•^ EDITORIAL |^« 



What a beautiful thing is Theory! It removes moun- 

 tains, bridges gorges, surmounts all obstacles and teaches the 

 young idea how to shoot without batting an eye. It is the 

 chief reliance of the makers of text-books and manuals, it 

 operates the machines in the physics laboratory without a 

 hitch, it makes every reaction in chemistry come out as it 

 should and it enables the biology teacher to take up any phase 

 of his subject anywhere and at any time and attain proficiency 

 at once. It makes teaching one continual round of pleasure; 

 it keeps the reagent bottle full, the animals alive and the plants 

 growing. It makes all the animals act exactly like they do in 

 the books and assembles at a wave of the hand all the curious 

 and illustrative material with which the botany teacher is wont 

 to make his subject interesting. All this it does and more — 

 that is, it would do it, if old Brass Tacks was not drawn into 

 the discussion. Getting down to brass tacks, however, puts 

 a different face on the matter. Brass Tacks says you cannot 

 begin just anywhere in biology; that there is a se([uence which 

 must be followed. To be sure there are some teachers so 

 adrcjit tiiat it is all one to them whether the pupil begins with 

 a seed big enough to see and handle or whether he works out 

 the problem of photosynthesis by ogling a group of Pleurococ- 

 cus cells through the lenses of a microscope. P.ut the major- 

 ity of us cannot do it. And worst of all, others are finding 

 out that we cannot do it! Hasn't the registration in l)otany 

 fallen off nearly 507^ in the past ten years! Brass Tacks 

 says that in botany at least, you cannt^t hope to do much for 

 the pupil until he has some knowledge of the structure of 



