2304 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



if a physiological process is explained to him before he has the organ in 

 which the process is carried on, or before he has seen the process in actual 

 operation, when such a thing is possible. Laboratory work, therefore, comes 

 first. Our estimate of its relative importance is expressed in the fact that we 

 give it, on the average, three of the five periods of the week. Our first labora- 

 tory study is the locust, Melatiophis femur-^'ubnini. This form is familiar, easily 

 obtainable, and has definite external features ; it leads immediately to the most 

 valuable of all the groups for elementary study. On the first laboratory day of 

 the term, the prepared specimens are passed around, one to each pupil. Atten- 

 tion is called to the nature of the questions of which copies have been given out. 

 The questions are few in number, about ten to twelve, seldom more. They are 

 simple and direct, dealing at first with one point only. A question is often pre- 

 ceded by a note which the pupil is expected to distinguish from his answer in 

 the report he makes of the study. We find that numerous directions for the 

 pupil to " note " this, that, or the other, are of very little use, because unless 

 the pupil is held individually responsible for the correctness of certain feasible 

 observations which he himself may make, he will grow into the habit of careless- 

 ness. He can very well assume that what the teacher or the manual tells him 

 is there, is there of course, and he has no immediate concern with it. The notes 

 we give deal with points which the pupil can not well make out for himself; but 

 he is required to use the information immediately by answering a question bear- 

 ing on the same point. 



There is at once an advantage and a disadvantage in requiring answers to 

 questions which suggest but one point. On the one hand, we can hold the 

 pupil's mind to a definite thing, and compel him to discuss that one thing in a 

 restricted way. For example, we may ask the question, "Are the antennae 

 jointed or not?" Here but one point is involved, and there is no reason for 

 saying anything about the form or the length of antennae. Another question 

 might be, "How long are the antennae?" This requires no word concerning 

 the jointed condition of the appendage. On the other hand, these questions 

 seem petty. They are, and the constant use of their kind becomes tiresome and 

 mechanical. The questions should be sufticiently varied in form to encourage 

 the habit of minute examination, and also the habit of grasping a larger idea in 

 which may be involved matters of adaptation, for instance, the slender form of 

 the antennae, the thickness of the first wings, the thinness of the second wings, 

 and the great relative size and strength of the thorax. (If the teachers of Eng- 

 lish could teach biology they might find excellent opportunities for natural drill 

 in connected description or exposition. They are doubtless appreciative of the 

 fact that some of this work is done for them by the teachers of biology. Let us 

 hope it is well done.) A carefully prepared set of laboratory questions has a 

 more decided physiological effect (sometimes called moral) upon a class of care- 

 less, indifferent, possibly disorderly, boys, than any " interesting '' introductory 

 remarks on the locust a teacher can devise. 



While the boys are engaged in writing answers to the questions, the teacher 

 may be doing a variety of things; he may sit quietly surveying the scene, or he 

 may occasionally go the rounds of the class quizzing them gently, not caustically 



