6 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [11:1— Jan., 1915 



and finally bore fruit. When Cornell University made its survey 

 of the public schools of New York, before launching its nature- 

 study propaganda, almost the only nature-study to be found in 

 the schools of the state was that carried on by graduates of the 

 Oswego Normal School. 



Ten years later another important step was taken. The 

 summer school of Agassiz at Penikese had a great influence upon 

 nature-study in the schools and universities and paved the way 

 for the nature-study idea. While the purpose of Agassiz was to 

 study marine life in a truly scientific manner, yet the fact that he 

 took his pupils to the place where the life was growing was revolu- 

 tionary as an educational idea. Although as a teacher he was 

 devoted to pure science, yet many of his maxims have become 

 the slogans of the nature-study vanguard. 



Thus, we can see that, although the term nature-study did not 

 appear until 1880 the idea preceded the christening by some 

 years. It is not in the scope of this address to give a history of 

 those educators of high ideals, like H. H. Straight, Wilbur Jack- 

 man, A. Boyden, F. O. Payne, Mrs. L. L. W. Wilson and Charles 

 Scott, who did such heroic work for nature-study during the 

 decade following 1880. Let us glance for a moment at the 

 difficulties encountered by these educational leaders. 



At the time that nature-study first attracted the attention 

 of the scientific world, the teaching of the biological sciences 

 was under the heavy sway of German laboratory methods. The 

 structure of animals and plants was studied to the last detail 

 with the aid of the microscope. Morphology had become a fetish 

 and to it was sacrificed all interest relating to the life of the dis- 

 sected creature. Any living organism whether it were a prim- 

 rose, a swallow, a cat, or a caterpillar, must perforce be infiltrated 

 with paraffin and made into ribbon sections before it was con- 

 sidered to be worthy of the attention of a man of science. 



The era immediately preceding this had been given over almost 

 wholly to the naming and classification of organisms. The 

 Species-hunter with the greatest number of scalps at his belt 

 was considered the greatest scientist ; but now the Species-hunter 

 and his scalps and all he had ever hunted were relegated to the 

 dark ages by a large number of scientific men. This might not 

 have been so bad, if it had been confined to colleges and universi- 

 ties. It might be expected that since it took so long to evolve 



