578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



As a protest against a too narrow view of natural history, biology 

 attracted a large number of advocates in this country, who hoped that 

 the new, or, if you please, the newly named science, would not only en- 

 large the views of professional and amateur naturalists, but would also 

 furnish a valuable aid in the education of the young. It is not my 

 purpose to speak of the changed aspect of professional and expert 

 studies, viewed from a biological stand-point, but merely to consider 

 the effect which has been produced on elementary instruction in col- 

 leges and schools. Within the last ten years a large number of books 

 and papei's has appeared in print, intended to show teachers how to 

 teach and students how to study plants and animals. Some of them 

 are excellent, and certainly, as far as books go, they leave little to be 

 desired. They all start with the advice that a beginner should study 

 plants and animals themselves, rather than what has been written 

 about them. In other words, the first thing is to learn to observe. 

 In inculcating the importance of observation the modern biologists 

 are only repeating the advice of the naturalists of the old school, al- 

 though it must be said to the credit of the former that they have 

 insisted upon observation with a frequency and urgency previously 

 unknown. But how is one to begin ? The biological method sug- 

 gests a careful study of a few types which will give the beginner a 

 general acquaintance with the essential structure of both the animal 

 and vegetable kingdoms ; whereas, by the older method, it was the 

 fashion to study rather minutely the external characters of a con- 

 siderable number of species of certain groups of plants or animals, and 

 the general view of the two kingdoms was obtained, if obtained at 

 all, from lectures, and not from an actual study of specimens in the 

 laboratory. 



As I have said, the new mode of study has been more or less in 

 vogue in our leading schools and colleges for about ten years, and we 

 ought to ask, with what success ? Has it accomplished what was ex- 

 pected ? Or, if not, what is the reason ? It has been my lot to teach 

 one branch of biology to college classes, and, as my experience seems to 

 me to show that, in some respects, the result is disappointing, I should 

 like to state some of the difficulties which have presented themselves 

 in my case, not that I have lost faith in the system at all, but because 

 my experience apparently shows that considerable improvement must 

 still be made before the best results can be attained. 



The students who come under my charge, about thirty-five annu- 

 ally, are probably in intelligence and industry good representatives 

 of the average student as found in our colleges. They come from all 

 parts of the country, and while many of them have been fitted for 

 college at the different classical schools, where the great object is to 

 prepare boys to answer certain examination questions, education as 

 such being considered of very slight importance, others are fitted in 

 schools where natural science is ostensibly taught, and others still 



