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DOMESTIC MANNEISS OK THE PKÜSSIANS.

Status to those gentlemen wlio teacli chemistry and astronornynow-a-days at the greater proportion of our own seminaries.

Moreover, so that we might do the people no injustice, weattended a grand meeting of the united " Wissenschaft" atCoblenz, in a back-room at one of the hoteis. Here the entirecongregation consisted of not more than two score people; andamong the number were some dozen officers, who, havingdroppcd in merely to kill the time, were not long in fallingasleep, and then amused the Company by snoring through thelectures. At this meeting we heard a paper read lipon " drink-ing water" by one of the physicians of the town, and inwhich an attempt was made to prove that the goitre, soprevalent in the districts, was due to a deficiency of carbonateof lime in the fluid (!); we heard, too, a lecture on the forma-tion of the " Laager See;" as well as a brief exposition ofthe principle of complementary colours, illustrated by piecesof tinted paper.

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Surely none of these matters tend to bear out Sir CharlesLyell's assertion as to the superior machinery existingthroughout Germany for the dissemination of scientific know-ledge; especially as there is hardly a town in England wifh-out a Mechanics' Institute, boasting its library and classes,and bi-weekly lectures, all purposely designed for the teachingof persons engaged in commerce or handicrafts, and whereatthe lectures delivered would certainly bear comparison withthe papers read at the United Wissenschaft of Coblenz.

Further, judging by the utter ignorance of all the middle-class Grermans with whom we were acquainted as to thecommonest scientific truths, there is assuredly no comparisonbetween the people of England and those of Prussia uponsuch matters.

"Ah! you Englishmen all know something of scienee,"

Uli

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