Mr. Glaisher's fainting fit was caused by the attenuation of the atmosphere he was inhaling, or by the diminished pressure of the air upon his body.

Thirteen years after this ascent, MM. Tissandier, Spinelli, and Sivel started from La Villette to make similar experiments. The aeronauts carried with them three small bags filled with oxygen and air to inhale, so as to sustain life at high altitudes, whilst an aspirator, filled with essence of petroleum, which would not solidify owing to the fall of temperature, was suspended outside the car. This was to be set up vertically at an height of about 10,000 feet, for the purpose of injecting air into tubes of potassium intended for the determination of carbonic acid. Spinelli took with him his spectroscope, and in a sealed box, carefully packed in sawdust, were eight barometric test tubes to record the greatest height attained. A mistake was committed in filling the aerostat too full at starting, the result being that at an elevation of 10,500 feet gas escaped with force from its neck. At a height of 23,000 feet Sivel felt oppressed, and inhaled a moisture of air and oxygen. More ballast was thrown out. The aeronauts, soaring higher, gradually became drowsy. At 25,000 feet, M. Tissandier says, the condition of stupefaction which ensues is extraordinary; the mind and body weaken by degrees and imperceptibly; although conscious of it, no suffering is experienced. The vertigo of the upper regions is not an idle word; vertigo appears, and at the last moment annihilation. Suddenly the three aeronauts became insensible; a few minutes later M. Tissandier partly recovered, and found his two companions dead in the bottom of the car. Sivel's face was black, his eyes dull, his mouth open and full of blood ; Spinelli's eyes were half closed, and his mouth was also bleeding. The question that now arises is, what caused the death of these two men? Did they perish owing to not being able to breathe the rarefied air, or owing to the diminished pressure on their bodies at so great an elevation? Was their death the result of a combination of these causes, or effected by their inhaling the gas which constantly streamed from the neck of the balloon? As to which hypothesis is correct it is impossible to say; but, judging from the experience gained by old and practical aeronauts, we are inclined to believe that the inhalation of gas which escaped from the balloon was the chief cause of the disaster. Anyhow, the question is undecided, and although the air has been explored up to an elevation of six miles, it appears to us that, with the aid of modern science, an ascent might be made to a much greater altitude and meteorological experiments conducted, with comparative safety to the aeronauts. A short time ago a helmet was invented by M. Fleuss containing oxygen and some purifying substances; with this helmet he can remain several hours under water without having communication with the air. This invention would settle the question as to respiration at high altitudes. The

diminution of pressure on the body would be another difficulty, but that might be obviated by a dress containing air impervious to the atmosphere, and which could be contracted at the will of the wearer, so as to make up for the diminution of atmospherical pressure. Should such appliances be used, we firmly believe that, with a very large balloon having a capacity of 200,000 feet of gas, and which would be only a quarter full when leaving the ground, an altitude of from ten to twelve miles might be gained. The experiment needs a certain outlay. The balloon and apparatus would cost at least £1,500. In these days of enterprise and thirst for knowledge, how long will it be before one of our great scientific associations determines to make the trial?

It has been mentioned that aerostats have been frequently used in time of war. Up to the present, stationary captive balloons have been employed for this purpose, chiefly at the siege of Richmond, when a telegraph-wire was connected with the car, and the President, although many miles distant, knew what was going on at the scene of operations at the same moment as his general on the field of battle. In the last century it was shown that a captive balloon could be easily transported from place to place by means of ropes attached to infantry soldiers who marched on each side of the road towing the aerostat, which was suspended at an altitude of a few hundred feet. This mode of moving captive balloons might, we believe, be still further developed, particularly in unenclosed countries, and where there is little wind. Twelve well-trained horsemen could easily convey a balloon holding 25,000 feet of pure hydrogen, and floating at a considerable altitude above them, at a rate of from seven to eight miles an hour. A staff officer in the car could sweep the horizon with his field-glass for many miles, and obtain much important information in the shortest space of time. Had such a machine been employed at Tel-el-Kebir, the general in command would have known that there was a detached fort some distance in front of the enemy's lines, and the mistake made by the officer who surveyed the position a few days before the battle could not have occurred. Again at Teb, only the other day, a balloon reconnaissance would have been very useful. It was important to know whether the Arabs had entrenched themselves, mounted the guns taken from the Egyptians. This could easily have been ascertained by an aeronaut at an elevation of 700 feet above Fort Baker or even Trinkitat. At the same time he would have informed his general that rifle pits had been constructed by the enemy, and could have told him their exact position. Since writing these lines we are glad to learn that owing to the exertions of Captain Templar and Major Elsdale the Woolwich authorities have determined to establish a balloon corps. Better late than never, and should an autumn expedition leave these shores to relieve Gordon, a captive balloon

manœuvred from the bank, or from a flat-bottomed boat, on the lowlying region along the valley of the Nile between Korosko and Khartoum, would enable an officer to scan the horizon for a considerable distance, to signal to stations in the rear, and would also diminish the employment of cavalry. In still weather a light Gardner gun might be used with effect from the car. It may be said that the position of the men directing the piece would be somewhat precarious, but it must always be remembered that a balloon is a very difficult object to hit, owing to the aeronaut who manipulates it being able at any moment to increase or diminish his distance from the earth. At the bombardment of Alexandria an aerostat might have been the means of the admiral learning the movement of the enemy's troops from the forts. This would at once have been detected by an officer in the car, whilst on a calm day it would be as easy to manage a captive aerostat from the deck of an ironclad as on land.

Much has been said as to the possibility of reaching the North Pole in a balloon, and the present writer has received numerous letters from people who declare that they can direct an aerostat. His reply to such communications is, that he will be very glad to make the gentlemen in question a present of £100 if they will select two places, twenty miles apart, go in a free aerostat from one spot to the other and return without anchoring the balloon or recharging it with gas, provided that they, on failing to do this, will give him £5 to assist a charity. Any person who subscribes to a scheme for reaching the North Pole in a balloon, with our present knowledge of aerostatics, cannot be practically acquainted with the matter.

So far as the solution of the problem how to navigate the air is concerned, we believe that balloons have done more harm than good. The attention of inventors has been diverted from what is probably the only feasible way to obtain the desired end—namely, the construction of a machine which, itself heavier than the atmosphere, will be able to strike a blow on the air in excess of its own weight. Machinery worked by steam is much too heavy for this purpose; electricity some day, perhaps, will be available. An engineer who has made electricity his study recently informed an assembly of gentlemen that, in the course of the next ten years, he believed it would be possible to compress enough electricity in a substance the size of an eggshell to drive an express train from London to Liverpool. Science has not arrived at this point yet, but who can tell, after the telephone, the phonograph, and the other marvellous discoveries of Edison, what it may do in the future? Inventors should never forget that a bird is heavier than the air, and that the bird flies because its strength enables it to overcome the difference between its weight and that of the atmosphere it displaces. To put the case in a nutshell, aerial navigation is a mere question of lightness and

force.

FRED. BURNABY,

RECASTING THE OXFORD SCHOOLS.

OXFORD, feverishly anxious to reform herself, has lately been directing her attention to her examination system. The object of her reformers has been twofold, to improve the present system as well as to extend its benefits to a wider range of candidates. In pursuit of the latter object Oxford has been treading in the steps of the sister University, and endeavouring to open the class lists to women, a proposal concerning which there has been a great deal of discussion, conducted by a few women who know the facts, and by many members of the University who apparently do not. The internal reform of the examination system itself has, however, been discussed for a much longer period than the mere extension of its area. For some years past there has been growing a steady dissatisfaction with the details of the two chief Classical Examinations, the First Public Examination, usually known as "Moderations," and the Second, which goes by the name of "Greats." During the Lent term of this year the zeal of the reformers culminated in an attack on "Moderations" as at present conducted, and succeeded in carrying one or two improvements in details. But the examination system for at least ten or twelve years has been subject to the friction of constant small changes, which have not always lightened the task of those who, like the present writer, have been for some time engaged in either examining or teaching the candidates for "honours" in the University. For the mischief of all reforms conducted by those who are very near to the objects of their solicitude is that the question is attacked piecemeal in a number of isolated cases, instead of being viewed in a large and comprehensive manner in connection with the whole meaning and intention of education and culture. Of all the questions which have been successively discussed, it might reasonably be asserted that there are only two, the extent and practicability of vivâ voce, and the satisfaction of the wants and claims of new classes of students seeking admission to the University, which have a distinct and obvious bearing on a general theory of education.

There can be no doubt that it is a grave question whether we ought to abolish or encourage vivâ voce, for the issue is ultimately raised whether education is a living, progressive intercourse between mind and mind, or a literary acquaintance with all that has been written on a given subject. The tendency of the moment is, undoubtedly, to get rid of rivâ voce altogether, which means a serious break with the views of some of the most distinguished teachers of the past. The question as to its retention in academic examinations is not one which can be dogmatically answered off-hand, for, unfortunately, the theoretical advantages lie on one side of the argument, while the

practical necessities are found on the other. There can be no doubt that as the better teacher is the one who approximates more nearly to the Socratic, or, let us say, the Arnoldian type, so the more ideal examiner will avail himself more largely of the opportunities afforded by a series of vivâ voce questions and answers. He will, in proportion to his ability for the special task in hand, rely more on a thirty minutes' conversation with a man, with a view to discover what he knows, than on thirty pages of close writing in the best of copperplate neatness and orderly arrangement. For a man is, as a rule, more off his guard when he talks; he speaks more from the abiding convictions of his mind, and is less of a conscious actor, than when he has time enough to marshal his arguments so as to cover the greatest extent of ground with the least apparent superficiality, and, with a great show of sincerity, make the worse cause appear the better. "I cannot help feeling," says Socrates, in a significant passage of Plato's Phædrus, "that writing is, unfortunately, like painting; for the creations of the painter have the attitude of life, and yet, if you ask them a question, they preserve a solemn silence. And the same may be said of speeches. May we not imagine another kind of intellectual exercise far better than this, which is in graven the soul of him who has learned, and can defend itself, and knows to whom to speak and to whom to be silent, the word of him who knows, which has a living soul, and of which the written word is properly no more than an image ? Nobler far is the zeal of him who uses the dialectician's craft; who finds a congenial soul, and there engrafts and sows words with understanding."

This is the unassailable basis on which rests the superiority of a vivâ voce examination to one conducted by papers only. But two indispensable conditions are pre-supposed. The respondent must have self-mastery and coolness enough to give a reason for the faith which is in him, and the examiner must be a born teacher. Neither of these conditions is so common as to make virâ voce a thoroughly practicable and successful test. As practised in the Oxford Examinations vivâ voce is constantly a failure. In the First Public Examination it is so short as to be completely nugatory; in the Final it is so difficult to work properly that, in nine cases out of ten, it either adds nothing to what was known before, or else confuses and obliterates a previously clear impression. Nothing is more amusing than to see a clever candidate leading a conscientious but nervous examiner from subjects of which he is ignorant to those where he feels himself at home. In the pass subjects this is almost impossible, and here virâ voce may be used with great success either as a help or as a drance to the examinee; in the honour subjects of "Greats" not only is it possible, but, in the experience of the present writer it frequently occurs, just as a clever examiner will, almost unconsciously,

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