RECORDS. 163 



the more obscure and dilliciilt forms of flowers, the fruits, and 

 seeds. 



The zoological instruction in the lower schools should not 

 attempt a systematic survey of the whole animal kingdom, but 

 attention shoukl be directed chiefly to the most familiar animals, 

 and to those whicli the pupils can see alive. The common do- 

 mesticated mammals should first be studied, and later the birds, 

 the lower vertebrates, the insects, Crustacea, and mollusks. While 

 the range of zoological instruction must be limited as regards the 

 number of forms studied, those few familiar forms should be so 

 compared with each other as to give the pupils, very early, some 

 conception of the main lines of biological study, — morphology, 

 physiology, taxonomy. 



Special prominence should be given to the study of plants and 

 animals which are useful to man in any way ; and the teacher 

 may advantageously, Irom time to time, give familiar talks in 

 regard to useful products of vegetable and animal origin, and the 

 processes of their manufacture. 



A most important feature of the scientific instruction in the 

 lower grades should be to encourage the pupils to collect 

 specimens of all sorts of natural objects, and to make those 

 specimens the subject of object-lessons. The curiosity of the 

 children will thereby be rationally cultivated and guided. 



The subject of human physiology and hygiene is of so immense 

 practical impoitance, and so few comparatively of the pupils ever 

 enter the high school, that we regard as desirable some attempt 

 to teach the rudiments of the subject in the grammar, and even in 

 the primary, schools. 



We would recommend the introduction of exceedingly rudi- 

 mentary courses in physics and chemistry in the highest grades 

 of the grammar school. 



We would recommend as perhaps the most desirable branches 

 of science to be included in the classical courses in the high 

 school, and to be required for admission to college, physical 

 geograph^', pheenogamic botany, and human physiology. The 

 first is suggested as tending to keep alive in the student's mind a 

 sympathetic acquaintance with nature in its broader aspects ; the 

 second, as aflbrding unequalled opportunities for discipline in 

 observation ; the thirtl, as affording knowledge of the greatest 

 practical importance. 



The rudiments of physics and chemistry, which we propose for 



