io PLANT PHYSIOLOGY. 



of the courses of the four years will be, from the student's point 

 of view, investigation. There is not in the teaching of any 

 science any successful leading method other than induction, 

 which is the soul of scientific investigation. From the very first 

 week of the elementary course, all of the work of all of the 

 courses should be a series of subjectively original investiga- 

 tions, in which each new thing is brought before the student 

 as a problem to be solved through proper inductive processes 

 by his own efforts, aided by wise advice and criticism. Thus 

 the investigation spirit should grow throughout the student's 

 course, while at the same time he is obtaining a truly propor- 

 tioned and fairly complete knowledge and training in the 

 principal divisions of the science, giving him the very best 

 preparation for real (or objective) investigation in the university. 

 Again, it may seem that the present course is too inelastic, 

 too mechanical for the good of advanced students. But it 

 must be remembered that the great majority of students are 

 best treated (as they prefer to be) by a rather rigid system of 

 drill, in which definiteness, decision, and authority are pre- 

 dominant. The best system is that which, while rigid enough 

 to secure the drill of the ordinary run of humanity, is yet elastic 

 enough not to hamper the evolution of the occasional genius. 



The theory of the construction of the present course is in 

 brief as follows: It aims to secure the best return in amount 

 and proportion of physiological training and knowledge, for the 

 time and energy that can be given to it by the student, taking 

 account of the many practical difficulties of cost of materials, 

 difficulty of manipulation, length and arrangement of the 

 college year, etc. It is a study in educational economy, and 

 aims to secure a harmonic optimum. Natural!}' this optimum 

 must be largely subjective, and other teachers will find it some- 

 what differently. Since all physiological operations have their 

 seat in protoplasm, the course begins with a study of its struc- 

 ture and properties. The physiological phenomena of living 

 plants are then investigated in detail, beginning with nutrition, 

 partly because of its fundamental nature, and partly because 



