668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



time, so that we may pause here to sketcli briefly its origin and 

 growth. After an extended correspondence with superintendents 

 and educators of New England and the West, I may state, with 

 very great certainty, that Boston was the first large city in our 

 country to include systematic lessons upon plants, animals, and 

 minerals in its prescribed course of elementary instruction. This 

 was done in 1877-'78. The movement, however, may be said to 

 have had its origin in the lecture-hall of Louis Agassiz nearly a 

 quarter of a century before. Recognizing the educational and 

 practical value of the study of natural history, and imbued with 

 a broad, humanitarian spirit. Prof. Agassiz invited teachers 

 to attend his lectures before the under-graduates of Harvard. 

 Among those who accepted this invitation was a young woman 

 of whom George B. Emerson wrote, a few years later, " She is the 

 best teacher New England has produced." The truths spoken by 

 the great naturalist lived in the brain and heart of Lucretia 

 Crocker till she in her turn was able to inspire the youth of her 

 generation with a love for nature as deep as it was strong. 

 Twenty-five years after the Harvard lectures, Miss Crocker, as 

 supervisor of the public schools of Boston, with the keen judg- 

 ment of mature womanhood added to the enthusiasm of youth, 

 was advocating with persuasive power a course of elementary 

 instruction which included lessons upon our common plants, ani- 

 mals, and minerals. In 1877-'78 this course was adopted by the 

 school board, and Miss Crocker became supervisor of the natural 

 history work. Surely the inspired words of Agassiz were bearing 

 abundant fruit, though the voice that uttered them was then 

 silent. May we not trust that the harvest-time was known to the 

 sower of the seed ? 



It soon became evident that the teachers wanted more knowl- 

 edge of the natural history subjects wliich they were to teach ; 

 and it was then that Miss Crocker found an able helper in Prof. 

 Alpheus Hyatt, who, in the generous spirit of his teacher. Prof. 

 Agassiz, threw the doors of his laboratory wide open to all who 

 wished to come. A " Saturday morning class " was formed. Its 

 members were provided abundantly with specimens for study, and 

 the valuable collections of the Natural History Museum, of which 

 Prof. Hyatt was curator, were freely used in the demonstrations. 



The teachers, now as pupils, saw more clearly than ever before 

 the true objects of all science work, namely, the betterment of 

 humanity and the increase of our stock of absolute knowledge. 

 Fortunate indeed are those institutions of learning which num- 

 ber among their professors one who keeps constantly before his 

 pupils these high ideal aims of science ! With these aims as ulti- 

 mate goals, the work of student and teacher becomes more effect- 

 ive, because directed in definite yet ever-broadening channels. 



