Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/732

714 1875, and was so accounted for—may occur when buzzards, having gorged themselves with carrion, disgorge it as they fly in the air. "Thus easily"—in the Kentucky case it was the flesh of a horse, and the buzzards were seen—"was a modern prodigy disposed of; and quite as rationally, we now see, might we dispose of all ancient prodigies which were not mendacious fabrications, if only we could catechise witnesses and apply scientific methods to the examination of such facts as were found to remain."

Study out of School.—On the question of study out of school-hours, Mr. L. W. Parish, of the Iowa State Teachers' Association, maintains that education should look to the most natural, complete development of physical, mental, and moral qualities. Neither side should be preferred at the expense of another, but all three should be developed hand in hand. To secure the proportionate and therefore most effective training of the intellectual powers, Little or nothing is required, during the first three or four years of school-life, which a skillful and faithful teacher can not accomplish without forcing book-work upon the children during the evening hours, or during the time that belongs of right to physical development, or the performance of home duties. But, that the work may be done thus, unfavorable circumstances must be removed, and both pupil and teacher must do their parts. The pupil must be regular and industrious, and the teacher must show herself mistress of the best methods of presenting topics of instruction. On account of some irregular and unwholesome influences operating upon schools, more out-of-school study than is necessary or good is demanded, but an intelligent co-working of teachers, parents, physicians, and the local press ought to cause a steady decrease of it, and an increase in systematic physical and moral training.

The Search for the Trans-Neptunian Planet.—Mr. David P. Todd, of the Lawrence Observatory, Amherst, Massachusetts, has published a memoir on his search for the trans-Neptunian planet. He uses the definite article—the—in speaking of this body, hypothetical though it still may be, because he regards the evidence of its existence as well-founded, while, during all the time he has been engaged in the search of it, nothing has weakened his conviction of its existence in about that part of the sky he has assigned to it. The independent researches in cometary perturbations by Professor Forbes have furthermore conducted him to a result identical with Mr. Todd's—a coincidence, it is suggested, not to be lightly set aside as pure accident. That five years have elapsed since this coincidence was remarked, and the planet is still unfound, does not make it evident that the existence of the planet is merely fanciful, for the particular spot in which its presence is suspected has received very little scrutiny with telescopes competent to such a search. The time has now come when, by the help of the developments and improvements that have been made in astronomical photography, the search can be profitably undertaken by any observer having the rare combination of time, enthusiasm, and the necessary appliances. In aid of any such search, Mr. Todd has published a record of his observations of the indicated region, with the twenty-six-inch refractor telescope of the Naval Observatory, accompanied by exact transcriptions of the "finder" diagrams, and of diagrams showing the relative positions of objects.

Distribution of Trees in Canada.—Mr. A. T. Drummond, in a paper read before the British Association last year, on "The Distribution of Canadian Forest-Trees," ascribes an important part to the existence of large bodies of water in the eastern part of the country, and of conditions under which a much milder climate is given, with a higher range of trees, on the western side of the continent. Then, in the United States and Canada the mountain-ranges are somewhat continuous, and have a northern and southern trend, affording an opportunity to the northern trees to extend southward on their flanks, and to the southern trees to range northward in the valleys; and this has given rise to a more extended distribution than could otherwise occur. Another important element in the distribution is the chain of the lakes, which forms a barrier to the free extension into Canada of the southern forms