INTRODUCTION 9 



were the work which was covered still to be done. Peck travelled 

 abroad, met the great Europeans of the day, and some of his fishes, 

 curiously split and dried like herbarium specimens of plants, are still 

 in existence in the Museum, accurately named, although this was 

 done, in some cases, as early as i 785. Peck's manuscript notes of his 

 lectures are models of clarity and show thoughtful consideration of 

 the topics discussed and a wide range of reading. His remarkable 

 library is now in part preserved in the Boston Society of Natural 

 History's Museum. 



The Botanical Garden was started during Peck's term of service 

 (1807), and in 1825, but three years after Peck's death, Nuttall be- 

 came its distinguished director, a man remembered today by the 

 fact that he published a charming book on New England Orni- 

 thology which has been reprinted time and again and is still widely 

 read by many students of birds. There is no evidence to show that 

 the early teaching in natural history was much different from what 

 it was in Europe at that time. It was teaching from textbooks and 

 from lectures, with probably a few objects used in demonstration but 

 carefully guarded from handling by the students. The teaching cen- 

 tered about the spoken and the printed word. It is interesting to 

 note, however, that first-class research began before first-class teach- 

 ing, and while this brought kudos to the University it did not really 

 extend the influence of the University, inasmuch as few, if any, 

 investigators were produced. 



Professor Wheeler describes hereafter the remarkable story of 

 the history of entomology at Harvard, and this fascinating chapter 

 speaks for itself. 



I think it is fair to say that the natural sciences had sailed well into 

 the doldrums by the time Asa Gray became Fisher Professor of 

 Natural History in 1842 and until Agassiz was made a Professor in 

 the Lawrence Scientific School in 1847. These two men comple- 

 mented one another peculiarly: Gray, gentle, reserved, an investi- 

 gator first and foremost; Agassiz, enthusiastic, fanatical, almost, in his 

 desire to revolutionize the teaching of natural history in this country, 

 and not only to train teachers and investigators, but to carry his ad- 

 vanced methods of teaching from the specimen, and not from the 

 books, into the secondary schools. Louis Agassiz trained a host of 

 men who became the principal naturalists of the next generation. 



