailed classifica- 

 tion of occupations was made, and even then it 

 was of a limited and unsatisfactory kind. The 

 next census showed some improvement ; and at 

 length, in 1851, the system was originated which 

 still prevails, and under which the entire popula- 

 tion is brought under enumeration and grouped 

 into seventeen classes, with numerous sub-classes. 

 But the system has suffered considerable modifica- 

 tion from decade to decade since that date, and, 

 in particular, large numbers have been transferred 

 from one class to another ; so that any thing like 

 a trustworthy comparison of the details of succes- 

 sive decades becomes a matter of very great labor 

 and difficulty. Mr. Booth has constructed tables 

 in which these defects in the records are, as far as 

 possible, remedied, and the figures for different 

 periods reduced to common denominators. Some 

 of the results will probably be found surprising by 

 those who have not entered upon careful examina- 

 tion of their natural impressions." 



Mr. Booth stated, that, as regarded England and 

 Wales, between 1851 and 1881 the proportion of 

 industrially employed women over fifteen, com- 

 pared to the rest of the female population, had 

 decreased continuously, but that the proportion of 

 those otherwise employed — in domestic service, 

 teaching, etc. — had increased in an equal degree 

 year by year ; so that the total employed one way 

 or another remained practically constant. Having 

 in a tabular form divided the whole population, 

 taking the occupied and unoccupied together, he 

 stated that all males over twenty were counted, 

 for this purpose, with the occupied or self-support- 

 ing class, and the whole employed class might be 

 divided as follows in the periods 1851, 1861, 1871, 

 and 1881 respectively : all forms of industry (pro- 

 ductive or distributive), 78.4, 77.2, 75.5, 74.2 pet 

 cent ; public and professional service, 4.6, 5.3, 5.5, 

 5.0 per cent ; domestic service, 13.3, 14.6, 15.8, 



