TEACHERS' SCHOOL OF SCIENCE. 465 



nation. The final test of the season's work consisted of three parts: 

 The passing in of lecture notebooks, the naming and classifying of a 

 dozen fossils selected by the professor, and the answering of a set 

 of difficult questions. 



On account of the amount of time required for this course, and 

 because the lessons were such as were not directly applicable to 

 work in the public schools, the attendance decreased. The num- 

 ber who continued, however, were those who felt that a broad sci- 

 entific education is necessary to the best teaching of even elemen- 

 tary science. 



The fourth year was devoted to Mollusca, Cephalopoda in par- 

 ticular, and the class was fortunate in having for its teacher one 

 whose investigations in this latter group have given him world-wide 

 fame. 



The evolution of the group from its straight radical form, now 

 named and called Diphragnoceros, was traced through the bent, 

 curved, and coiled forms of the Nautiloids, Ammonoids, and Bela- 

 mites. The phylogeny of the Ammonoids presented a complete 

 cycle, late forms entirely uncoiling and presenting the straight 

 characters of their ancestors. 



The study of Cephahpods amply illustrated the neo-Lamarckian. 

 theory of evolution, including the inheritance of acquired charac- 

 ters which is now believed by most paleontologists. 



The fifth and last year of this course included the study of Ar- 

 thropoda and Vertehrata. The insects presented many illustra- 

 tions for the theory of natural selection, wliich the neo-Lamarck- 

 ians consider an aid, but a subordinate factor, in the origin of 

 species. 



About this time Poulton gave a series of twelve lectures on 

 animal coloration at the Lowell Institute, drawing his illustra- 

 tions mainly from insects. Many of the students of The Teach- 

 ers' School of Science in zoology and paleontology attended these 

 lectures. 



After working on fishes, batrachians, reptiles, birds, and mam- 

 mals, in which the structural development of some animals — man, 

 for example — was found to be retrogressive and the physiological 

 development progressive, the lessons closed with the study of man's 

 structure as compared with the anthropoid apes and the few remains 

 of prehistoric man, and finally with a discussion of the works of 

 paleolithic man. 



The teachers who had attended this course throughout the five 

 years and had passed satisfactory examinations have been presented 

 with diplomas testifying to their proficiency. 



\_To be continued. '\ 

 VOL. LT.— 34 



