CORRESP ONDENCE. 



1C7 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



ELEMENTAEY SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION 

 IN GERMANY. 



To the Editor Of the Popular Science Monthly. 



THE following commuuication, signed 

 Charles A. Duvoisin, and published in 

 a French journal, will no doubt be welcome 

 to your readers, especially such of them as 

 take an interest in the scientific education 

 of the young. B. 



Is it not strange that teachers of natu- 

 ral history, in most countries, have utterly 

 overlooked the very effective practical scien- 

 tific instruction which the pupils of Latin 

 and commercial schools receive already at 

 a very early age ? I refer to the excursions 

 which German teachers of science make 

 every week, into the environs of the cities 

 whei'e the above-mentioned institutions are 

 located, with their classes, and to the en- 

 couragement given to the pupils to make 

 collections of interesting natural objects. 

 There is a regular system followed in this 

 respect, and I declare that its results are in 

 every way excellent. Let me give here an 

 account of what I saw in the city of Ros- 

 tock, the largest city in the grand-duchy of 

 Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and an import sea- 

 port on the shores of the Baltic. That city 

 has a Latin school, or, as they call it in Ger- 

 many, a gymnasium, whose seven classes 

 are visited by three hundred pupils, in round 

 numbers, and a commercial school [Real- 

 schule), with an equally numerous attend- 

 ance. In the fifth class of the gymnasium 

 the boys, who, on an average, are eleven 

 years old, are taught the rudiments of ento- 

 mology. Why entomology? Because the 

 teacher goes out with them every afternoon 

 and hunts, in the woods and fields of the 

 environs, beetles, bugs, and butterflies. 

 Every pupil has with him a small bottle, 

 filled with alcohol, into which he drops the 

 insects he catches, and a butterfly-catcher, 

 the victims of which are confined in a tin- 

 box fastened to the pupil's leather belt. 

 The teacher instructs the boys where to 

 look for beetles, and he not only gives them 

 the Latin names of those they find, but de- 

 scribes to them their pecuharities, calls at- 

 tention to their beauties, and tells his hear- 

 ers whether they are rare or very common. 

 When one of the boys is told that he has 

 found a very rare specimen, he feels as hap- 

 py and proud as a king. I accompanied 

 the little fellows one Saturday afternoon on 

 one of these excursions. It was a pleasant 



July day, sunny, but by no means sultry. 

 The environs of the city consist of oak-for- 

 ests and extensive meadows. The roads 

 were rather sandy. All the boys were on 

 the alert for those wonderful beetles, the 

 cicindela. They were hard to catch, but 

 about twenty of them were bagged, or rath- 

 er bottled up. To my amazement I found 

 that these eleven-year-old boys were able 

 not only to give the names of every species 

 of cicindela, but also to point out their dis- 

 tinctive marks. For four hours we roamed 

 over meadows and wooded hills. Every- 

 where new specimens were hunted for in 

 their hiding-places, and secured. At last 

 the boys were tired. They sat down on the 

 mossy ground of a pine grove, partook of 

 the sandwiches they had brought with them, 

 and sang a stirring song. And then ensued 

 a strange sort of fair. The boys began to 

 trade off a cicindela for a scarabceus, etc. 

 " What are they doing this for '? " I said to 

 the teacher. "To complete their entomo- 

 logical cabinets," he replied. "What?" I 

 asked. "Have these little fellows regular 

 collections of entomological specimens ? " 

 " Have they ? " laughed the teacher. " There 

 is not one of them but has his cabinet, and 

 in not a few of them the entomological fauna 

 of this part of Germany is very creditably 

 represented." I could not help thinking 

 that all this was most excellent and praise- 

 worthy. The excursions are splendid for 

 the health of the pupils. They learn in 

 them practically what many students of col- 

 leges can acquire only by the hardest of toil, 

 and even then imperfectly, and the collec- 

 tions of beetles and butterflies at home keep 

 the boys out of a great deal of mischief. 

 In the fourth class of the g}Tnnasium they 

 teach zoology and mineralogy. I was as- 

 sured that the largest menageries visited 

 the city, and that the pupils of the gymna- 

 sium were among their most frequent and 

 intelligent visitors. Nearly all of them had 

 mineralogical cabinets, and I was astonished 

 to find not a few of the latter filled with the 

 most valuable and scientifically arranged 

 specimens. Botany is the special study of 

 the third class of the gymnasium. The 

 system of excursions for the collection of 

 flowers and plants is most religiously pv.r- 

 sued, and the consequence is that all the 

 pupils have herbaria well stocked and well 

 classified. In the two highest classes of the 

 gymnasium the remaining divisions of sci- 

 ence are taught. Not a few of the pupils 

 have excellent physical cabinets, and some 



