"It is certain that for a long time past membership at large in the fundamental religious bodies of the Zuñi has not been dependent on the ties of clanship, though in certain cases succession to office in fraternities does depend on clanship. Before any exposition of the origin of the fundamental religious organisations and of the ritual can be offered, a comparative study of the Pueblos must be made. In this work the passing hours are golden, for not only are the villages losing their old-time landmarks, but the people themselves are changing, are adapting themselves to a suddenly and profoundly altered environment, and the Zuñi at least, whose religion teaches them to speak with one tongue, to be gentle to all, and to subdue the passions, thereby winning the favour of their gods, are, under the influence of modern conditions, losing the restraining power of this religion, and, as a result, are changing for the worse." It is to be hoped that competent students will make a thorough study of the sociology of these people without delay, and at the same time make a serious ritual there are dramatic celebrations of the arrival and departure of the katcinas, and during the whole year there are ceremonies in which katcinas take part. The annual ceremonies vary considerably each year, so the katcinas are correspondingly numerous, and not only have clans introduced new katcinas from time to time, but individuals have done the same even by men still alive. Some of these ceremonies have developed into a regular dramatic performance; the motive of one of these dramas is the growth of corn, with representations of the maleficent and beneficent agencies that affect the crop. The performance is designed primarily to invoke the favour of the mysteries by appropriate symbols combined with the edification of the community at large. Thus a portion of the chamber is set apart as a stage, while the greater portion is reserved as an auditorium. A screen on the stage is painted with appropriate symbols, and is perforated to permit the passage of masked effigies representing the mystical potencies, which are operated by shamans hidden behind the screen, something after the fashion of the FIG. 3.-Sword Swallowers of Ma'ke Hlan nakwe (Great Fire Fraternity of the Zuñis). effort to trace the transition of the old clan system into the later religious fraternities. The memoir by Dr. J. W. Fewkes on Hopi Katcinas drawn by native artists cannot fail to be of considerable interest to students of various departments of ethnology. The practice of illustrating ethnological researches by native drawings is much to be recommended, as the drawings throw considerable sidelight upon the ideas and skill of the artists, and help us in the study of their psychology; in the present instance they have additional value in the suggestive similarities they present to pictographs in the codices of more southerly regions. The term katcina was originally limited to the spirits of the ancients of the Hopi or personified medicine power, and personifications of a similar power in other objects have likewise come to be called katcinas. Thus the magic power or medicine of the sun or earth may be called katcina. The term is also applied to personations of these spirits or medicine potencies by men, or their representation by pictures or images. In the Hopi marionettes. The front of the stage is occupied by a symbolic field of corn, and the figures which represent the storm and drought emerge from their respective apertures in the screen and destroy the cornfield; but they are opposed partly by musical and other incantations of a group of shamans occupying one side of the stage, and partly by human actors who wrestle with and finally overcome the evil marionettes. The entire dramatisation stands on a higher plane than any prevalent among other tribes of the territory of the United States, though lower than that reached among the Nahuatlan and Mayan peoples of Mexico. Under the title of "Two Summers' Work in Pueblo Ruins," Dr. Fewkes describes his survey of certain ruins mainly in the Province of Tusayan. Dr. Fewkes's excavations confirmed some statements made by the Hopis concerning their former history, and his intimate knowledge of the ritual and ceremonies of the existing Pueblo Indians has enabled him to explain the use or significance of objects dug up by him. The report is illustrated by photographs of ruins, plans of buildings, and a large number of beautifully executed coloured plates of decorated pottery, besides numerous figures in the text. The author inclines to the belief that the Zuñis never advanced to the same perfection in the ceramic art as did the Hopis. The author says, "In the evolution of Pueblo decoration the development of ornamentation advances from geometrical patterns to rude picture writing, and, as a rule, the pottery on which the former predominate is inferior to that on which the latter is most prominent "; but this hardly seems consistent with the subsequent remark that "the more ancient the ruin is, the better is the pottery." Dr. Cyrus Thomas gives the second portion of his study of Mayan calendar systems, in which he deals with Maudslay's investigation of the ruins at Quirigua and discusses Goodman's results. The paper includes an account of the Maya method of calculation. Serious English-speaking students of Central American archæology must know the writings of the distinguished German scholars whose names appear m Bulletin 28 under review; but even they will be glad to have these scattered papers translated for more convenient reference and collected in one volume. Other students who like to know what is being discovered in this region will be very thankful to Mr. Bowditch for his enterprise and labour in translating these papers, and to the Smithsonian Institution for placing all this material at their disposal in so convenient a form. On the whole, these papers will be of most value to those who concern themselves with the chronology and history of the Central American peoples; but there is a great deal to interest the general ethnologist, though he will have to search for his material, as most of it is scattered all over the volume in diverse papers. Particularly interesting in this respect are the papers on "Zapotec Priesthood and Ceremonials, ""Deities and Religious Conceptions of the Zapotecs," and "Comparative Studies in the Field of Maya Antiquities "; the last paper deals with the clothing, personal decoration, and utensils of the Mayas as illustrated in the manuscripts, or on the monuments or other remains. According to a widespread tradition, the Toltecs were the originators of all arts and sciences; and the invention of the calendar is ascribed to them, and we are informed they carried their book with them on their migrations. The calendar is the fount of the Central American sacerdotal wisdom, and the great mass of Mexican and Maya manuscripts is nothing more than elaboration of this calendric system in respect to its numerical theory, its chronology, and its system of divination. The book is copiously illustrated, and altogether it will form a most welcome addition to the working library of various kinds of students of archæology and ethnology. an Mr. Swanton gives literal translations of a number of Haida folk-tales obtained on the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia; this careful piece of work will be much appreciated by folklorists. When one looks at the bulk of ethnological matter published by the United States Government, and realises the enormous value to students of these full, accurate, and well-illustrated memoirs, one cannot but feel ashamed of our Government, which, possessing every opportunity and inducement to study and report upon our own native races, does absolutely nothing. A. C. HADDON. THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF THE ENGINEER. ΕΝ NGINEERING in its various branches takes so large and important a part in the industrial activities of modern nations that no pains are too great which will secure for our engineers a suitable and adequate school and college training, supplemented by a judiciously organised scheme of practical work in the shops and drawing office. More especially is this the case in this country, where, owing to the satisfaction which has followed previous success, manufacturers have been insufficiently alive to the fact that for many years other nations have been steadily building up efficient schemes of technical and professional education at the cost of much enterprise and greater self-sacrifice, with the natural result that supremacy, long undisputed in these spheres of industry, has been undermined, and in some degree wrested from us. our It is for reasons such as these that the investigations inaugurated and carried out under the auspices of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the results of which are embodied in a recent report on the education and training of engineers, are to be welcomed. In November, 1903, the council of the Institution appointed a committee to consider and report as to the best_methods of training for all classes of engineers, including both scholastic and subsequent technical education, it being an instruction of the council that the principle was to be maintained that the education of an engineer must include both practical experience and scientific training. The constitution of the committee was completed in February, 1904, and owing to the wisdom and breadth of outlook of the council of the Institution of Civil Engineers, accredited representatives of the various institutions of mechanical, electrical, gas, and mining engineers, naval architects, shipbuilders, and others were added to the committee, which under the able chairmanship of Sir William White, K.C.B., F.R.S., was soon actively at work. The inquiry, which has extended over more than two years, proceeded under the following sections: (1) Preparatory education in secondary schools; (2) training in offices, workshops, factories, or on works; (3) training in universities and higher technical institutions; (4) post-graduate work. The investigations under the first heading were entrusted to a subcommitee, while the committee as a whole undertook the consideration of the questions arising under the remaining three sections. The inquiries of the committee have been prosecuted by obtaining, sometimes orally though generally by correspondence, the opinions of teachers and professors with experience in engineering education, and of eminent engineers practising in various branches of the profession. The ultimate result is that, though diversities of opinion have been disclosed in regard to some details, yet, in all the main features of its recommendations, the committee has support from the great majority of professional engineers as well as of the professors of engineering subjects in our universities and higher technical insti tutions. PREPARATORY EDUCATION. The subcommittee, entrusted with the work of ascertaining the views of authorities competent to speak concerning the most suitable form of secondary education for boys destined to become engineers, issued a schedule of questions to 120 representative teachers in engineering colleges, headmasters of secondary schools devoting special attention to scientific training, and engineers not engaged in teaching. The queries raised in the schedule dealt with such points as the proper age for leaving school, the desirability of a leaving examination for secondary schools, the extent and methods of the teaching-suitable for future engineers in English subjects, languages, mathematics, science, drawing, and surveying. The schedule of questions raised, in addition, the important subject as to how far schoolboys should have, as a school exercise, practice in ordinary handicraft work, such as carpentry or turning; and to what extent it has been found better to make all "practical" work into laboratory exercises in science. Replies were received from 8o per cent. of the gentlemen whose opinions were invited, and from these definite conclusions were deduced as to the prevailing opinion on the points raised in the schedule of questions. These conclusions were embodied in a report of the subcommittee, which was eventually approved and adopted by the main committee. The following recommendations are the outcome of the exhaustive inquiry. A boy intended for the engineering profession should, before leaving school and commencing to specialise, have attained a standard of education equivalent to that recognised by universities for matriculation purposes. His special training should not commence until he is about seventeen years of age. To ensure such a standard of efficiency a leaving examination for secondary schools is desirable throughout the United Kingdom, so that there may be no room for doubt as to whether a boy has received a satisfactory preliminary education. Advanced teaching of history and geography, with instruction and practice in essay-writing and in préciswriting, should be included in the ordinary school curriculum; and the instruction in English subjects should include at least an introduction to English literature. Greek should not be required, but an elementary knowledge of Latin is desirable. The study of Latin should, however, be discontinued during the last two years of attendance at school, or after the standard required for the leaving certificate has been attained. Modern languages, especially French and German, should be studied, and should be taught colloquially or in such a way as to give the pupils a practical knowledge of each language, sufficient to enable them to study its literature and to converse in it with some degree of facility. Instruction in mathematics should be given by methods differing considerably from those usually adopted in the teaching of this subject merely as an intellectual exercise. The geometrical side of mathematics should be fostered, and before they leave school boys should be conversant with the use of logarithms, and with at least the elements of trigonometry. Instruction in practical arithmetic should be carried further than has been generally the case hitherto, with the object especially of encouraging the use of contracted methods and of encouraging also the expression of results with only such a degree of accuracy as is consistent with the known degree of certainty of the data on which the calculations are based. It is preferable that boys should attain at school a general knowledge of physics and chemistry rather than that they should pursue in detail some particular branch of science. Special attention should be given to drawing. Work in the nature of handicraft, such as carpentry or turning, may be encouraged as a recreation, but should not be required as a school exercise. The committee very properly recommends that the scheme of education outlined in its report should be communicated officially to the Board of Education and be circulated widely amongst those responsible for the work in secondary schools and engineering colleges. The importance of the committee's recommendations, indeed, cannot be overestimated. Educational experts have long foreseen the impossibility of securing a rational system of secondary education in the absence of a carefully planned investigation to determine precisely what secondary education has to accomplish and how the desired end may best be reached. The Institution of Civil Engineers has by its public-spirited action shown schoolmasters the way so far as the education of future engineers is concerned. Here is the opportunity for which earnest educators have been looking. The ground to be covered has been carefully mapped out by experts, and we at last know precisely what is required of the secondary school so far as training engineers is concerned. It is earnestly to be hoped that the opportunity will not be lost. If for the next ten years these judicious recommendations could be made the basis of the secondary education provided for all boys intended for engineering, and if the results of following the scheme could be accurately recorded during this period, we should in 1916 be in possession of data which would bring us within easy distance of formulating with confidence a course of school study which would provide engineers with boys trained in such a way as to make their future rational development easy and straightforward. ENGINEERING TRAINING. It was eventually decided by the committee to deal together with the sections of its inquiry concerned with training in offices, workshops, factories, or on works; training in universities and higher technical institutions; and post-graduate work. As in the case of the investigation dealing with the school career of the future engineer, so in this case a schedule of questions was framed and circulated widely. But a modification was introduced; the committee embodied in the schedule certain conclusions on important subjects on which it was unanimous. At the same time a free expression of divergent opinions was invited. In the schedule of opinions and questions the committee expressed its opinion that the age for leaving school of the future engineer should be seventeen years, and seventy per cent. of the 267 engineers and others who sent replies expressed agreement with this proposal. The opinion of the committee that it is desirable that the course of training for all branches of engineering should include at least one year's training in mechanical engineering workshops, where, ordinarily, information would be gained of the practical applications of electricity, was endorsed by 72 per cent. of those who responded to the invitation of the committee to express their views, and 21 per cent. considered this period too short. There was, however, far less unanimity as to when this introductory workshop course should be taken. The committee laid it down that the course should be taken at an early period either previously to the commencement of college training, or after that portion of the college training which is common to all branches of engineering has been completed. Thirty-three per cent. of the responding referees merely expressed agreement with the committee, while 47 per cent. were definite that it should be before the college training began. Four-fifths of the replies received agreed with the committee that during the introductory workshop course, and indeed in subsequent similar courses, boys should keep the regular working hours, be treated like ordinary apprentices, and be paid wages. Rather more than half the referees replying thought boys should be expected to attend evening classes during this workshop course, and 35 per cent. thought educational work should be suspended during this time. A large majority of the replies showed that it is generally considered desirable that this workshop course should be followed by a period of study in a technical college or university before specialisation in particular branches of engineering is undertaken, and that the period of college study should be arranged so as to alternate with the practical training. There was great diversity of opinion as to what constitutes a reasonable total period of practical training on works, in factories, workshops, mines, and so on-apart from the introductory workshop course. Thirty per cent. of the replies mention three years, twenty per cent. give two years, and the remaining opinions vary from one to five years. The committee recommends a total period of four years inclusive of the introductory workshop course. On the other hand, it seemed to be generally agreed that the scale on which appliances and equipment for instructing engineering students should be provided in technical colleges should be limited only by the funds at the disposal of the college authorities. The three concluding opinions formulated by the committee on the schedule distributed met with general approval. It is considered desirable, in con It nection with the grant of degrees, diplomas, and The recommendations of the committee in respect of engineering training embody the conclusions arrived at by an examination of the replies just summarised, and it is unnecessary to do more than point out the respects in which the recommendations amplify the opinions set forth in the schedule prepared for distribution. The recommendation respecting the introductory workshop course explained above recognises that at present there are practical difficulties in arrangang for this workshop year being interposed between the school and college work, and that employers may consider the arrangement detrimental to their interests. The committee suggests, however, that these difficulties should not be insurmountable, and the general agreement as to its advantageous effect on training leads it to hope that practical trial may be given to the plan. Concerning attendance at evening classes during the introductory workshop course, the committee thinks it is most important that all boys should at least maintain their scholastic acquirements, and it is considered that this result might be secured, by private tuition or otherwise, without undue physical strain. So, too, the general recommendation that the introductory workshop course should be followed immediately by attendance at college is modified. It is stated that in some cases-as, for example, when boys are intended to become mechanical engineers-it may be advantageous to complete the practical training before entering college; but, if this is done, private tuition or evening classes must be the rule during the years of practical work. The longest of the recommendations urges the need for a sound and extensive knowledge of mathematics is all branches of engineering. The committee endorses the practically universal opinion that a sufficient time should be allotted to the study of pure mathematics during the common college course, and that the extent to which individual students can be carried in mathematics must be decided by the teachers. report," From the English standpoint too much importance may be attached to prolonged literary training, and not enough importance to the practical training of students during the earlier years of their career, nor to the cultural value of a scientific and professional education." But in no respect are American conditions more different from those at home than in the attitude of the employers of labour toward higher education. As Dr. Walmsley has testified in a recent report (see NATURE, vol. lxx., p. 231), “ Without exception the officials interviewed asserted that, far from having any difficulty in placing the graduates turned out year by year from the engineering courses, for the last few years the graduate class has had every one of its individual members engaged for remunerative work before the completion of the course at college." Such are the importance of the report of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the care which has been expended upon its preparation, that it is to be hoped it will be read alike by all responsible for the educa tion of our future engineers, and by those who are in a position to employ the young men when their training is complete. In face of the severe competition between nations for industrial supremacy, it becomes a national duty for each and all, who can assist and forward the means of preparing the men in whose care our manufactures and general mercantile welfare will rest, to do their best; and a debt of gratitude is due to the Institution of Civil Engineers for the work it has accomplished. A. T. S. BALLOONS AND KITES IN THE SERVICE OF DURING recent years a considerable amount of The means of observation available are practically kites and small unmanned balloons carrying selfrecording instruments, aided to some extent by direct observations made from manned balloons; and the only obstacle to continuous daily or even hourly readSuch are, in brief, the more important of the com-ings at moderate heights is that of expense. mitte's recommendations, and it is interesting to compare these with some aspects of American practice. The rule in the engineering courses of the colleges of the United States, which it must be remembered always follow a prolonged secondary education, is that in the first two years of the course-which generally lasts four years-a fair amount of time is given to mathematics, English, modern languages, and experimental science, and it is chiefly in the workshop and drawing office that the specialisation towards engineering is apparent during these years. Specialisation begins to show itself prominently during the third year, and mechanical technology and electrotechnics are more or less taken up in the mechanical and electrical engineering courses. In the fourth year a crowd of engineering subjects is frequently introduced. But as Prof. Ripper remarks in his Mosely Commission The free balloons possess the advantages of reaching heights unattainable by any other means, and of being independent of weather conditions. Either paper or rubber balloons are used of about six to ten feet diameter. These balloons are filled with hydrogen, and carry up with them a self-recording meteorograph made as light as possible; they frequently reach heights exceeding ten miles, and it is seldom, at least on the more thickly inhabited parts of the Continent, such as France and Germany, that they are lost. Each balloon carries an attached label offering a small reward to the finder, and the address to which information is to be sent, and in general the meteorograph is recovered with its record in a decipherable condition within a few weeks or a month. It is desirable that the balloon should fall as near as possible to its starting point, and with a rubber balloon this is effected in the following manner, The balloon is only partially filled with gas, and is then securely tied up. As it rises the external pressure is lessened and the gas inside expands, until finally the rubber is no longer able to stand the strain and the balloon bursts. A small parachute is used to prevent a too rapid fall of the meteorograph, and sometimes a second smaller balloon, filled to a less extent, so that it does not burst, is also attached; the second balloon takes the place of the parachute, but is employed that it may float over the position of the fallen meteorograph, and direct attention to it. With paper balloons an automatic arrangement is used by which the balloon is freed when it reaches a certain height. The general result is that the meteorograph returns to the earth within a time of about an hour, and within a distance of a hundred miles from the starting point. Observations obtained by the help of kites have the advantage of being less costly, but they are dependent on the weather conditions, and it is not often that heights exceeding two miles are reached. At Lindenberg in Germany, the best equipped station for the purpose in existence, last year a height of just on four miles was reached by a train of kites. Given sufficient wind it is a perfectly simple process to send a kite up to the height of a few thousand feet, although if the wind be very strong it is not so simple to draw it back again. The chief obstacle to attaining great altitudes is the wind resistance upon the cord or wire which holds the kite, and it is on this account that the strongest and thinnest obtainable steel wire is used. The wire introduces many technical difficulties; it is difficult and to some extent dangerous to handle, and although capable of withstanding a great strain if fairly used, if a kink is once formed the piece of wire in which it is, is utterly useless. Usually steel music wire, the kind of wire used in a piano in fact, of about 1-32in. in diameter is used; this will bear a weight of 250lbs., and weighs 16lbs. to the mile. With a good kite presenting 77 square feet of surface to the wind and 8000 feet of this wire, a vertical height of one mile is easily reached under favourable conditions of wind, and one kite of this size has carried a meteorograph to 8000 feet of height. The conditions are not always favourable; instead of a steady wind of twenty-five to thirty miles per hour, increasing somewhat with altitude, which affords the best conditions, it not infrequently happens that quite different velocities are found in different strata. It is impossible to get through a stratum in which the velocity is under fifteen miles per hour, and if a velocity of much over forty miles per hour is encountered in the lower strata, the kite is very likely to be damaged or the wire broken. At greater heights a higher velocity is not so likely to cause damage, since the air is less dense, and (a point of perhaps far greater importance) the wind is far steadier. Hence it is easily seen that to reach very great heights with a train of kites, in addition to having apparatus of the best design and quality, exceptional weather conditions must hold, and the observer must succeed in straining his wire just short, but only just short, of its breaking point. The attempt very often ends in the breaking of the wire near the winch, and the departure of five or six miles of wire and six or eight kites. Very interesting results have been given by the unmanned balloons. It has been found that when they have reached a great height they fall in some locality lying to the east of their starting point, not necessarily due east, but on a more easterly meridian. Since they pass far beyond the upper limit of the cirrus cloud, this fact confirms the statement that in the temperate latitudes the upper currents are always from some westerly point. M. Teisserenc de Bort also finds that balloons sent up in a cyclone tend to move away from the centre at great heights, thus showing that the cyclonic circulation is not a mere surface phenomenon. He also states that at ten miles height the air is warmer over the cyclone, and colder over the anticyclone. When observations by means of kites were first started by Mr. Rotch, at Blue Hill, Boston, U.S., it was hoped that the long disputed point as to the origin of cyclones would be elucidated; so far this has not been the case. Ferrel, the well-known American meteorologist, held that cyclones were convectional effects, and that they were maintained chiefly by the latent heat of condensation of the vapour in the central and rainy part. Dr. Hann on the other hand considers that cyclones are what may be described as driven eddies in the general circulation of the atmosphere. Opinion on the Continent, based on the results of observations obtained by balloons and kites, seems to be in favour of Dr. Hann's hypothesis, but Mr. Clayton, of Blue Hill, U.S., considers that the ascents there made favour the convectional theory. The results of some two hundred kite ascents which I have obtained in England and Scotland, with an average height of about one mile, seem to me to give no evidence one way or the other. I think, however, that a fundamental error has generally been assumed in the discussion. We know that in a gas in equilibrium under a conservative system of forces the isothermal and isobaric surfaces must be identical; this point at least is not open to question. It is not, therefore, the proper test to consider whether the temperature in a cyclone is greater or less than in an anticyclone at the same height, but the test is whether it be greater or less at points on the same the isobaric surfaces in isobaric surfaces; and temperate latitudes may well differ from surfaces of equal height above mean sea level by a thousand feet W. H. DINES. or more. THE BICENTENARY CELEBRATION OF THE The proceedings began on the evening of April 17. |