THE ENGLISH PRECURSORS OF NEWTON. 669 



they need to prosecute the work proposed for them ? They can obtain 

 these through the influences of legislation, of educational boards, and 

 of our higher institutions of learning. Members of educational boards 

 especially should see that this new work be introduced and continually 

 performed. 



Here will naturally arise the question, What is being done in this 

 line at Cornell University ? Besides the general course in zoology, 

 there are special courses pertaining to vertebrates and insects. In the 

 anatomical department, the special anatomy of the domestic cat is 

 worked up as a standard of comparison, and is followed by the anatomy 

 of examples of the leading groups and of the domestic animals, while 

 in the entomological department special attention is devoted to those 

 insects which are most injurious or beneficial, or otherwise, of unusual 

 interest. Our very complete collections illustrating these insects and 

 their habits in all their stages of transformation exhibit almost every- 

 thing pertaining to the subject, and are in glass cases where they can 

 be studied at all times. Instruction is also given in the use of anti- 

 dotes and other devices for opposing objectionable kinds. At the 

 same time students may elect in any term special and advanced courses 

 in 1. Economic entomology. 2. Systematic work on the classification 

 of some group. 3. Comparative anatomy and histology of insects; or, 

 4. Comparative embryology and metamorphoses of insects or insect- 

 biologies. These zoological studies are conducted with reference to 

 their practical relations to the cultivation of crops, to the breeding and 

 medical treatment of domestic animals, to human physiology and hy- 

 giene, and to the doctrines of evolution. 



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THE ENGLISH PRECURSORS OF NEWTON. 



THE seventeenth century must be regarded as the most memorable 

 in the history of science ; our own age has been remarkable for 

 the skillful application of scientific analysis, but it has not produced a 

 Bacon and a Galileo, a Harvey and a Newton. Between 1600 and 

 1700 theoretical knowledge received an increase far outweighing in 

 importance the sum total of what has been achieved between 1700 and 

 the present time. The definitive acceptance of the true theory of the 

 world, and its triumphant establishment on a basis of universal and 

 harmonious law ; the constitution of physiology as a science by the 

 great discovery of the circulation of the blood ; the vast stride made 

 in mechanics by the clear recognition of the laws of motion ; the 

 knowledge of the fundamental truths relating to light and color ; the 

 foundation of the sciences of magnetism, electricity, and chemistry 

 are all due to that period. The nineteenth century is not more pre- 



