to a decision which does infinite honour to literature. A solemn service will be celebrated on the 23d of April for the repose of the soul of Cervantes, in the church of the Sisters of the Trinity, where rest the remains of that great writer. A similar solemnity will take place annually, in memory of the Academicians deceased in the course of the year. We praise, without reserve, the zeal and good intentions of the Academy."

Prussia.-Considerable agitation has for some time prevailed in the educational world of Prussia on the subject of the existing Government regulations bearing upon education. The opponents of the system at present in force, object to it on the grounds, that it renders imperative an unnecessarily and inconveniently large amount of religious and purely doctrinal instruction, which has to be conveyed by means of tasks committed to memory, and therefore tends to make teaching mechanical rather than intelligent; that it is sectarian, and encourages whatever of religious division exists in the country; and that it does not sufficiently provide for the training and culture of the teacher. The friends of these regulations, on the other hand, endeavour to identify the malcontents with the radical, and even with the revolutionary party in the kingdom; in the agitation, so far as it directs itself against the amount and quality of the religious instruction demanded by Government, they see nothing but efforts to undermine the national church and religion in general; and they pooh-pooh the notion of anything like intellectual culture or scientific attainment being claimed for the teachers of the "Volksschulen."

Thus, in a discussion which took place some time since in the "Herrenhaus" (corresponding to our House of Lords), we find one of the speakers on the Conservative side (which was, in fact, pretty much the only side), Baron von Senfft-Pilsach by name, saying: "The difficulties which are raised with regard to our present educational system have their source in a definite quarter -it is no secret-namely, in the camp of a not altogether insignificant party, composed of adherents of Ronge and Uhlich, and of Reform Jews. I wish these gentlemen would come honestly forward with what they intend. Sup

posing they were at the same time to adopt a general measure of circumcision, I for my part should have nothing against it."

for a

This is somewhat coarse wit, surely, Herrenhaus;" but the most remarkable speech delivered on the occasion was that of the Crown-Syndic, the well-known jurist, Dr. Stahl. This was a powerful and telling, but bitter and one-sided diatribe against the innovators, from certain of whose publications he read amid "sensation "such passages as these:-"The Conservative principle is unsuited to be the supreme directing principle in education. A young man, for example, grows up in a state in which Absolutism reigns, and his teacher, according to the idea that the principle of Conservatism is the educational principle, educates him in reverence for Absolutism; what, now, if this state passes into a Constitutional form? Has, in the education of the youth, his future been kept in eye, and has he been educated for the existing state of things, or has he not rather been educated for what is past and obsolete? But what, we ask further (for examples throng upon us from the history of our own times), what, if the hitherto monarchical state assumes republican forms?"

This, then," scornfully comments Dr. Stahl, "is that excessive tendency towards the mechanical,' which is blamed in the Regulations, this,-that they treat the duty of the subject towards the king as something taken for granted, and not as a subject to be examined into and this is the muchlauded 'stirring up of the pupil to independent thought,' this,-that he shall be brought up as ready and able to live and fulfil his duties in the Republic of Prussia as in the Monarchy of Prussia!" (Laughter and repeated bravos). He quotes again: "The teacher should make himself the centre of the knowledge and culture of his district; by none must he allow himself to be surpassed in manysidedness; by none in the clearness of his ideas and in ability to communicate them; could we succeed in training our future country schoolmasters to be students of nature .. much would be discovered that has hitherto been concealed. What does an Alexander Humboldt not accomplish?

he makes researches, brings new facts to light. Why should not the same be done on a smaller scale by a teacher,

who can make up for what is wanting in the extent of his view by the greater exactitude, and the greater frequency of his observations?

"To me," remarks the speaker hereupon, "the task set to the teacher by the Government Regulations appears of a much worthier and more sterling character than that set to him by the so-called German Science of Pædagogy. But not to dwell on that, I ask, What is to become of a population which is scientifically stirred up by 30,000 little Humboldts? (laughter)—which is to be guided and spurred on to the general improvement of the world by 30,000 unripe world-improvers ?"

Protests from influential bodies of teachers have gone in against Dr. Stahl's speech and mode of treating the question. We may refer to these, and give our readers a notion of what the Prussian educational reformers have to say for themselves, at a future time.

V. NOTES IN SCIENCE.

The Science of Language.-Professor Max Muller has just completed an important course of lectures on this subject, at the Royal Institution, in which he has claimed for the science of language a co-ordinate place with the physical and inductive sciences. The history of these sciences shows that each of them has passed through three stages, the empi. rical, when facts are collected; the classificatory, when the facts are arranged according to their nature; and the theoretical, when the philosopher searches for the laws and principles by which the operations of nature are carried on. The science of language is to be studied in the same manner, taking as its subjectmatter, not the nine hundred dialects in the world, but the root-forms alone, to the number of which absolutely no addition has been made since the first beginnings of language. The changes which language undergoes the Professor ascribed to two causes,-phonetic corruption and dialectic growth. To the former we owe grammatical terminations, each of which was originally a distinct word; to the latter, those changes in idiom and inflection which take place before a language has been fixed by the consolidation of its literature.

1. In considering the first or empirical stage in the science of language, Professor Müller compared its formation to

the succession of deposits which form the crust of the earth. The lowest stratum of all was laid by the pressing and homely wants of half-civilized tribes. Grammar, which was the product of this stage, took its rise in India and Greece, the first real grammarians having been the Greeks of Alexandria, who were led to a critical study of their own language whilst editing the text of the Homeric poems. From Alexandria the study was transferred to Rome, where Dionysius Thrax wrote the first Greek Grammar; from Rome to Constantinople, and from Constantinople to Western Europe.

2. This empirical grammar, however, merely taught rules; it did not give reasons or inquire into causes. To do this, we must first collect facts which will enable us to compare cognate dialects. Before this can be done, we must determine what languages are cognate. Hence arises the second stage in the history of the science, the classificatory. The question to be determined here was, "What principle of classification is to be adopted?" Though the theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries made some advances, especially in establishing the independence of the Semitic family, they had erred in taking for granted that all languages were derived from Hebrew. Leibnitz was the first to apply the principles of inductive reasoning to the languages of mankind. But it was the discovery of Sanscrit, about 1784, that led to the establish ment of the true principle of classification, that of genealogy or grammatical affinity, the first conception of which is due to Frederic Schlegel, in 1808. The lecturer next proceeded to take a survey of the three great families,-the Aryan or Indo-European, the Semitic, and the Turanian, into which, on this principle, the languages of the world are divided. He maintained the original identity of the various stocks which each of these families comprises, arguing that the same inductive reasoning which, on the evidence of our former coal-beds, leads us to admit the former existence of forests, establishes with equal certainty the existence of a real language previous to the period when, for example, we meet with Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin.

3. The last stage is the theoretical or metaphysical; that in which the science at present rests. It is with roots that the science has now, in the first instance,

to deal; a root being that form which resists further analysis. Of roots there are two classes, those that are predicative, significative or essential; and those that are demonstrative, or modificatory, which give us terminations of nouns and verbs, and explain the origin of pronouns and prepositions. The Morphological classification of language, based upon the form in which these two kinds of roots are combined, gives us three kinds or stages of language:-1. The Radical stage, where each word is a root; 2. The Terminational stage, where two or more roots are joined to form words; 3. The Inflexional stage, where the elements of the former stage have suffered from phonetic decay. Every dialect that is now, or ever was spoken, must belong to one of these three classes. Moreover, every inflexional language was once terminational, and every terminational language was once radical, or consisted of rootwords alone. Of predicative root words, five hundred were said to be sufficient to account for the largest vocabulary. The problem of the origin of language is, therefore, reduced to the simple question, How these five hundred significative roots first sprang into existence. In conclusion, the lecturer supported the theory of a common origin of roots, in opposition to the theories of onomatopoieia and of interjections. The great distinguishing faculty of man is the faculty of abstraction or of forming general conceptions, and this was shown to coincide with the faculty of speech. Man in his primitive and perfect state must have been endowed not only, like the animal, with the power of expressing his sensations by interjections, and his perceptions by onomatopoieia, but likewise with the faculty of giving articulate expression to each rational conception as it thrilled for the first time through his brain.

M. Du Chaillu and the Gorilla.However close the resemblance of the gorilla may be to man, we possess the satisfactory assurance of Professor Owen that it is distinguished by important differences, which preclude the possibility of a development" of the human being from the brute. The formation and setting of the great toe are essentially different, converting the foot into a grasping hand. It possesses thirteen ribs, whereas man has but twelve.

The brain-case is not larger than in infants, although the weight of the immense head is seven or eight times as great as that of the human skull.

Grave doubts have been thrown upon the verity of M. Du Chaillu's account of his travels, and of his contests_with this wonderful animal, by Dr. J. E. Gray, of the British Museum. Dr. Gray's chief assertions are that M. Du C.'s "qualifications as a traveller are of the slightest description;" that "the map appended to his work is one of the most primitive that I have seen for years; that "his qualifications as a naturalist are of the lowest order," and that "he has made few, if any, additions to our previous knowledge;" that "there is not a specimen " in his collection of mammalia "that indicates that the collector had traversed any new ground;" that of the gorilla "we have been receiving specimens for the last fifteen years,' "almost every museum in Europe is provided with specimens;" that his book is full of "improbable stories;" and that his illustrations are exaggerated copies (made without acknowledgment) from various French plates and English photographs. Another correspondent of the Athenaeum points out the discrepancies of the dates in M. Du Chaillu's book. He has included four Julys between January 1856 and January 1859; he has covered" the source of the river Mooni in two several years, 1855 and 1857; and "he has two versions of 1858, and two of 1859, with different events hap pening at the same time." In reply, M. Du Chaillu and his friends refer to proceedings of American societies, in which his former expeditions and his character as an explorer are praised. He "stakes his reputation'

dis

upon the 'general truthfulness" of his map, and maintains that the correctness of his dates is proved by his letters to Philadelphia, sent regu larly during his expedition. There, for the present, the controversy rests.

Dr. Livingstone.-Letters have been received from this distinguished traveller, bearing dates up to the 2d of February. In his last journeys he has made considerable additions to our geographical and geological knowledge. Thus, he has defined the course of the chief affluents of the Zambesi, the depth of that river at different seasons, and the nature and extent of its rapids. He has also

ascertained that the coal of the sandstone region (which Sir R. Murchison believes to be the true old coal) is vastly extended to the East, the mineral frequently reappearing in natural outcrops over a very wide area. Revisiting the celebrated Victoria Falls, and examining them in detail, our faithful explorer has found (a most uncommon defect among travellers) that he had greatly underrated their magnitude in his published work. Their breadth, which he had estimated at about 1000 yards, is now ascertained to be at least 1860 yards, with a sheer fall of 310 feet.

Australian Cotton.-Sir G. Bowen, in a communication to the Royal Geographical Society, speaks in the strongest terms of the capabilities of the new colony of Queensland for the production

of cotton.

Tasmania.-The population of this colony was, in 1810, 1300; it is now 90,000.

Photozincography.-This is the name given to a process recently discovered, by which a photograph can be at once transferred to a zinc plate, and printed off like an engraving. It has been successfully applied to the reproduction in fac simile of a portion of the Domesday Book.

Submarine Photography.-A photo graph has been taken of the bed of the

sea.

The camera, focussed for land objects, was enclosed in a box with a plateglass front and a sliding shutter, which was withdrawn when the box was lowered.

This application of photography will be useful in examining the state of piers, bridges, and submarine works.

Astronomy-The first discovery of a planet in India has been made by the Government Astronomer at Madras. It is to be called Asia.-M. Hermann Goldschmidt has discovered a ninth satellite of the planet Saturn.-Mr. J. R. Hind states that the new comet is not one that has been previously computed. It arrived at its least distance from the sun on June 2, in heliocentric longitude 243 deg. The ascending node is situate in about 31 deg. of longitude, and the orbit is inclined to the ecliptic 78 deg. or 79 deg. The distance from the sun in perihelion is 92-100ths of the earth's mean distance, and the true motion in the orbit is direct. From these

numbers we find that the comet arrived at its least distance from the earth on May 5, when it was separated from us rather more than 30,000,000 miles.

Regelation. In an interesting "Note" on this subject, read to the Royal Society, Mr. Faraday states that two pieces of thawing ice, if put together, adhere and become one; at a place where liquefaction was proceeding, congelation sudThe effect will take place denly occurs. It will in air, in water, or in vacuo. occur at every point where the two pieces of ice touch; but not with ice below the freezing point, that is, with dry ice, or ice so cold as to be everywhere in the solid state.

A Pillar of Burning Gas. While workmen were engaged in boring for coal near Pontefract, in April last, a strong smell of gas was perceived, and suddenly an eruption took place which threw the muddy water from the borehole about thirty feet into the air. This continued, and put an end to the boring. Subsequently, some one applied a light to the gas, which then formed a fiery pillar of considerable height, such as would be formed by igniting the gas that would issue from a broken street main through a hole in the soil above it containing water. The gas has continued burning ever since it was lighted, and it now ascends to about five feet but with a gradually diminishing flame, above the level of the water.

VI. APPOINTMENTS.

Mr. Henry S. Roby, M.A., Fellow of Master of Upper School, Dulwich ColSt. John's College, Cambridge:-Underlege.

Dr. Edward Diver:-Professor of Materia Medica, Queen's College, Birmingham.

Rev. Cockburn Peel Marriott, M.A., Corpus Christi College, Cambridge :Second Master of Chelmsford Grammar School.

Dr. Sharpey-Crown Member of the General Council of Medical Education.

Rev. John Howard Marsden, B.D., of St. John's College, Cambridge:-Disney Professor of Archæology (re-elected).

M. de Tivoli :-Teacher of Italian at the Taylor Institution, Oxford.

Rev. John Branthwaite, M.A., Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford :-Principal of St. Edmund Hall.

Rev. Adam Story Farrar, M.A., Fel