Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/300

 of elementary education. Of the third type some admirable examples were to be seen in Paris. Some very interesting particulars were given of the progress of the horological school at Besançon. The fourth type or half-time school, which was English in its origin, was rarely to be found in France. Since the old apprenticeship had virtually lapsed, there was nothing to save the young artisan of the rising generation from degenerating into a mere machine, unless a new agency could be practically organized. What was claimed for the apprenticeship school was that its pupils do not possess just a bare minimum of knowledge sufficient to procure them means of subsistence in one narrow department of one restricted industry, but that they possess both manual dexterity and a fair technical knowledge which would enable them not only to earn more and to turn out better work, but also to be less at the mercy of the fluctuation of trade for the means of subsistence. Besides the new apprenticeship being better for real instruction in technical principles, it was also better for practical work in so far as it shortened the needlessly long years of the apprenticeship, and imparted at an earlier age all the manual capacity that apprenticeship in any form could impart. There were not wanting on our horizon signs of significance in the problem of the relation of science to labor. We had really skilled workmen, and no foreign workmen were their equals, but they were only units in a crowd. Take which view they would, technical education, and, above all, the technical education of the artisan classes, was a sine qua non of the future industrial prosperity of Great Britain. What steps, then, must be taken to give effect to the new apprenticeship? Two things would determine the success or failure of the school: 1. The obtaining of the right kind of teachers; and, 2. The adoption of a system of instruction based upon drawing, which was the language of the manufactures, the handicrafts, the constructive industries of all kinds. It was evident that the first step would be the foundation of a system for training competent teachers. Then there must be a central technical college, for through such an institution alone could community of thought and method of work be obtained.

Two Remarkable Epidemics.—In the spring of 1878 an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out at Zurich, Switzerland, which possesses peculiar interest. A musical festival was held in that town in May, and out of the seven hundred persons who attended it five hundred were attacked by typhoid fever, of whom one hundred died. A minute inquiry into the circumstances left but little doubt that the epidemic was due to the use of bad veal furnished by an innkeeper of the place. It may be claimed by those who attribute to general causes the power of originating specific diseases that the typhoid fever was due to a septic poison present in the veal, depending possibly on a beginning fermentation, which was not destroyed by the cooking to which it had been submitted. On the other hand, as the animal from which the meat was taken was sick, it may be asked whether it might not have been suffering from typhoid fever, although this disease has never yet been recognized among animals. It is a remarkable fact that in 1839 a similar but much less fatal epidemic occurred in a neighboring locality. After a reunion that took place under similar circumstances, four hundred and forty persons were taken sick with all the symptoms of typhoid fever. It is probable that in this case also the meat of a sick calf gave rise to the disease.

South-African Cannibals.—At the late meeting of the British Association, the French explorer Brazza read a paper on "The Native Races of the Gaboon and Ogowai." A preceding speaker, Major Serpa Pinto, had spoken of races having European characteristics inhabiting the region about the headwaters of the Zambesi. M. de Brazza was of opinion that these people had come from the north of Africa, because, under the name of Ubamba, he had found races very much resembling them to the south of the Congo. The negroes Pinto saw were probably the advance-guard of an invasion which had overrun the country to the cast of the Gaboon. Stanley spoke of a great emigration very much resembling what had taken place among the Fan cannibals. There had been much talk indulged in adverse to the cannibal races of this part of Africa. Du Chaillu, who had visited for one day only one of the Fan villages, had given a