was commenced late last fall, and has been conducted without loss of life or serious accident. The arch rests on four abutments of masonry, two on each side of the river.

From the abutments on either bank springs the great steel arch, with its highest point 226 feet above the water. At each end a trussed span 115 feet long connects the arch with the bluff. The total length of the bridge, with its approaches, is over 1,100 feet.

The arch has two floors, or decks. The upper floor is occupied by the double track of the Grand Trunk Railway, and is thirty-five feet wide. On the lower floor, which is fifty-seven feet wide, are a carriageway, sidewalks, and trolley track. The old bridge had but a single track on its upper deck for railway purposes. The new bridge will then carry the first trolley car to pass between the United States and Canada. The arch contains over 6,000,000 pounds of steel.

The Knapp rolling boat, a description of which will be found on page 493, was launched at Toronto, Ont., September 8. It is said to have cost $10,000, and was built under the auspices of George Goodwin, a contractor, and Postmaster-General Mulock.

Another peculiar vessel, the Argonaut, a submarine boat designed for use in exploring the bottoms of rivers, lakes, and oceans, and invented by Simon Lake, was launched at the yards of the Columbian Iron Works, Baltimore, Md., August 19.

The vessel has a cigar-shaped hull, is thirty-six feet long and nine feet in diameter, built of steel. She is propelled, when on the surface, by a gasoline engine. She can also be propelled while on the bottom by the same engine, the air supply being obtained through a hose leading to the surface and supported by a float. She can be propelled along the bottom by an electric motor as well, taking current from a powerful storage battery. A strong searchlight is placed in the bow, capable of lighting up a pathway in front of the craft as she moves on the bed of the ocean. Lenses are also arranged to project a beam of light to either side of the boat, so that objects may be seen in the vicinity of the vessel as she passes along.

Her speed is estimated to be about eight miles an hour on the surface and about five miles on the bottom. She will have a fuel-carrying capacity for a run of about 2,000 miles. The crew will consist of a captain, an engineer and four divers.

Two large iron wheels with corrugated edges are attached near the bow, and a smaller one at the stern, their object being to enable the vessel to run along the bottom, the propeller supplying the requisite motive power. The boat is to be arranged so that divers can come in and go out of it while it is under water.

Dr. Manson of London, Eng., is credited with being the first to diagnose the germ of malaria.

A patient suffering from the malarial poison is pricked with a needle, and a tiny drop of blood is dried on a microscope slide.

This drop, when dried, is stained with some preparation that makes the malarial microbe visible, whereas it was before so transparent as to escape detection. When first taken into the blood the malarial germs have a crescent form; then they become oval, and finally, when fully developed, spherical. The microbe feeds on the red corpuscles in the victim's blood, which accounts for the anæmia of persons attacked with malaria and the weak state of the body induced by the disease. Infusions of quinine are seen under the microscope to destroy the germ without fail, which indicates the value of that drug as a scientific remedial agent in malarial cases.

EDUCATION.

The N. E. A.-The 36th annual convention of the National Education Association was held in Milwaukee, Wis., beginning July 6. The attendance is said to have exceeded all previous records. Addresses of welcome. were delivered by Governor Schofield, State Superintendent J. Q. Emery, and others. President Charles R. Skinner, in the course of his address, drew an interesting parallel between the conditions of public education in the United States and in other countries, not disparaging to the former. He said, in part:

"The United States is the only great nation of the world which expends more for education than for war. France spends annually $4 per capita on her army and 70 cents per capita on education; England, $3.72 for army and 62 cents for education; Prussia, $2.04 for her army and 50 cents for education; Italy, $1.52 for her army and 36 cents for education; Austria, $1.36 for her army and 62 cents for education; Russia, $2.04 for her army and 3 cents for education; the United States, $0.39 for her army and $1.35 for education. The United States spends more per capita annually for education than England, France, and Russia combined. * * If we do not properly educate the masses, we will more and more be dominated by a government of the ignorant. The dangers which threaten us to-day spring not only from the classes being uneducated, but also from the character of the education which we are giving these classes. We sometimes consider that this danger comes alone from the immigration of ignorant foreigners. But we may well ask ourselves if the danger does not come as well from the carelessly educated masses of our own people as a result of badly adapted courses of study, of superficial instruction, and of failure on the part of the teacher to grasp the vital influence which these masses of plain people exert upon our social and national life.

At the general meetings, held in the large Exposition building, addresses were given on topics of a more general nature; and

department meetings were held in churches, halls, and public buildings in various parts of the city, where those especially interested in certain limited lines of work were drawn closely together.

Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin, president of the general federation of women's clubs, gave a detailed review of the work that had been accomplished through the agency of the women's clubs in the different states in bettering the conditions of the public schools. Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, Chicago, spoke on the foreign-born child in the public school.

Professor Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, New York, recommended that the secondary or preparatory school devote itself to fewer subjects and give them more time and greater care. Professor A. C. McLaughlin, as the chairman of the committee of the American Historical Society, made a strong plea in favor of teaching history, and proceeded to make suggestions by which it should attain a standing in the preparatory course. He deprecated the plan of putting the graduates of the grammar school to studying United States history when they entered the high school, on the ground that it was threshing old straw. Professor Hinsdale, of Michigan, contended that history was like any other department of knowledge, "it must be taught in co-ordination with the principle that runs through it; it must be arranged with reference to the institutional histories of countries, of races. The high school stood in a twofold relation: as the people's college, and as the fitting school for the university." The question was whether a school that was best for the former was also best for the latter. This he considered the most important question for the educational association to decide. On the important topic of rural schools, Dr. W. T. Harris, commissioner of education, said:

"The system of grading pupils with intervals of a year or more between classes is perhaps the greatest evil at present existing in the organization of the schools of the United States, rural and urban. About 69 per cent of the pupils in the cities and villages of the country are in the fourth year's work; 7 per cent in the fifth year; 4 per cent in the sixth year; 3 per cent in the seventh year; and 2 per cent in the eighth year. To form classes and thereby produce economical instruction, the pupils beyond the fourth year must be brought together in central schools; and it is to this problem that the state boards of education are giving serious attention. It is a terrible arraignment to accuse schools so graded of stifling the aspirations of the brightest pupils."

In the National Council, which is really the executive body of the association, there were most interesting addresses on "University Ideals," which declared for a greater harmony among the universities, both in entrance standards and in college courses.

A general sentiment also found expression in favor of freeing school administration in all departments, including appointments, promotion, and removal of teachers, from all political influence and dictation.

Mr. J. M. Greenwood, superintendent of schools in Kansas City, Mo., was elected president for the ensuing

year. Irwin Shepard, president of the Minnesota State Normal School, and I. C. McNeill, president of the Wisconsin State Normal School, were reëlected secretary and treasurer respectively.

The Commissioner's Report.-The latest report of the United States commissioner of education, covering the year 1895-6, contains some most interesting statistics.

The total enrolment of pupils in public and private schools of the United States for the year was 15.997,197. The number of pupils in the common schools was 14.379.078; the number of teachers employed in them, 400.325 (130,366 males, 269.959 females), and the average length of the school year, 140.5 days. The total expenditure for the public schools was $184.453,780, of which $116,377,778 was for teachers' salaries.

During the last twenty-five years the increase of enrolment has been slightly greater than that of population, in 1870-1 19.14 per cent of the population having been enrolled, as against 20.37 per cent in 1895-6. The improvement in average attendance is marked, rising from 60 to 67 per cent of the enrolment in the twenty-five years. More noticeable still is the increased expenditure for the schools, a large part of which is attributable to the improvement in teachers' salaries and the longer school period. Against an expenditure in 1870-71 of $1.75 per capita of population and $15.20 per pupil, the figures for 1895-96 show respectively $2.61 and $18.92.

In sixteen Southern states and the District of Columbia, the colored population between five and eighteen years of age is 321⁄2 per cent of the total population between those ages; in the same section the enrolment of colored pupils was but 251⁄2 per cent of the total enrolment. The colored pupils maintained an average attendance equal to 62 per cent of their enrolment, as against 66 per cent for the white pupils, a showing very favorable to the former, when it is remembered that they are largely scattered in rural districts presenting peculiar obstacles to regular attend

ance.

In two of the states considered-Mississippi and South Carolina-the colored population of school age and the enrolment of colored pupils exceed the corresponding items for the whites. This group of states is carrying on an unequal though earnest struggle against ignorance. They have the shortest school year, falling to an average of less than seventy-five days in four states, and with monthly salaries, save in two of the states, below the general average for the country. If Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia be excepted, the expenditure per pupil in this group is much below that for the United States as a whole. Stated by geographical sections, this, the most significant item in the statistics, appears as follows: North Atlantic division, expenditure per pupil, $28.28; South Atlantic, $8.88; South Central, $7.41; North Central, $20.70; Western, $27.17.

In view of the general attention now absorbed by Alaska, the following particulars regarding education in that region are of peculiar interest:

The school system of the territory is divided into three parts

-Southeastern, Western, and Arctic. During the year the office maintained twenty day schools, with twenty-three teachers and an enrolment of 1,267 pupils. These schools, together with about twenty mission schools and homes conducted by the various missionary organizations of the United States (the most efficient of which is the fully equipped industrial school at Sitka), and a few schools of the Russo-Greek Church, supported by the imperial Russian government, constitute the educational facilities of Alaska.

MUSIC AND DRAMA.

The season opened at the principal metropolitan theatres with farces and comedies, as usual. Several of the farces had scored successes on English stages, for which they were originally written.

"Shall We Forgive Her?" by Frank Harvey, written for the London Adelphi. It is a tale of intrigue baffled at last and innocence triumphant. It was given at the Fourteenth Street theatre in New York city, August 30.

The Manhattan, which is a renovated theatre (the old Standard), opened with a "renovated" play, "What Happened to Jones?" by George H. Broadhurst. It is diverting in its fun.

The aim of "A Stranger in New York," a three-act musical farce, by Charles Hoyt, presented at the Garrick theatre, New York city, September 13, is to amuse; and the aim is reached by a series of ludicrous situations and a rather pleasing song here and there. The plot is slight, dealing with the use made of a letter of introduction found lying on the floor at the Hoffman House.

With "Change Alley," a five-act play, E. H. Sothern and company, opened the Lyceum theatre, New York city, on September 6. Louis N. Parker and Murray Carson have collaborated on a theme which enables them to. make at least a picturesque production. It is the South Sea excitement in by-gone London. There is much rush of action and boisterous fun.

For a new playwright to have two plays on the boards in New York at the same time is unusual. Such was George H. Broadhurst's good fortune when "The Wrong Mr. Wright" was made a season opener at the Bijou the week after his play, "What Happened to Jones?" had opened the season at the Manhattan.