30 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. 



with strange words, as if be purposely would permit a glance into the 

 treasures of his science and his knowledge only to an extremely nar- 

 row circle. Nothing better shows this than the style of most of our 

 (German) text-books when compared with that of the majority of the 

 English books, which nevertheless are not behind ours in thorough- 

 ness. Even once to write something "popular" — who does not know 

 how many of our students look loftily down upon this art ? Now I 

 think it is a valuable art, and worthy of recognition. It can not be 

 expected that every one shall become possessed of it, and every one 

 shall exercise it ; but the art is very often wanting simply because 

 exclusive devotion to " purely scientific " work in some extremely nar- 

 row field of knowledge has prevented its ever having been put in prac- 

 tice. Many also deliberately hold themselves aloof from it because 

 whoever among us writes understandingly to the public appears to 

 compromise his reputation as a man of science. 



Why is it entirely different in England ? Why do the first men 

 of science there — those who are recognized and admired by the Ger- 

 man scientific world — write understandingly to every one ? W^ho does 

 not enjoy the famous essays of Faraday on "A Candle," of Tyndall 

 on " The Forms of Water," of Huxley on " The Crayfish," etc. ? I do 

 not forget that there are also a few scientific men having this talent 

 among us, but they do not escape the shrugs of their contemporaries. 

 It is true that a student Avho should make such general representation 

 his principal work would soon forfeit his importance as an investi- 

 gator. But it is also desirable, on the other hand, that the naturalist 

 should not exhaust himself in the examination of details, but that he 

 should, for the sake of keeping himself fresh, come forward with his 

 conclusions from time to time immediately before the cultivated world, 

 and not let the great value of his investigations be recognized by 

 strangers only. In sequence with this general reserve of students — 

 besides the resulting deficiencies in scientific school-instruction — exists 

 also a backwardness among our laymen in expressing themselves re- 

 specting their observations of Nature. Nature invites every one to 

 observation and reflection ; and even the inexpert inquirer is not ex- 

 cluded from the privilege of being led up to the noblest experiences 

 through this observation and reflection. What does not scientific 

 zoology, to mention but one example, owe to the bee-master, Pastor 

 Dzierzon, for his determination of the parthogenesis of bees ? And 

 did not Goethe, without being a professional naturalist, arrive at his 

 famous fruitful ideas of the composition of the skull out of vertebrae, 

 of the human intermaxillary, and of the tracing of the parts of the 

 l)lant back to the leaf? He repeatedly expresses in plain terms the 

 thought of the unity of all Nature and of the continuous development 

 of her forms, on grounds not of pure speculation, but of observation 

 and reflection upon it. Darwin's corresponding conclusions also origi- 

 nated from the simplest observations that presupposed no scientific 



