EDITOR'S TABLE. 



615 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



BIOLOGY IN COMMON SCHOOLS. 



TTTE call attention to the important 

 VV paper sent to us by Prof. Hux- 

 ley, on the study of biology. Science, 

 as the highest expression, and the most 

 accurate and methodical form of knowl- 

 edge, is pressing its educational claims ; 

 and Prof. Huxley here offers us some 

 very important considerations on the 

 nature of biological science, and why 

 and how it should be taken up in insti- 

 tutions devoted to mental culture. Per- 

 haps no living man can speak with more 

 authority upon this subject than Prof. 

 Huxley, not only from his profound 

 familiarity with this branch of knowl- 

 edge, and his recognition of the de- 

 mands of scientific education, but be- 

 cause of his own broad and liberal cult- 

 ure, which protects him from narrow 

 views, and enables him to assign their 

 relative values to different branches of 

 study. 



Nevertheless, when he comes to his 

 fourth and final question as to " token 

 biological study may be best pursued," 

 we think he is less satisfactory than in 

 dealing with his previous questions. 

 This, as we look at it, is much the 

 most important inquiry, and deserves a 

 fuller investigation than Prof. Huxley 

 had time to give it ; while what he did 

 say, from the use that will inevitably be 

 made of it, will be liable to do more 

 harm than good. Prof. Huxley is de- 

 cided in the conviction that biological 

 study should be made a part of ordinary 

 school -training, and that it can be car- 

 ried out with ease and profit to those 

 who are taught. But he anticipates 

 and yields to an objection which, as 

 things are, will be certain to work the 

 utter defeat of the study in " ordinary 

 schools," and an objection, to the force 

 of which, we think, he should not have 



made the slightest concession. He 

 says, " There are difficulties in the way 

 of a lot of boys making messes with 

 slugs and snails." Prof. Huxley has 

 here put his finger upon what is the 

 formidable obstacle we have to en- 

 counter in the study of the real ob- 

 jects of Nature in common schools. 

 Books, lessons, and recitations, are 

 cleanly, and give no trouble ; objects 

 as matters of observation and study by 

 individual pupils are dirty, cluttering, 

 and untidy, if not messy, sloppy, and 

 nasty. Experiments are tolerated, now 

 and then, for an hour, when carried on 

 by the teacher at one side, behind ta- 

 bles, or where assistants can clean up ; 

 and minerals and specimens are also 

 allowed when they can make a show 

 in inaccessible cabinets ; but apparatus 

 and objects of any sort, for the use of 

 individual pupils even microscopes, 

 minerals, or plants are the bore of the 

 school-room, and the torment of tidy, 

 methodical, and routine teachers. The 

 superstition that education is purely a 

 matter of books. is profound and invet- 

 erate so much so, that even the em- 

 ployment of blackboards, maps, and 

 globes, is looked upon as something in 

 the way of concession to the spirit of 

 modern innovation. The ideal of the 

 school is pure wordiness, with a mini- 

 mum of bother from anything not in- 

 cluded in the text-books. 



As regards biology, of course, the 

 difficulty takes its most aggravated 

 form. There is a deeply-rooted and 

 universal prejudice against the whole 

 tribe of lower creatures, typified by 

 Prof. Huxley's " slugs and snails." 

 Our readers who have glanced at the 

 biographical sketch, in the preceding 

 pages, of an eminent Scotch naturalist, 

 who has done noble work for science 

 in his locality, will remember that he 



