SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION IN GIRLS' SCHOOLS. 253 



sucli of the natural sciences as were not to be studied later on, the ob- 

 ject of non-scientific educators would be fully attained. Such lectures 

 ought to be quite unaccompanied by book work. The native curiosity 

 of childhood in regard to natural phenomena can be fully depended 

 on to secure attention at the time, and remembrance afterward. It 

 must be added, however, that an interesting lecturer is essential. 



If only two branches of natural science are to be introduced in 

 detail into school education the question of selection becomes of 

 importance. The biological sciences are undoubtedly those which 

 bring the mind into the widest and deepest relations with JSTature; 

 and this would seem to constitute a sufficient reason for preferring 

 them. I am aware, however, that in giving precedence to these sci- 

 ences I put myself in opposition to the idea, now much in favor with 

 the colleges, that physics and chemistry are more suitable for school 

 instruction; but I do so because we are now concerned with the edu- 

 cation of girls, not of boys. Everything that has been said so far 

 applies indifferently to the training of either sex, but we have now 

 reached the point where the little brook arises which by and by 

 forms the mighty stream that separates and must always separate 

 the life-work of women from that of men. The practical uses of an 

 acquaintance with physics and chemistry are so great in many of the 

 trades and professions by which men earn a livelihood that even an 

 elementary knowledge of these subjects will often give its possessor 

 an advantage in the race. There is also reason in the statement of the 

 colleges that physics and chemistry form the best basis for future 

 scientific work within their precincts. But these trades and profes- 

 sions are not, as a general thing, adopted by women; and so far 

 as collegiate work is concerned it must be remembered that the num- 

 ber of girls who go to college is but small, and of these the propor- 

 tion who devote themselves to scientific work is still smaller. It is 

 not our present business to discuss the question whether a college 

 education for women is ever likely to become general. The case as 

 it stands now is that, for the large majority of girls, the science they 

 learn in their school years represents for them all the science they 

 ever acquire. Hence it should be of the kind that is most likely to 

 minister to their necessities. If the biological sciences then are most 

 suitable for their instruction, one of the branches chosen should be 

 either botany or zoology; the other always and invariably physi- 

 ology, because, I repeat, we are now discussing the education, not of 

 boys, but of girls. The recognition of any difference between the 

 education of the two sexes is, I know, not a popular idea. But there 

 is surely some inconsistency in the fact that the friends of women's 

 education who have done so much to establish a high ideal of life for 

 women should receive with such disfavor any hint that, whatever 



