adopt the metric system. For instance, in the manufacture of motor cycles and motor cars the sizes are well worked out with the metre divided into tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. In the very home of the engineering trade it is most significant that the newest branch should take to the metric system as a necessity. The universal change has got to come, and the less the delay over it the better. The total loss under the present antique system is too grievous to be borne any longer.

THE INCH ABSURDITY.

The British Weights and Measures Association was created to combat the rapidly growing metric sentiment in England. Its aim apparently is to perpetuate for all time and to introduce into all countries the ridiculous English weights and measures, with variations. Realizing the weakness of a so-called system that has no systematic co-relation of its parts, lineal, volumetric, gravimetric and specific, it has at length proposed to decimalize the inch, making that the lineal unit, the square inch the surface unit, and the cubic inch the unit of volume. For weight it would introduce a new grain, a new ounce and a new pound, thus making confusion more confounded.

Mr. S. Jackson has written and the Decimal Association has published an eight-page leaflet to show the absurdity of such an attempt. The weight of a cubic inch of water at standard temperature and pressure is 252.258 grains. Now it is proposed to change the value of the grain so that a cubic inch of water shall weigh 250 grains. The folly of such an unscientific change is shown-in fact it comes pretty near being self-evident to the average thinking man-(1) by the practica. impossibility of making people use it; (2) by the great confusion that would arise, for there would then be two sorts of grains, two of ounces, two of pounds, the old and the new, besides the metric system. Moreover the new weights would be useless outside of Britain, even in her colonies and in the United States; (3) by the absurdity of supposing that the meter can ever be replaced by the inch as a universal unit.

The fact that some fifty countries have adopted the metric system and not one has gone back to its former units and usage, and that no country has ever adopted, or expressed the slightest desire to adopt, the English, outside of its own colonies, which are themselves now turning away from it, as is England herself, justifies Mr. Johnson's contention. (4) The misnomer of calling this a decimal system, and making people believe that it is.

Assuming the possibility of so radical a change as the one contemplated by the British Weights and Measures Association, we must see that the new system is in no sense a perpetuation of the present one, but rather a new one founded on the old inch and a new grain. Those who have a reverence for preserving the antique British weights should reflect that the proposed change is almost as iconoclastic as the metric. Where could it be better than the metric, from any point of view? On the other hand, let us ask: Is it not inferior to the metric in every point? R. P. W.

To the Editor:

A PRELIMINARY SCIENCE COURSE.

DEAR SIR: In the February number of your journal I note a communication from Professor G. W. Stewart stating his objections to the proposed general science course mentioned in Circular IV of "The New Movement among Physics Teachers."

The arguments there presented are logical and well put, and certainly cover one view of the case in an able manner; but to one who has had experience with an elementary and preparatory course in science, and has had opportunity to observe its effects, the stand taken in the communication seems untenable. I desire therefore to submit to the readers of this journal some reasons why I consider such a course highly desirable and profitable.

However, before so doing, it will be necessary to reach some agreement or at least to suggest some outline as to what such a proposed course shall comprise. Without any desire or expectation of anticipating the report of the commission on this proposed course, but rather on the supposition that suggestions and opinions upon this matter are invited I beg to offer the following plan for such a course:

I believe the course should consist in the main of elementary physics with a little of chemistry, but nothing of any other science as such. It should especially emphasize those principles of physics which find application in physical geography and the other sciences. At this point permit me to suggest that the proposed course would not be preparatory to physics alone, but to all the science work of the secondary school. Since physics is the most general science and contains the first principles of science, it is plain that some of it at least should be met by the pupil before his junior or senior year.

Again, the course must be distinctly experimental and inductive, and it should be taught in the laboratory where the pupils are in the midst of things and are thrown largely upon their powers of observation. As the commission suggests, the work must be qualitative, and it must of necessity be made up chiefly of topics found in the high school textbook of physics, but treated in a more elementary way, with greater stress given to illustrations of principles. While the course might be made a sort of "laboratory nature study" yet let us not err by making it too elementary; and let us not underestimate the power of first year pupils to comprehend, especially when the work is so largely experimental.

The instructors must be laboratory teachers skilled in the use of apparatus; and they must give the class their best efforts, making the experiments speak for themselves without apology from them.

To be more explicit, the following topics from physics and chemistry are suggested as an outline for a course of half a year:

1. Matter and its physical properties (only such as can be illustrated or are familiar to the pupils).

2. Forces-adhesion, cohesion, capillarity, surface tension, centrifugal force (gyroscope), gravitation and gravity.

3. Chemical phenomena and processes-chemical change, combustion, solution, filtration, evaporation, elements and compounds (the latter to be exhibited so far as possible).

4. Study of the gases-oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon-dioxide, their uses and relation to plants and animals.

5. Water-formed of gases, decomposition, solutions, properties, natural waters, filtration and distillation (filtration plants), mineral waters.

6. Atmospheric pressure, with particular application to meteorology -the barometer.

7. Fluid pressure, siphons, pumps, springs, artesian wells, buoyancy of water and air, balloons, exploration of the upper air.

8. Heat sources, thermometers, expansion, irregular expansion of water and consequences, force of expansion, fusion, evaporation, boiling point.

9. Effect of large bodies of water on temperature, land and sea breezes, clouds, artificial cold.

10. Transmission of heat-conduction, convection, radiation, convection in nature, high and low pressure areas, currents.

11. Hygrometry-dew point, relative humidity, rain, fog, clouds, weather bureau and instruments, use by pupils of instruments, observations, curves of temperature, humidity and pressure.

12. Magnetism and electricity-needle, earth, compass, frictional electricity, lightning.

13. Light-shadows, eclipses, reflection, refraction, prismatic colors, rainbow.

No details of a general science course have yet been given out by the commission, but any such course could not differ very radically from the above if it were to be a preparatory course. It might be argued that the course would intrude too far into the regular physics work, bu all depends upon how it is taught and what is taught under the. topics. The same subjects may be used in a grammar school and a college, but there will be a difference in the treatment of the subject matter.

Physics is a large field, and the usual high school course should really have more than a year of time. A preliminary course could do much to relieve the tension in physics and in this way help solve the present problem. Mr. Stewart feels that the proposed course will make physics even more technical and difficult, the very condition that we should be striving against, but with greater preparation on the part of the student a more technical course would not seem so. There can be no great objection to a technical course so long as the student is prepared for it. Is there any danger of the pupil's learning too much?

It is true that there will be some repetition, but this is necessary for thoroughness and especially so when the courses are two or three years apart. It is generally admitted that people are more interested in what they already know something about, and if this is true, it is not easy to see how interest in physics can be lessened by reason of having some previous knowledge of it. It is the testimony of those who

have observed the working of such a course that it has increased the interest and enlisted more students in the science courses.

A first year course similar to that outlined is in use in a number of high schools, and so far as I am able to learn it is in every case looked upon with favor. In the Columbus high schools, the elementary science work at present occupies the first three months of the first year, followed by physical geography the rest of the year. While this science course has not been in use long enough for its full effects to be observed, yet it is considered indispensable, and more importance is attached to it every year.

In conclusion I beg to give a summary of the reasons for the course in question:

1. The knowledge to be acquired by such a course should be the possession of every pupil before he reaches his junior or senior year. 2. The course is needed as a preparation for all the high school sciences.

3.

Fewer than one third the pupils entering the high school reach the junior and senior years, and without the course two thirds are deprived of any knowledge of physical science.

4. Such a course enhances the interest in science subjects.

5. The training in cultivating the power of observation, and practice in recording the results.

6. Some of the subjects of the usual physics course, such as properties of matter, pumps and siphons, could be largely omitted, thus relieving the pressure and allowing time for laboratory work.

7. Such a course affords an opportunity for the teacher to give valuable qualitative experiments, which the pupil should know, that he cannot find time to use in the physics course.

8. The laboratories are the most expensive departments of the school, and these courses are enjoyed by too small a number of the pupils.

R. O. AUSTIN,

Central High School, Columbus, O.

UNITED STATES GEOGRAPHIC BOARD.

DECISIONS.

The following important decisions relating to geographic names and their application were made by the United States Geographic Board on February 6, 1907. In reaching these decisions the Board has obtained the advice of many of the foremost American geographers and geologists, and the decisions here given are, in nearly all cases, the result of a concensus of opinion among the gentlemen consulted:

Cordilleras; the entire western mountain system of North America. Rocky Mountains; the ranges of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and western Texas.

Plateau Region; the plateaus of Colorado River and its branches, limited on the east by the Rocky Mountains, on the west by the Wasatch Range, and extending from the southern end of the Wasatch southwestward, southeastward, and eastward to the eastern boundary of Arizona, following the escarpment of the Colorado Plateau, and including on the north the Green River Basin.

Basin Ranges; all those lying between the Plateau Region on the east, the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range on the west, and the Blue Mountains of Oregon on the north, including the Wasatch and associated ranges.

Pacific Ranges; the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevada, and the coast ranges collectively.

Sierra Nevada; limited on the north by the gap south of Lassen Peak, and on the south by Tehachapi Pass.

Cascade Range; limited on the south by the gap south of Lassen Peak and extending northward into British Columbia.

Coast Ranges; extend northward into Canada and southward into Lower California; and include all mountains west of Puget Sound and the Willamette, Sacramento, and San Joaquin valleys, and southwest of Mohave Desert.

Bitterroot Range; extends from Clarks Fork on the northwest to Monida, the crossing of the Oregon Short Line on the southeast, including all mountain spurs.

Mission Range; range east and southeast of Flathead Lake, Montana. Wasatch Range; includes on the north the Bear River Range, extending to the bend of Bear River at Soda Springs, Idaho, and on the south extends to the mouth of San Pete River near Gunnison, Utah.

San Juan Mountains; include all the mountains of southwest Colorado south of Gunnison River, west of San Luis Valley, and east of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad.

Sacramento Mountains; include those groups known as Jicarilla, Sierra Blanca, Sacramento, and Guadalupe.

Salmon River Mountains; include the group in central Idaho lying south of the main Salmon River, west of Lembi River, north of Snake River, and east of the valley of Weiser River.

Blue Mountains; include all the mountains of northeastern Oregon with the exception of the Wallowa Mountains, and extend into Washington.

Sangre de Cristo Range; extends from Poncha Pass, Colorado, to the neighborhood of Santa Fe, N. Mex., thus including the southern portion, locally known as the Culebra Range.

Front Range; includes on the north the Laramie Range as far as the crossing of the North Platte, and on the south includes the Pikes Peak Group.

Appalachian System; includes all the eastern mountains of the United States from Alabama to northern Maine.

Blue Ridge; includes the ridge extending from a few miles north of Harpers Ferry to northern Georgia.

Appalachian Plateau; includes the entire plateau forming the western member of the Appalachian System, known in the north as the Allegheny Plateau and in the south as the Cumberland Plateau.

Ozark Plateau; the plateau in northwestern Arkansas and southern Missouri.

Ouachita Mountains; the ridges of western Arkansas south of the Arkansas River, Indian Territory, and Oklahoma.