cockerell] FACTS DISCOl'ERED BY CHILDREN 163 



and not worry much about why and what for things are as we 

 see them. Thus we will avoid the perplexing situation caused 

 by the boy who added a climax to the lesson on the use of black- 

 berry prickles by remarking that pigweeds got along and flour- 

 ished without prickles as protection from grazing animals. 



M. A. B. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 1 



Facts Discovered by Children. I was astonished to read the fol- 

 lowing sentence quoted with approval in The Review, p. 132: 

 ** To-day it is almost beyond the bounds of human possibility that a 

 child should discover an unknown fact in the sciences, and the 

 thought that he can do so will either engender in him an arrogant 

 self-conceit, or it will entail a cruel awakening which may convince 

 him that all effort on his part is useless." 



So far is this from being true, that in some subjects, at least, it 

 would be quite impossible for him to avoid discovering new facts. 

 Take, for example, the relations between insects and flowers. In 

 this country comparatively little work has been done in this branch 

 of study, and it is safe to say that there are several hundred species 

 of plants at present blooming in the vicinity of New York, the insect- 

 visitors of which have never been observed. Even in the case of 

 those which have been studied, almost none have been observed in 

 that locality, and without doubt new observations there would yield 

 new facts of interest. It may be true that the children have no time, 

 as a general thing, to make such observations ; it may be true that 

 few of the teachers are competent to direct them therein; but it cer- 

 tainly is not true that the facts themselves are out-of-reach or diffi- 

 cult to observe. Of course it would be necessary to send the insects 

 to specialists to get them named ; but Hermann Midler, the author 

 of the greatest work on the fertilization of flowers, had to do this 

 very thing. 



So again, there are at this moment flying in and about New York 

 hundreds of species of bees and wasps, and the nesting of the great 

 majority is unknown. With the work of the Peckhams as a guide, 

 there is no reason why any intelligent person, young or old, should 

 not discover numerous new facts. It takes time, and it needs 

 patience ; and it is necessary to have the cooperation of some one 

 who really understands the subject; but the door is wide open for 

 those who care to enter. 



1 The announcement of this department was published in No. I, January, 

 1905. 



