kl'.CoKDS. 241 



"• This Association is of the opinion that the Natinal Sciences 

 should he taiij^ht denionstiati\ely, as far as possii)le, in all grades 

 of the Common Schools ; and that, so soon as feasihle, some 

 branch of science should he included in the leiiuirements for 

 admission to Ct)lle<;e." 



Since our last annual meeting", a circular letter has Ijeen sent 

 out to the American Universities and Colleges, in number neailv 

 four hundred. The circular reads as follows: — 



" To the Faculty of 



" In behalf of the x\merican Society of Naturalists, we respect- 

 fulh' petition your honorable body to take into consideration the 

 tjuestion of making such a change in your requirements for 

 admission as to include therein some work in Natural or Physical 

 Science. 



"In presenting this petition, it is appropriate for us to give 

 briefly the reasons \\iiich have led the Society to this action. 



" The Society of Naturalists is a body of investigators and 

 teachers of Natural .Science. The majority of its members are 

 professors of Biology or Geology in colleges or other higher 

 institutions of the north-eastern United States. Its meetings 

 have been mainly occupied with discussions as to the methods of 

 carrying on the various branches of scientific work in which its 

 members are engaged. The discussion of education in science 

 has accordingly occupied much of its attention. 



'• In the consideration of scientific instruction in College, with a 

 view to its improvement in method and result, the conclusion 

 has forced itself upon our minds, that the main cause of the 

 unsatisfactory results of scientific instruction in College is to be 

 found in the lack of suitable elementary scientific training on the 

 part of the students. 



" While a liberal allowance of time is devotetl to scientific 

 studies in most of the College courses and in the English courses 

 in Academies and High Schools, there is generally little or no 

 tune allotted to science in the Classical courses in Academies and 

 High Schools, and in the schools of lower grade. Most of the 

 students in the Colleges have therefore received no training or 

 instruction in the sciences before I'eaching those studies in the 

 College course. By so many years of exclusive attention to 



