Dec, 1901.] Meeting of the Biological Club. 153 



tion from pure fiction to pure science may be found and every 

 grade of literary merit as well. White and Goldsmith, Wood 

 and Figuier, Kipling and Seton-Thompson, with many others 

 that could be cited, illustrate this wide divergence among writers 

 who have written to the entertainment and the greater or less 

 jitofit of their readers. The value of such works as these is 

 rather hard to estimate, especially from the scientific standpoint 

 and particularly when one is under the hallucination of a beauti- 

 ful piece of literary creation. They furnish entertainment and 

 cultivate imagination, some of them stimulate observation and 

 awaken an interest in nature, but unfortunately many of them 

 contain so much that is inexact or erroneous that they may sadly 

 encumber the minds of their readers. 



But I would like to call attention here to what appears to me a 

 fundamental condition of scientific work and thereb}' a necessary 

 result of scientific training. Science is naught if not exact. 

 Accurate observation, accurate record, accurate deduction from 

 data, all of which may be reduced to simple, plain honesty. 

 Anything else is error, not science. It is not that " honesty is 

 the best policy," but that in science honesty is the only possible 

 policy. Hence, scientific training should give to every student 

 this one at least of the cardinal virtues, and we ma}- claim with 

 justice this advantage as one of the results to be derived from 

 pursuing scientific studies. In fact the relation of science and 

 biological science, no less than any other, to general schemes of 

 education, has been one of its most important contributions to 

 humanity. 



Biolo^v has influenced modern education both in the matter 

 taught and the method of its presentation. It has gone farther 

 and farther into the mysteries of nature and opened up wider 

 fields of knowledge. It has insisted that the student should be 

 trained not only in the facts and the accurate interpretation of 

 facts, but in the methods by which facts may be obtained, thus 

 providing for the continuous growth of the substance from which 

 its principles may be verified and definite conclusions reached. 



In recent years there has been a wdde demand for the more 

 general distribution of knowledge of nature, and " nature study " 

 has had a prominent place in the discussions of educators. I 

 must confess to some fear for the outcome of well meant efforts 

 to crowd such studies into the hands of unprepared teachers, 

 though surely no one could wish more heartily for a wider exten- 

 sion of such work well done. It is encouraging to note steady 

 progress in this line and we should be content not to push ahead 

 faster than conditions will warrant. 



Our science is an evergrowing one, and I wish to mention 

 briefly some of the conditions of biological research and the con- 

 ditions essential to its successful prosecution. The time has 



