THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



417 



pared with fifty years ago, but at least 

 it may be safely said that it has not 

 kept pace either with the advance of 

 science or with the growth of scienti- 

 fic education. 



There never was a time in the his- 

 tory of the world when scientific dis- 

 coveries were so frequent or so sensa- 

 tional. There never was a time in the 

 history of the world when so large a 

 part of the population were educated 

 to the point of understanding and ap- 

 preciating" such discoveries. Yet there 

 is a widespread indifference, amounting 

 sometimes to a positive aversion, on 

 the part of the public, to a knowledge 

 of the progress of science. Our liter- 

 ary magazines do not so commonly as 

 formerly give space for a department 

 devoted to science and invention. Once 

 a theatre might be filled with a fash- 

 ionable and distinguished audience to 

 see a watchspring burn in oxygen or a 

 mouse perish for lack of it. Nowadays 

 it is hard to get out a quorum for a 

 demonstration of licptid air or radium. 

 Recent discoveries in heredity are as 

 startling and disconcerting to popular 

 notions as gravitation or evolution, yet 



they attract little attention and arouse 

 in 1 heated controversies. 



It is, of course, easiest to ascribe this 

 popular indifference to the defects of 

 our educational system. The school- 

 master has largely taken the place left 

 vacant in our modern thought by the 

 abdication of the devil. Teachers are 

 nowadays held responsible for any- 

 thing that goes wrong with either the 

 individual or society. \Ye shall not 

 attempt here to relieve them of any 

 part of the heavy burden of responsi- 

 bility thrust upon them, for as a class 

 they seem rather to enjoy it, perhaps 

 because it is a tribute to the impor- 

 tance. But it seems to us unwar- 

 ranted to assume that a distaste for 

 science is due to the introduction of 

 science into the curriculum, as it is also 

 tin warranted to assume that the rea- 

 son why people do not commonly read 

 the English classics in after life is be- 

 cause the}- had to study them in the 

 classroom. No; the difficulty is, in our 

 opinion, due largely to the lack of a 

 class of competent and zealous inter- 

 preters of scientific thought, and if our 

 educational system is in anv degree re- 





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MESSRS. BALLARD AND DEATS AT A LABORATORY TABLE IN THE AA HOME. 



