1 86 SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS. 



recovering its normal relations of shape. In the other, the 

 structure which should be able to carry easily and without 

 the least distortion a given weight, is absurdh' and unnaturally 

 supported by clumsy outside aids. Both kinds of discipline are 

 faulty. Both kinds result in crippling the organism, and reducing 

 its power of efficient work. 



2d. But if the discipline is faulty, what shall we say of the 

 poverty of atquisition? It seems as if some teachers in their 

 praiseworthy striving after methods of mental discipline had over- 

 looked the need of mental furnishing. And hence it has come to 

 pass that some pupils who have gone through all the grades up 

 to the plane of the first year in college, are imacquainted with the 

 simplest facts in nature. There is not a teacher here who has 

 not fallen in with a few of these helpless beings. The question 

 before us is, Can any part of this mischief be remedied by the 

 treatment which we, as a Society of Naturalists, propose? We 

 must remember that in all branches of study these defects which I 

 have mentioned are recognized, and we must bear in mind that 

 ours is not the only remedy suggested. 



In passing to the main proposition, I must refer for a moment 

 to a question of the second order, which concerns all teachers in 

 all grades ; namely, the daily sequence of studies. 



A curriculum covering a term of years regai"ds the arrangement 

 of studies term by term and year by year, but ordinarily pays 

 little attention to the order in which these studies follow one 

 another each day or in the days of the week. The dail}' arrange- 

 ment in most schools is based chiefly on convenience in running 

 the machine : studies are put in where they will lit, and many a 

 roimd peg finds itself in a scjuare hole. 



It makes little difibrence to some people whether the 

 order of dishes at a dinner follows tlie line of least I'esistance 

 from soup through fish, and thence to the joint, and afterwards 

 to the salad, and so on, or the reverse ; and, so far as the stomach, 

 considered as a mere receptacle, is concerned, it, amounts to 

 pretty much the same thing. But the stomach, as an organ for 

 digestion, does not take that view of it at all. It does make 

 some difference when one dish takes its place. Now, if the 

 pupil's mind is a mere hold-all, that is one thing, and the dail}' 

 order makes no particular dinbrence ; if, on the other liand, tlie 



