1899] NEWS 375 



should be sent to Profs. Mavor and Geddes, Acting Secretaries, T. R. Marr, 

 Assistant Secretary, 5 Old Queen Street, Westminster, London, S.W., or 95 

 Boulevard St. Michel, Paris. 



At the Paris Exposition there is also to be an International Congress of 

 Physics, in regard to which a prospectus has been issued. 



We learn from the Scientific American that an aquarium will be among the 

 attractions at the Paris Exposition. " A dark incline will lead visitors to it, 

 and suddenly they will feel as if transported to the very bottom of the sea, in 

 the midst of marine landscapes and inhabitants of the ocean." 



At a meeting held in The Outlook Tower, Castlehill, Edinburgh, on 14th 

 October, Prof. James Geikie, D.C.L., in the chair, an interesting and stimulating 

 address was delivered by Prof. AVilbur Jackman, M.A., of Chicago University 

 and Training College, on " Nature-Study, its Methods and Results in School 

 Practice." Even apart from the able address, which will doubtless be published, 

 the exhibits of notes of work, especially those in water-colour, arranged round 

 the room, showed what results await those teachers who have the courage and 

 opportunity to devise courses of nature-study to mitigate the burden of book- 

 work. To many of those present these exhibits and the story of them must 

 have seemed a revelation, but it was interesting to notice that several authorities 

 who took part in the discussion, which lasted for towards two hours after the 

 lecture, reverted to the necessity of " books." A guide-book for the teacher may 

 be necessary — not that there is really a lack — but of more books for the scholars 

 there should, in a case like this, be no mention. Owing to the overcrowded 

 audience, an adjournment after the lecture was effected to the Castlehill public 

 school, where, under the chairmanship of Prof. Crum Brown, F.R.S., an 

 interesting discussion was held. To this contributions were made by Mr. 

 Robert Smith, B.Sc, of University College, Dundee, who reported on some 

 nature -study classes which he had conducted, by Mr. Robert Blair, Science 

 Inspector, by Dr. Dunn, H.M.I. S., by Prof. J. Arthur Thomson of Aberdeen, by 

 Dr. Maurice Paterson of the Free Church Training College, by Miss Stevenson 

 of the Edinburgh School Board, by Mr. Walter Blaikie, Prof. Geddes of Dundee, 

 and others. 



There was also an exhibition of maps of a botanical survey of Scotland by 

 Mr. Robert Smith, of a cosmosphere by Mr. Walter Blaikie, of a first panel of a 

 proposed spheric atlas by Prof. E. Reclus of Brussels, of relief models by Mr. 

 George Guyou, etc. Altogether the meeting was one of considerable educational 

 importance in connection with the teaching of natural science in schools. 



In connection with the problem which the recent codifying of " nature- 

 study " has raised, we would be frank in remarking that " nature-study " is as 

 difficult as it is valuable as an educational discipline, and that, the facts being 

 as they are, the further education of the teachers (and their better remunera- 

 tion, which is an obvious correlative condition) must be recognised as indispens- 

 able to success. Badly taught spelling may be bad, but it hardly affects morals ; 

 badly taught grammar may be worse, but it is rarely forcible enough to warp 

 the outlook of a lifetime ; but badly taught science by incompetent teachers 

 is probably worse than none at all. We know full well that there are many 

 splendidly equipped science teachers in our primary schools throughout the 

 country, but this is certainly not, necessarily not, the case with most. To over- 

 hear a class repeating " the stomach is a bag at the end of the alimentary canal " 

 would suffice to show even cranks for science teaching that the seamy side is 

 distressfully ragged. And we may quote another illustration, supported by an 

 editorial comment in our successful contemporary The American Naturalist for 

 September, in which it is pointed out that The Great Round World, an excellent 

 juvenile newspaper, tells the child audience that a Siberian traveller has found 

 a beautiful flower that blossoms in January, resembling the Convolvulus, a 



