A POINT OF VIEW IN NATURE-STUDY 



By JOHN WILKES SHEPHERD 

 Chicago Normal School 



I. Nature-study is not science, but is scientific. Two 

 things tend to confuse nature-study with science: First, both 

 may, and in fact generally do, deal with the same material; 

 and secondly, nature-study had its beginning in, or originated 

 from science. 



The fact that two subjects deal ^^ith tlie same material does 

 not argue that they are in the main alike, in fact, they may be 

 very different. For example, two persons may be examining 

 the same tree, one studying the trunk with reference to its hard- 

 ness and brashness and the other with reference to its function in 

 the life of the tree. Both study the same tree, nevertheless 

 one studies physics and the other botany. Again, two people 

 experiment with the same piece ot crayon, one tests it for color, 

 smoothness, and adhesiveness, the other determines its composi- 

 tion. The first is an artist, the second a chemist. Or again, 

 suppose I am studying a particular plant, can you tell the branch 

 of science with which I am dealing^ Not at all. I may be 

 studying physics, I may be studying chemistry, or perhaps 

 physiology. 



The second point is rather more subtile than the one just con- 

 sidered, because we almost instinctively ask ourselves how it is 

 possible for one thing to come from, or be a product of another 

 and yet very unlike it. The possibility requires time, requires 

 development. Our modern, large, delicious apples are no doubt 

 very different from the original wild apple. Our own republican 

 form of government probably has its roots in a monarchy. An ex- 

 ample that more nearly ilh'.strates the point with reference to 

 nature-study and science is to be found in the origin of the 

 science of chemistry. So far as we can discern chemistry seems 

 to have had its roots in the sorcery and magic of the olden time, 

 yet nothing can be farther removed fiom these than the science 

 of chemistry to-day. Furthermore, in its earlier stages of 

 development chemistry did not have an existence of its own 

 but lived only to serve in turn alchemy and medicine. Out of its 

 existence as a too], a servant, there developed the science of 



24 



