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artisan meet in the modelling-room, for in this reproduction the truth of art is found. In the dividing, handling, and manipulation of material their use is learned, and with this knowledge comes power. Fidelity, experience, and skill acquired in the use of clay give double value to the later work in wood, iron, brass, copper, stone, or marble.

When the student repeats his conception in the clay with his own hand, when, instead of a flat surface, his work takes form, he learns its minute details, and sees what lack of fitness there may be in the design. He is trained also to a system of

of wood-work is unlimited. Panels, mirrorframes, a substantial wood-box, a massive hall settee with antique scroll-work, are made, all with ornamental carving. In the metals, among the many articles made, are brass finger-plates for doors, silver napkin-rings beautifully chased, copper plaques, Arabesque corners and hinges for boxes, tables, and so on.

It is a painful truth that not all the men and women who set before themselves an artist's career can or do succeed. But talent and industry may raise a man or woman from the rank and file into distinguished standing, both in the minor or industrial arts and in the higher fields of sculpture and painting. The two departments stand in a helpful relation to each other, and should be so considered.

This is the stand-point from which the artschool of the Society of decorative art is working. The classes of the industrial and technical department are free three evenings in the week. One of these evenings is to be given particularly to the instruction of those who wish to become teachers. The day classes, held morning and afternoon, have a moderate charge. The studios are open, and free to students for practice, every day.

A small but carefully chosen library has been opened this season, where, in a bright room, the

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MODELLING FROM LIFE.

' values,' the value of material and of labor. He learns that it is the skill of the artisan which gives value to material. The modelling-room makes flexible and develops every muscle of his hand and wrist.

The school attempts no graded course at present. The pupil, however, who undertakes wood-carving or metal-work without some knowledge of design, can never be an independent worker. The first need when he takes up his panel or his sheet of copper or brass, before a tool is handled, is ability to draw thereon a pattern.

Many specimens of wood-carving and metalwork done by students can be seen at the schools, as well as the actual processes themselves. The woman who takes fifty cents' worth of oak, or eighty cents' worth of mahogany, and can add to it as it passes through her hand such beauty of carving that its value is increased a hundred-fold, has a power that is worth something. The range

SOME OF THE RESULTS.

pupils may have access to books and current artliterature, foreign and American, with opportunity for quiet thought and study.

The motive of the whole system is true education, and intelligent work on the simplest, most practical principles. No attempt is made in the technical and manual training classes to specialize. A boy or girl is simply prepared for life, ready for any trade to which they may be called, in com. mand of self, with a knowledge of what can be done, and a power to do it accurately, intelligently, and skilfully. But leaving out all question of artist or artisan, there is a discipline, a culture, and a training of the powers of observation, that are of inestimable value in after-life.

From time to time during the winter, lectures are given at the school upon subjects connected

with the studies. Visitors who wish to see the work of the school will find the studios open each day from nine until twelve in the morning, and from one until four in the afternoon. The free classes are taught from half-past seven to half-past nine, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings of each week. EMMA MOFFETT TYNG.

RIO DE JANEIRO LETTER.

THE scientific movement of Brazil can afford but little matter of interest to the outside world. Within the last few years a few isolated workers have succeeded in making their names known beyond the limits of the country, but for the pressent they are too few to have established any noteworthy centres of scientific thought, either in the way of societies or periodicals. Outside of the medical profession, which maintains a very creditable society and one or two special journals, the spirit of association has taken the direction mainly of organizing geographical societies, of which Rio de Janeiro boasts of three, the old and highly reputable though decidedly fossilized Historical, geographical, and ethnological institute, the more recent Rio de Janeiro section of the Lisbon geographical society, and the Rio de Janeiro geographical society. Each publishes its review, mainly valuable on account of the insertion and discussion of old and little-known documents, recent contributions of importance rarely appearing. This abundance of geographical societies is not due to a superabundance of active workers, but to a sudden outburst of enthusiasm and fraternal good feeling, awakened by a visit from the Portuguese explorer of Africa, Major Serpa Pinto. On this occasion Brazilians and Portuguese united in founding a section of the Lisbon society to commemorate his visit. National rivalries soon appeared, however, and led to the withdrawal of a portion of the Brazilian element to found the Rio de Janeiro society, which, of the three, appears at present to possess the most vitality and promise of usefulness.

The other scientific publications are the Archivos do museu nacional, of which six volumes have been issued, containing articles on archeology, anthropology, zoology, and geology, contributed mainly by the officers of the museum; the Annals da Escola de minas de Auro Preto, of which the four volumes published are mainly devoted to metallurgy and nineralogy; and the recently established monthly Revista do observatorio, which is taking a very useful direction in the collection of meteorological observations from various points of the empire. Private enterprise in the publication of scientific journals has taken the direction

of technical reviews for engineers and architects, of which three are published. In the absence of other organs, articles of general science are sometimes inserted in these, particularly in the oldest and best established of them, the Revista de engenharia. The last number of the Archivos do museu, issued near the end of last year, contained profusely illustrated articles on the extraordinary ornamented pottery of the mounds of Marajo. The next volume, to be issued shortly, will be devoted to a memoir by Dr. C. A. White of Washington, on the Brazilian cretaceous fossils, and will undoubtedly be the most important contribution ever made to South American invertebrate paleontology.

Since the beginning of the present year, three official commissions have been organized, from which results of some value may be expected, and of which notice has already been given in Science. The first in point of time is for a geographical and geological survey of the province of San Paulo, on the plan of the U. S. surveys of the territories, under the charge of Prof. O. A. Derby of the national museum. The first work undertaken was the exploration of the second largest river of the province, the Paranapanema, tributary of the Parana. The party, consisting of Dr. Theodoro Sampaio, geographer, with Dr. J. W. Aguiar as assistant, and Dr. Paula Oliveira geologist. embarked on the upper river May 22, and has only just returned, having traversed about 900 kilometres of difficult river in a sparsely populated, almost desert region, and about 500 kilometres by land, all in a region that had never before been scientifically examined. The river was found to be full of dangerous falls and rapids in its middle section, of the extension of about 120 kilometres, but comparatively free from obstruction in an upper section of 200 kilometres, and a lower section of 309 kilometres. The latter section promises to become an important link in the system of internal communications with the distant province of Matto Grosso. For over half its course, the river flows through a region of bedded traps, presumably of triassic age. The chief of the commission has been engaged in the examination of a remarkable development of nepheline sienites, occurring in several points of the province, and in such intimate association with typical volcanic rocks, tuffs, phonolites, trachites, nepheline, leucite, and olivine basalts, as to establish the volcanic character of the whole group. The passage of nepheline sienite to phonolite is clearly demonstrated, and leucite rocks are reported for the first time in South America.

A second commission, appointed by the minister of agriculture, is for a study of the disease of

the coffee-plant, that during the past few years has destroyed a large number of plantations over a considerable area in the northern part of the province of Rio de Janeiro. This is intrusted to Dr. Emil Göldi, an able and energetic young Swiss naturalist, who has recently been appointed sub-director of the zoological section of the national museum. Dr. Göldi has been in the field for the last two months, studying the disease in situ, but as yet has not made public any of his results. A valuable biological contribution may be confidently expected from this commission.

A third commission, headed by Dr. J. B. Lacerda, well known through his researches on snake-poison and on beriberi, is about to proceed to the northern provinces of Pará and Maranham to study the disease beriberi, which is extending rapidly over the north of the empire, and is beginning to appear to an alarming extent in the south as well. The last steamer to New York takes the president of the chamber of deputies, who is making a sea-voyage in the hope of throwing off the disease; and a prominent physician of Rio, who was appointed on the beriberi commission, has been obliged to resign on account of having become a sufferer from it. As has already been noticed in Science, Dr. Lacerda attributes the disease to a microbe, a conclusion which has been confirmed by Dr. Ogata Masanori of Tokio, in Japan. Up to the present time, elements for the study of beriberi have been rather difficult to obtain in Rio, and the present study in the principal centres of the disease will undoubtedly add greatly to our knowledge on the subject. Dr. Lacerda has also been investigating a very similar disease of horses, very prevalent in the provinces of Pará and Matto Grosso, known as peste da Cadeiras, or hip-evil, which at one time he was inclined to identify with the beriberi ; but he has recently discovered some well-marked differences in the micro-organisms characteristic of the two.

Considerable interest has been manifested among medical men in the proposed American commission to study Dr. Frere's yellow-fever investigations, and methods of inoculation. The work of Dr. Frere seems to have awakened a more lively interest abroad than here. The official support that he received as president of the board of health has been withdrawn since his retirement from that post, on account of his commendable, though perhaps not always judicious, efforts to suppress the powerful industry of manufactured wines, while the general attitude of the medical profession is that of extreme reserve. While he has a number of very fervent followers, a number of prominent physicians have vigorously combated

his conclusions. As few, if any, of his critics, are practised microscopists, he has been able to meet their scientific arguments quite successfully, but has been less fortunate in the defence of his statistics regarding the immunity of inoculated persons. Like all Brazilian statistics, these are too loosely drawn to inspire confidence. A large proportion of the inoculated has been among the shifting population, whose subsequent history can only be followed with difficulty; and Frere is accused of not admitting that the disease is yellowfever, in the case of the death of an inoculated person, no matter what the opinion of the attending physician may be.

The National museum has recently received several interesting additions. The veteran paleontologist of Buenos Ayres, Dr. Hermann Burmeister, made it a present of a very perfect skeleton of Scelidotherium, and added greatly to the value of his gift by coming in person to superintend the mounting of it. Although in his eightieth year, Dr. Burmeister is still vigorous, and looks able to continue his work for several years yet. While in Rio, he received many attentions from the emperor and imperial family, and found himself obliged rather reluctantly to accept from the emperor the decoration of dignitary of the order of the rose, which is next to the highest rank of the order, and one seldom conferred. The museum has also received a fragment, weighing nearly two kilograms, of the famous Bendigo or Bahia meteorite, the second largest mass of native iron known; and hopes are entertained of obtaining the entire mass, which is estimated to weigh about nine tons, and lies about sixty miles away from a recently constructed line of railroad. A wealthy gentleman of Bahia is inquiring into the feasibility of transporting it with the intention of placing it in the museum if it be found practicable. The latest addition is a perfect skeleton of a whale, apparently Balaena australis, measuring about fifteen metres in length, which was stranded a few weeks ago in a little bay to the south of Rio.

Dr. Barbosa Rodriguez, director of the museum of Manaos, province of Amazonas, has just announced the rediscovery of Lepidosiren, of which no specimens have been found since the time of Natterer and Castelnau, and whose existence in South America has recently been put in doubt. It may now be confidently expected that specimens of this rare and interesting animal can be obtained in large numbers. Y. A.

Rio de Janeiro, Oct. 15.

M. C. GUYOT, professor in the School of forestry at Nancy, is preparing an important work on Les forêts lorraines jusqu'en 1789.'

NOTES AND NEWS.

THE knowledge and appreciation of our educational institutions by European scholars are largely on the increase. M. Buisson, who came to this country as a French commissioner to the New Orleans exposition, made a special study of our advanced educational institutions, and is now contributing a series of articles on the subject to the Revue internationale de l'enseignement. The first of these has already appeared, and, after some introductory paragraphs, describes Columbia and Harvard colleges. M. Buisson has grasped clearly the nature and functions of the board of regents in New York state, and makes plain the relation sustained by that body to the various colleges and academies of the state. He was particularly impressed with Columbia's great library, and frankly says that it seems to him 'the ideal of what a university library should be,' not because of the number of its volumes, but because of its scope and organization. M. Buisson describes with great minuteness of detail the working of the library, and recommends it to the consideration of those having in charge the re-organization of the library of the University of Paris.

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jects exhumed, were considered far from lenient, inasmuch as real duplicates very rarely occur. Taking advantage of the situation, the owners of the ground that he desired in Crete demanded £4,000 for it, and insisted upon his including in the purchase more land than he really wanted. So Dr. Schliemann came away without having dug his spade into the ground, though he saw, peeping out from the hill he desired to excavate, a huge building; but whether it was a megarm or a temple he could not tell.

- The professor of archeology at the University of Berlin, Dr. Furtwängler, has arrived at Olympia to arrange the objects which have been claimed by Greece from the excavations now concluded, in a large museum built on the spot by a patriotic Greek for their reception. He is also examining the various objects anew for the large work that is being prepared on Olympia, the German professor having been himself formerly one of the directors of the excavations.

- The first meeting of "the international congress having for its object technical, commercial, and industrial training," met at Bordeaux a few weeks since. We see no notice of any delegate from the United States being present. The conference brought clearly into view two points: 1°, the encouragement there is in the recognition of the fact that England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Belgium, as well as other countries and dependencies, have common ends in view in commercial and industrial education; and, 2o, that while this first international congress was merely tentative, yet it has paved the way for future congresses to come to a surer agreement regarding principles, and to develop substantial unanimity in details. In addition to the valuable papers that were read, debates and discussions were held daily during the session of the congress, and it is believed that they contributed to give the nations of Europe a clearer and sounder knowledge of the aims and methods of technical education. The lord-almoner's professorship of Arabic at Cambridge university, made vacant by the resignation of Dr. Robertson Smith, the newly elected university librarian, who has held the post since Prof. Edward H. Palmer was murdered by the Arabs, has been conferred on Hon. Ion Grant Neville Keith-Falconer, M.A., of Trinity college. The new professor is the second son of the late Earl of Kintore, and, though but thirty years of age, he is very learned in the oriental languages and literature.

-- It is remarked in England that the American historians are very popular there. Almost simultaneously, new editions of Prescott and of Park

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The new volume of Trübner's English and foreign philosophical library' is 'Life and works of Giordano Bruno.' It is now ready.

-Students of psychology and of philosophy generally, will be glad to know that Dr. Ferrier's work on 'The functions of the brain' has been issued in a new edition. This new edition is essentially a new book, since it has been almost entirely rewritten, and now embraces the results of the author's latest investigations, as well as a critical survey of the more important physiological and pathological researches on the functions of the brain that have been published during the last decade. The chapters on the structures of the nerve-centres and the functions of the spinal cord have been enlarged to such an extent that the book is now virtually a complete treatise on the central nervous system.

The

- Volume viii. of Leslie Stephen's 'Dictionary of national biography,' including names from Burton to Cantwell, has been published. Bruces, Butlers, Campbells, Burns, Burke, Byron, Mrs. Browning, Buckle, Caedmon, Cairns, and Cairnes are among the most prominent subjects treated. Volume ix. may be expected in January.

- Investigations made by the editor of the Academy in several hundred schools in every state in the union give the following result as to the methods of Latin pronunciation in use. Of the institutions, per cent use the continental system, 464 per cent the Roman, and 47 per cent the English. Some of these schools, however, are very large, others quite small; so that a comparison of the number of students trained in each method seems preferable. Such comparison shows 2 per cent using the continental, 464 the English, and 514 the Roman.

A recent presidential decree in France regulates the instruction in gymnastics in the lycées and colleges for girls. The instruction must be given by female teachers, who must have received a certificate of aptitude from the proper authori

ties. Such teachers are to receive from 1,200 to 2,000 francs per year each, and may be required to teach sixteen hours a week. They must teach at least twelve hours a week.

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The English association for the improvement of geometrical teaching, says Nature of Sept. 30, has revised its Syllabus of elementary geometrical conics,' and is about to publish the same, with three figures lettered in accordance with the enunciations of the Syllabus. The work will be interleaved to allow of teachers and students supplying their own proofs, and will, it is hoped, appear in November. Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein are the publishers.

- The Bombay government, according to Nature of Sept. 30, has issued a long resolution on the subject of technical education, which is one of special importance to India. The resolution lays down the outlines of the scheme which it favors under three heads,-agriculture, art, and mechanical industries. It proposes that the College of science at Poonah shall be a central institution for the teaching of higher agriculture, and that local classes and schools shall be established throughout the province under the supervision of district officers and of the educational department. The Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy school of art in Bombay is to be the centre of government efforts for the purpose of art-teaching, and a report is called for as to the propriety of obtaining additional teaching. The question whether a technological institute for mechanical industries shonld be established is discussed at some length, and the government expresses the opinion that the time for doing so has not yet come. Meanwhile it is suggested that the committee of the Ripon memorial fund should form itself into an association for promoting technical education in Bombay City, the government promising to give it the utmost possible aid. The main dependence of other parts of the province must be upon the high schools for elementary science, and upon such institutions as may be started by means of local efforts. The resolution concludes by saying that the scheme is not academic, but that it is meant to enhance the wellbeing of the people at large by giving increased employment to labor and capital, and by cementing harmonious relations between them.

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