TIJJNOIS IIOUTtCtlLTUkAL SOClETV. 231 



theory with facts cannot be accidcntal,but must be admitted as evidence 

 of the correctness of the theory. Each one can judge for himself of the 

 effect of such a current of electricity upon vegetable growth by its disin- 

 tegration and decomposition of soils. i\Ir. Wright claims that if this 

 theory of an electrical atmosphere is correct, it will change the whole 

 course of study in this department of science, and result in such pro- 

 gress as will soon leave no mysteries unexplained. The explanations of 

 thunder-storms and tornadoes, according to this theory, are so simple 

 that any schoolboy could understand them. 



The President said, in regard to the experiments of promoting the 

 growth of plants by passing currents of clectricit)' through the soil at the 

 roots, he had tried them and found them to be a humbug. He advised 

 no one to try it, for it would be only labor and money wasted. 



Mr. Bliss advanced some old fashioned theories of electricity for 

 the purpose, as he said, of draw ing out Mr. Wright's ideas. Mr. ^^'right, 

 however, seemed to think that the old theories and his new one would 

 not reconcile, and so he let the discussion drop. 



Mr. H. H. McAfee read the following Essay on Botany and Vege- 

 table Physiology. 



1 am most happy to be enabled to report a marked and material 

 progress in the educational system of our State. A point aimed at, and 

 hoped for, by the best men of our State for years, has been reached, and 

 we have the Natural Sciences in our schools. Concrete ideas will now 

 have an opportunity to strengthen and stimulate the developing minds 

 of our little men and little women, where before they were paralyzed and 

 benumbed by the abstract ideas forced upon them before their time. 

 If there is any one thing which the observing teacher sees more than 

 another, it is that the young, undeveloped mind i.*? frequently driven in- 

 to a disgust with education, by being fed upon abstractions solely. 

 Tne course of our schools, from monkish limes down to our day, has 

 been marked by the wrecks of intellects, which came into the world rich 

 in possibilities if rationally developed, hungering for facts about things, 

 and yet starved by premature attempts at ratiocination, theses, and reflec- 

 tive deductions, entirely unsuited to their time of life and powers of 

 mind. While the best reasoners in the world have all along maintained 

 that the elements of knowledge must come from things, and that the 

 exercise of reasoning powers must follow perception and obser\ation, 

 we have been asking pupils to reflect, to judge, to weigh ; in fine, to per- 

 form the operations of the mature intellect from the very beginning, in- 

 stead of first teaching them observation, and letting the i)ercepti\e 

 faculties act as a stimulus and support to the reflective faculties. What 

 vvonder that our schools are filled with children who were once briglit 

 babies, but are now either tolerable, or actually dull youths. It is, then, 



