198 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [ 2 :6- seft., 1906 



" If during these nine years the child has attained to some skill and read- 

 iness in the use of the experimental method of inquiry; has a general con- 

 ception of the dependence of the various forms of life upon each other and 

 upon the inorganic world; has had his general interest in what is happening 

 developed into an interest in how the thing happens; and, together with this 

 ready use of experimentation and observation, has learned the use of books 

 as sources, not only of information, but also of the condensed conclusions of 

 other men's observations, he will be ready for the more specialized work of 

 the secondary period. He will be in no danger of assuming too soon and 

 too rigidly the attitude of the specialist. He will be able to choose the point 

 of view from which to regard anv set of natural conditions, for instance 

 geological or biological, without shutting out the interaction of one field of 

 observation upon others. The machine with which he performs experi- 

 ments in the physical laboratory will never be to him, as it is now to many, 

 a unique and isolated invention of the laboratory, but will find its place as a 

 means of analysis of all the various forms of machines in use about him. His 

 interest in nature will never be that of the collector pure and simple, but that 

 of the scientific naturalist whose collections have some specific and definite 

 aim. 



If the use of experimental and observational science can accomplish this 

 training of the constructive and inquiring mind, it will have justified its place 

 in a plan of elementary education." 



SNAILS FOR NATURE-STUDY 



BY MAURICE A. BIGELOW 

 Teachers College, Columbia University 



Snails are not commonly included in the list of animals available for 

 nature-study observations in elementary schools, and the chief reason 

 is that representatives of our numerous American species of snails are 

 not easily obtained in numbers needed for class work. Moreover, 

 our species are comparatively small and not easy to study by one 

 making his first observations on snails. 



These objections to the study of snails may be overcome by the 

 use of the European edible snail (Helix pomatia). There is no ani- 

 mal which is at once so easily obtained in any number, so easily kept 

 in the schoolroom, and so full of interesting surprises to the voting 



