draughts of air of different temperatures and with a lamp and scale such as are used with a galvanometer, the effect of the attraction can easily be shown to a few, or, with a lime-light, to an audience. To obtain this result with apparatus of the ordinary construction and usual size is next to impossible, on account chiefly of the great disturbing effect of air currents set up by difference of temperature in the case. The extreme portability of the new instrument is a further advantage, as is evident when the enormous weight and size of the attracting masses in the ordinary apparatus are considered. disposal that is in any degree suitable. A large drainpipe filled with gravel and cement and covered by a slab of stone forms a fairly good table. The scale is made by etching millimetre divisions on a strip of clear plate glass 80 centimetres long. This is secured at the other end of the vault at a distance of 10538 centimetres from the mirror of the instrument. A telescope 132 centimetres long with an object-glass 5'08 centimetres in diameter, rests on V's clamped to the wall, with its object-glass 360 centimetres from the mirror. Thus any disturbance that the observer might produce if nearer is avoided, and at the same time the field of view comprises 100 divisions While the observer is sitting at the telescope he can, by pulling a string, move an albo-carbon light, mounted on a carriage, so as to illuminate any part of the scale that may happen to be in the field of the telescope. The white and steady flame forms a brilliant background on which the divisions appear in black. The accuracy of the mirror is such that the millimetre divisions are clearly defined, and the position of the cross-wire (a quartz fibre can be read accurately to one-tenth of a division. This corresponds to a movement of the mirror of almost exactly one second of arc. The mode of observation is as follows: When all is quiet with the large masses in one extreme position, the position of rest is observed and a mark placed on the scale. The masses are moved to one side for a time and then replaced, which sets up an oscillation. The reading of every elongation and the time of every transit of the mark are observed until the amplitude is reduced to 3 or 4 centimetres. The masses are then moved to the other extreme position and the elongations and transits observed again, and this is repeated as often as necessary. On the evening of Saturday, May 18, six sets of readings were taken, but during the observations there was an almost continuous tramp of art students above, producing a perceptible tremor, besides which two vehicles passed, and coals were twice shovelled in the coal cellar, which is separated from the vault in which the observations were made by only a 44-inch brick wall. The result of all this was a nearly perpetual tremor, which produced a rapid oscillation of the scale on the cross-wire, extending over a little more than 1 millimetre. This increased the difficulty of taking the readings, but to what extent it introduced error I shall not be able to tell until I can make observations in a proper place. In spite of these disturbances, the agreement between the deflections deduced from the several sets of observations, and between the periods, is far greater than I had hoped to obtain, even under the most favourable conditions. In order to show how well the instrument behaved, I have copied from my note-book the whole series of figures of one set, which sufficiently explain themselves. FIG. 3. However, this result is only one of the objects of the present inquiry. The other object which I had in view was to find. whether the small apparatus, besides being more sensitive than that hitherto employed, would also be more free from disturbances and so give more consistent results. With this object I have placed the apparatus in a long narrow vault under the private road between the South Kensington Museum and the Science Schools. This is not a good place for experiments of this kind, for when a cab passes overhead the trembling is so great that loose things visibly move; however, it is the only place at my It will be noticed that the true position of rest is slightly nsing in value, and this rise was found to continue at the rate of or36 centimetre an hour during the whole course of the experiment, and to be the same when the large masses were in the positive or negative position. The motion was perfectly uniform, and in no way interfered with the accuracy of the experiments. It was due, I believe, to the shellac fastening of the fibre, for I find that immediately after a fibre has been attached, this movement is very noticeable, but after a few days it almost entirely ceases; it is, moreover, chiefly evident when the fibre is loaded very heavily. At the time that the experiment was made the instrument had only been set up a few hours. The mean decrement of three positive sets was o'8011, and of three negative sets, o'8035. The observed mean period of three positive sets was 79'98, and of three negative sets, 8003 seconds, from both of which 0'20 must be deducted as the time correction for damping. The deflections, in centimetres, obtained from the six sets of observations taken in groups of three, so as to take into account the effect of the slow change of the position of rest, were as follows: An examination of these figures shows that the deflection is known with an accuracy of about one part in two thousand, while the period is known to the 4000th part of the whole. As a matter of fact, the discrepancies are not more than may be due to an uncertainty in some of the observations of millimetre or less, a quantity which, under the circumstances, is hardly to be avoided. The result of these experiments is complete and satisfactory. As a lecture experiment, the attraction between small masses can be easily and certainly shown, even though the resolved force causing motion is, as in the present instance, no more than the 1/200,000 of a dyne less than 1 10,000,000 of the weight of a grain), and this 13 possible with the comparatively short half period of 8 seconds. Had it been necessary to make use of such half periods as three to fifteen minutes, which have been employed hitherto, then, even though a considerable deflection were produced, this could hardly be considered a lecture experiment. So perfectly does the instrument behave, that there can be no difficulty in making a fairly accurate measure of the attraction between a pair of No 5, or, I believe, even of dust shot. The very remarkable agreement between successive deflections and periods shows that an absolute measure made with apparatus designed for the purpose, but on the lines laid down above, is likely to lead to results of far greater accuracy than any that have been obtained. For instance, in the original experiment of Cavendish there seems to have been an irregularity in the position of rest of one-tenth of the deflection obtained, while the period showed discrepancies of five to fifteen seconds in seven minutes. The experiments of Baily, made in the most elaborate manner, were more consistent, but Cornu was the first to obtain from the Cavendish apparatus results having a precision in any way comparable to that of other physical measurements. The three papers, published by him in the Comptes rendus of 1878, referred to above, contain a very complete solution of some of the problems to which the investigation has given rise. The agreement between the successive values, decrement, and period is much the same as I have obtained, nevertheless the means of the summer and of the winter observations differ by about 1 per cent. I have not referred to the various methods of determining the constant of gravitation in which a balance, whether with the usual horizontal beam, or with a vertical beam on the metronome principle, is employed. They are essentially the same as the Cavendish method, except that there is introduced the friction of the knife-edges and the unknown disturbances due to particles of dust at these points, and to buoyancy, without, in my opinion, any compensating advantage. However, it would appear that if the experiment is to be made with a balance, the considerations which I have advanced in this paper would point to the advantage of making the apparatus small, so that attracting masses of greater proportionate size may be employed, and the disturbance due to convection reduced. It is my intention, if I can obtain a proper place in which to make the observations, to prepare an apparatus specially suitable for absolute determinations. The scale will have to be increased, so that the dimensions may be determined to a ten-thousandth part at least. Both pairs of masses should, I think, be suspended by fibres or by wires, so that the distance of their centres from the axis may be accurately measured, and so that, in the case of the little masses, the moment of inertia of the beam, mirror, &c., may be found by alternately measuring the period with and without the masses attached. The unbalanced attractions between the beam, &c., and the large masses, and between the little masses and anything unsymmetrical about the support of the large masses, will probably be more accurately determined experimentally by observing the deflections when the large and the small masses are in turn removed, than by calculation. If anything is to be gained by swinging the small masses in a good Sprengel vacuum, the difficulty will not be so great with apparatus made on the scale I have in view, ie. with a beam about 5 centimetres long, as it would with large apparatus. With a view to reduce the considerable decrement, I did try to maintain such a vacuum in the first iustrument, in which a beam 1'2 centimetre long was suspended by a fibre so fine as to give a complete period of five minutes, but though the pump would click violently for a day perhaps, leakage always took place before long, and so no satisfactory results were obtained. With an apparatus such as I have described, but arranged to have a complete period of six minutes, it will be possible to read the scale with an accuracy of 1/10,000 of the deflection, and to determine the time of vibration with an accuracy about twice as great. I hope early next year, in spite of the difficulty of finding a suitable place to observe in, to prepare apparatus for absolute determinations, and I shall be glad to receive any suggestions which those interested may be good enough to offer. C. V. BOYS. WILLIAM RAMSAY McNAB. WILLIAM RAMSAY MCNAB, M.D., whose sudden death from heart-disease we have already recorded, was born in Edinburgh in November 1844. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and afterwards in the University of that city, obtaining the degree of Doctor of Medicine when twenty-two years of age. His grandfather and father, in succession, held office as Curators of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden; and the late Dr. McNab early manifested an inherited capacity for botanical work; for, while still an undergraduate, he was appointed assistant to Prof. Balfour, who then held the Edinburgh botanical chair. He also entered the University of Berlin as a student-in botany under Profs. Braun and Koch, and in pathological anatomy and histology under Prof. Virchow. Three years of his later life were spent in medical practice; but his love of botany was his dominant feeling, and in 1870 he embarked upon a purely biological career, having been then appointed to the Professorship of Natural History in the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Two years later he succeeded to the Chair of Botany in the Royal College of Science, Dublin, and this post he held until his death. During his student life he paid considerable attention to the practical study of geology; and for many years he collected Coleoptera, of which he possessed a very fine collection, now in the Dublin Museum of Science and Art. 66 appointed, and the following motion was adopted :—“ That ??movement be directed to secure, not only a marble statue of ti late Dr. James Prescott Joule as a companion to that of the la Dr. Dalton by Sir Francis Chantrey, but also a replica in brons to occupy some public place in the city, and that the execu:-committee be instructed to take all needful steps for th purpose." Many subscriptions have been already promised. AN attempt is being made to secure the erection of an intr. national monument to James Watt at Greenock, his birthpla It is proposed that the memorial shall be “a large and thorough equipped technical school." THE second Report of the Committee appointed by th British Association to inquire into, and report upon, the previ methods of teaching chemistry, which was presented at Newcastle meeting, and to which we called attention in the columns a short time ago, has now been put on sale by the Council. It may be obtained from the office of the Association 22 Albemarle Street, W. During the nineteen years exclusively devoted to natural science, Prof. McNab published a considerable number of technical papers; most of these were short, but some forty or fifty of them are fit to rank as original communications. The work by which he is best known was that upon the movements of water in plants. Following a A NEW fortnightly scientific periodical is about ta suggestion of Prof. A. H. Church, that lithium might published in Paris. It will be entitled Revue Générale prove useful in his researches, he instituted experiments Sciences Pures et Appliquées, and will deal with the matt which proved the value of this method, and paved thematical, physical, and natural sciences, and with their ap: way for later investigators. McNab's chief claim to dis- ca-tions in geodesy, navigation, engineering, manufacture tinction lay, however, not in the direction of pure research, but in the fact of his having been the first to introduce to agriculture, hygiene, medicine, and surgery. According to t British students the methods of Sachs, now universally preliminary statement, the new periodical will take as its mos adopted. He inaugurated the modern methods of teachthe method of exposition adopted in NATURE. The editor ing botany at Cirencester, in the year 1871, and at Dublin M. Louis Olivier, and the list of contributors includes many two years later; and he fully admitted his indebtedness the most eminent French men of science. The first name: to the first edition of Sachs's celebrated "Lehrbuch der will appear on January 15, 1890. Botanik." Dr. McNab was, at the time of his death, an examiner in botany to the Victoria University, Manchester. The appointment of Scientific Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, was created for him in 1880, and in connection with this office he issued, five years later, an enlarged and considerably revised Guide-book. He was joint author, with Prof. Alex. Macalister, of a Guide-book to the County of Dublin," prepared on the occasion of the visit of the British Association to that city. In 1878 he published, in Longmans' "London Science Series," two botanical classbooks, entitled "Outlines of Morphology and Physiology," and "Outlines of Classification"; and he leaves behind him the first few chapters, and a large amount of manuscript in a nearly completed condition, of a contemplated "Text-book of Botany," which he was to have written for Messrs. C. Griffin and Co. In 1888 he was appointed Swiney Lecturer to the British Museum of Natural History, and in that capacity he has lectured for two sessions. His discourses, which were upon Fossil Plants of the Paleozoic Epoch" and "Ferns and Gymnosperms of the Palæozoic and Mesozoic Epochs, and dawn of the Angiospermous Flora" respectively, were attended with much success. He has left behind him carefully written manuscript lectures, which it is sincerely hoped may be published as a memorial volume. At the time of his decease he was actively engaged upon his intended third course, in which he would have dealt with the Cainozoic flora. He was an excellent teacher, possessed of a natural aptitude for the work; and his laboratory instruction was characterized by thoroughness and precision. As a lecturer he was fluent and entertaining; and, in his several capacities, he endeared himself to those with whom he came in contact. Friends, colleagues, and students, alike mourn his loss. NOTES. "The THE death of Prof. Lorenzo Respighi, Director of the Osservatorio Campidoglio, Rome, which we deeply regret to announce, is a great loss to science. He died on December 10. IN a recent number we gave some account of a meeting held in Manchester on November 25 for the purpose of preparing the way for the erection of a memorial of James Prescott Joule in that city. It was resolved that the memorial should be in the form of a white marble statue, and a committee was appointed to carry out this resolution. At the first meeting of the committee, on November 29, an executive committee was ON Tuesday evening, after the distribution of the prizes and certificates to the students of the City and Guilds of Loa Institute, at Goldsmiths' Hall, Sir Henry Roscoe congratulati the students of the various schools upon the reports he ha heard. He observed that the City Guilds were now engag separately and collectively in nobly carrying out the work br Technical Instruction Bill which was passed in the last sessio which they were, to a certain extent, originally founded. Tre of Parliament had materially changed the whole aspect of attams, and sooner or later a complete scheme for technical education would have to be framed. The beginning of such a scheme hai been made by the efforts of the City of London Institution which, with its many branches, was a nucleus of such a system the importance of which would only be recognized when the history of that important movement came to be written. It wa a satisfactory thing to hear that employers of skilled labour we beginning to find out that the men who had been trained at such Colleges as these were of greater value than those who had no received such training. It was not only necessary to educate the craftsman; the employer needed it equally, if not more He thought that the Council of the Institute had fully reg nized that fact at their Central Institution, but a demand is high-class education had yet to be created. THE British Medical Journal says that owing to the somewhat late period in the year at which the invitation to hold the annu meeting of the British Medical Association in Birmingham w received and accepted, the arrangements are not yet so comple as in former years; but a large general committee and all the necessary sub-committees have been formed, and the use of the requisite public buildings has been obtained. ON March 1, 1890, a new marine laboratory will be opened at Saint-Wast-la-Hougue. WE are glad to know that there will soon be well-equippe physical and chemical laboratories at Bedford College, Lon don. Mr. Tate, who has already given £1000 towards the new College buildings, which are on the eve of completion, ha offered a second £1000 towards the fitting up and equipment of the laboratories, contingent on the friends of the College contributing an equal amount. We purpose shortly giving an account and plans of these laboratories. MORE than a quarter of a century has passed since it was decided that the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine should be started. The editors have now resolved to issue a new series, each volume of which will begin in January and end in DecemNer There will be no radical change in the constitution of the magarine, but the number of pages and illustrations will often we increased. THE result of the poll for a free library at Whitechapel, declared last Saturday night, is interesting and significant. On a register of 6000, there were 3553 affirmative votes and only 435 dissentients, This is the more noteworthy, because about eleven years ago a like proposal was rejected by a majority of abour two to one. THZ following science lectures will be given at the Royal Viena Hall during January: January 7, "A Visit to the Chief Cities of Italy,” by Rev. W. W. Edwards; January 14, "The Bottom of the Sea," by Dr. P. H. Carpenter; January 21, "To Vancouver's Island and back," by Mr. W. L. Carpenter; January 28, ** Musical Sounds and how we hear them," by Dr. F. W Mott A SECOND edition of Sir William Aitken's "Animal Alkaload: H. K. Lewis) has been published. The work has been carefully revised, and the author's aim has been to bring the took up to the present state of knowledge regarding the important subject to which it relates. THE first part of a monograph of Oriental Cicadida, by W. L. Distant, has been published by order of the Trustees of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. It is printed in clear type, and includes two fine plates. The monograph, when completed, will evidently be of much scientific value. M. VAYSSIEKE has now completed the publication of his "Atlas d'Anatomie Comparée des Invertébrés." It comprises sily plates, with corresponding letterpress, and is much appreciated by French zoologists. TIK Proceedings and Transactions of the International Agricultural Congress held in Paris last summer have just been issued. A KLUTER'S telegram from Madrid says that a shock of earthquake was felt at Granada on the evening of December 16. There was great alarm for the moment, and the people rushed in panic out of the theatre, where a performance was going on at the time. Apparently no damage was done. THE Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for December states that stormy weather has been prevalent during the month of November. Two notable cyclones have occurred; the first moved eastward from Chesapeake Bay on the night of the 9th. On the 11th it was central in about latitude 41° N., longitude 57° W. ; and from this position it moved nearly due north-east, and rapidly increased in energy. The other cyclore moved eastward from the New Jersey coast on the 13th, and was central on the 14th in latitude 42° 40' N., longitude 63° 20' W. This storm attained great violence during the 14th and 15th. After the 16th, gales of varying force occurred along the coast north of Florida. There was very little fog during the month; a dense hank was reported on the 17th on the north coast of Cuba. A number of icebergs are still reported in the vicinity of Belle Isle, and several smaller bergs have been seen over the Newfoundland Banks. Ar the meeting of the French Meteorological Society on November 5, M. Teisserenc de Bort gave an account of his researches on barometric gradients. He distinguished two kinds of gradients, one due to the differences of temperature, and another due to the earth's rotation, and pointed out that these two gradients are always superposed, and that their distinction was a matter of importance, for if the first case predominates (a gradient due to difference of temperature), the wind force may increase and the depression become deeper, while in the second case the depression tends to disappear. He thought it was not impossible to make this distinction, for if we know the force of the wind we might calculate the moment of inertia and the corresponding gradient. He also presented a work on the distribution of atmospheric pressure over the surface of the globe. He showed that the distribution of pressure over different meridians varies upwards of an inch on the same parallel according to the season. With the view of finding out the arrangement of the isobars in higher regions of the atmosphere, the author has calculated the pressures by formulæ at various heights, from the pressure and temperature observed at the earth's surface, and compared their accuracy by the readings at some mountain stations, and he has found that most of the irregularities in the distribution of the isobars tend to disappear as we reach the higher regions of the air, and to be replaced by inflexions in the opposite sense. A summary of this paper will be found in the Comptes rendus of the French Academy for December 2. AT a meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales on October 30, Mr. A. Sidney Olliff called attention to the extraordinary abundance of a large Noctuid moth-apparently Agrotis spina, Gu. (4. vastator, Sc.)—during the early part of October in various parts of the country, especially in the vicinity of Sydney, where it appeared in such vast numbers as to cause great consternation amongst those who were not aware that its food in the larval state is confined to low-growing herbage, and that at no stage of its existence does it eat cloth, furs, or feathers. A similar visitation of these moths occurred in October 1867. Mr. Olliff said that Agrotis spina was found in great numbers on the summit of Mount Kosciusko and other high points in the Australian Alps, and added that he was of opinion, after extended inquiry, that this species, and no other, was the true Bugong moth, which formerly formed an important article of food amongst the blacks of the Upper Tumut district. MR. THOMAS CORNISH, Penzance, recently recorded in Th Zoologist the occurrence of the "Old English" or "Black ”’ Rat, captured at a place about five miles north-east of Penzance. In the current number of the same periodical he says that immediately after that capture a perfectly trustworthy observer saw near Cambourne, at a place ten miles south-east from where the first specimen was obtained, a Black Rat, which was certainly not the ordinary Hanoverian Rat; and at a later time Mr. Cornish saw and handled another specimen, captured in Paul Parish, about three miles south-west of Penzance. "These facts," says Mr. Cornish, "apparently point to an incursion of this animal, which is gregarious certainly, and probably a vagrant in herds, but not a migrant." MR. J. R. DOBBINS, San Gabriel, California, contributes to the new number of Insect Life (vol. ii. No. 4) a note on the spread of the Australian ladybird. The note is dated July 2, 1889. At that time the Vedolia had multiplied in numbers, and had spread so rapidly that every one of Mr. Dobbins's 3200 orchard trees was literally swarming with them. All his ornamental trees, shrubs, and vines which had been infested with white scale were practically cleansed by this wonderful parasite. "About one month since," says Mr. Dobbins, "I made a public statement that my orchard would be free from Icerya by November 1,' but the work has gone on with such amazing speed and thoroughness, that I am to-day confident that the pest will have been exterminated from my trees by the middle of August. People are coming here daily, and by placing infested branches upon the ground beneath my trees for two hours, can secure colonies of thousands of the Vedolia, which are there in countless numbers sucking food. Over 50,000 have been taken away to other orchards during the present week, and there are millions still remaining, and I have distributed a total of 63,000 since June 1. I have a list of 130 names of persons who have taken the colonies, and as they have been placed in orchards ex- ⠀ tending from South Pasadena to Azusa, over a belt of country ten miles long and six or seven in width, I feel positive, from my own experience, that the entire valley will be practically free from Icerya before the advent of the new year." COCOA-NUT butter is now being made at Mannheim, and, according to the American Consul there, the demand for it is steadily increasing. The method of manufacture was discovered by Dr. Schlunk, a practical chemist at Ludwigshafen. Liebig and Fresenius knew the value of cocoa-nut oil or fat, but did not succeed in producing it as a substitute for butter. The new butter is of a clear whitish colour, melts at from 26° to 28° C., and contains o'0008 per cent. water, o'006 per cent. mineral stuffs, and 99'9932 per cent. fat. At present it is chiefly used in hospitals and other State institutions, but it is also rapidly finding its way into houses or homes where people are too poor to buy butter. The working classes are taking to it instead of the oleomargarines against which so much has been said during the last two or three years. | sun on the top of a laurel, from which it climbed easily to a ha hypnotic influence on its prey (and he had observed sir A SPLENDID find of minerals containing the rare metals of yttrium and thorium groups has been made in Llano County, Texas (Amer. Journ. of Science, December 1889). The whe district for many miles round consists almost entirely of Arche rocks, granite being met with everywhere, and forming th common wayside rock. Throughout the granite are dispers veins of quartz, and it is in these veins, and especially the sw. ings of the veins, that large masses of rare minerals have bee found. The largest of these deposits consist of gadolinite and tr. gusonite, and of two entirely new minerals, to which the name yttrialite and thoro-gummite have been given. The first discovers of gadolinite in Texas was made in 1886, when a pocket huge crystals and masses aggregating to about 500 k grammes was unearthed. Since that time a more complete spection of the district has revealed the existence of still large quantities. The gadolinite is generally found in small an weighing about half a pound, but frequently also in much hea masses, and sometimes in immense crystals. One double cross-l was found weighing 42 pounds, and a still larger single cry weighed no less than 60 pounds. And these immense cras actually contain over 50 per cent. of oxides of the yttrium me), as do also the massive varieties. The crust of the gadolate crystals, which appear to be of monoclinic habit, was gener:lis altered into a brownish-red hydrate of waxy lustre ; but occa sionally, as in case of two particular specimens, the crystals were found in a state of rare beauty and perfection. The new mineral yttrialite, a thorium-yttrium silicate, was discovered associated with and often upon the gadolinite. It was generally altered at the surface to an orange-yellow hydrate of quite different stric ture to that of the hydrate of gadolinite. One mass of this incrustation was found to weigh over 10 pounds. It contains 45 an exccedingly rare mineral, occurs in large quantities in he per cent. of oxides of the yttrium metals. Fergusonite, hithers Llano County district, generally in the form of broken interlac.rg prisms several inches long. Two varieties of it have been iden:. fied-one a monohydrated and the other a trihydrated variety. | The monohydrated kind forms tetragonal prisms with acest pyramidal terminations, of dull gray exterior, but possessing a The brilliant bronze-like fracture. It contains 42 per cent. of yttra earths and 46 per cent. of columbic acid, Cb,Os. The trihydrated variety is similar, but of a dark brown colour. Associated with 'L fergusonite is the new mineral thoro-gummite, a hydrated uranium thoro-silicate. This mineral is frequently found in well-developed crystals resembling, and having angles very nearly the same a those of zircon. It contains 22 per cent. of UO3, 41 per cent. of ThO, and 6 per cent. of yttrium earths. Its probable essential composition is UO. 3ThO, 3SiO, 6H,O. Besides these four minerals of special interest to chemists, many more—such as A POINT of great importance for the progress of Western science in the Chinese Empire is whether it should be taught in the Chinese or in a foreign language. The subject has been frequently discussed, and quite recently the opinions of a large number of men most prominently engaged in the education of Chinese were collected and published in a Shanghai magazine, the Chinese Recorder. The editor says that nine-tenths of these authorities are of opinion that the Chinese language is sufficient for all purposes in teaching Western science. One gentleman states that Chinese students can only be taught science in their own language, and that the long time necessary for them to acquire English for this purpose is wasted; another says that "science must be planted in the Chinese language in order to its permanent growth and development"; a third sees no reason why the vernacular should not be enough to allow the Chinese student to attain the very highest proficiency in Western science, although he admits that there is at present a want of teachers and text-books. Prof. Oliver, of the Imperial University at Pekin, says he has never found English necessary, but has always taught in Chinese. Prof. Russell, of the same institution, finds Chinese sufficient for popular astronomy. On the other hand, Mr. Tenney says that it can only be for the most popular views of science that the vernacular is sufficient. "It is impossible," he says, "for scholars who are ignorant of any European language to attain any such excellence in modern sciences as to enable them to bear comparison with the finished mathematical and ¦ scientific scholars of Europe and America." Thus, he continues, as a medium of thought, any Western language is incomparably superior to Chinese in precision and clearness; the student acquainted with a foreign language has a vast field of collateral thought open to him which does not and never will exist in Chinese, and he can keep abreast of the times, which the Chinese student who must depend on translations cannot do. relation of the Chinese student "to the world of thought is analogous to that of a blind and deaf person in the West, whose only sources of knowledge are the few and slowly increasing volumes of raised type letters which make up the libraries of the blind." As has been said, however, the weight of opinion is against Mr. Tenney. IN a recent number of Humboldt, Herr Fischer-Sigwart describes the ways of a snake, Tropidonotus tessellatus, which he kept in his terrarium in Zurich. It was fond of basking in the |