NATURAL HISTORY. O 



of occupation without producing the sensation of their time 

 being thrown away, which is not unfrequently a concomitant 

 with a few hours light reading. To those who now read 

 nothing but light reading, and who are almost unaware of 

 the pleasures of thinking, a few hours daily devoted to the 

 study of Natural History would do them a world of good, — 

 it would give them what, perhaps, they very much want at 

 present — an object of pursuit. 



The India Board have lately published certain " Regula- 

 tions for the admission of Candidates for the appointment of 

 Assistant-Surgeon in the Service of the East India Com- 

 pany." In these " Regulations" they announce that one of 

 their objects in requiring examinations in Comparative 

 Anatomy, Zoology and Botany, is " to promote the study of 

 Natural History as a most important adjunct or pre- 

 liminary to a liberal medical education ; that of Compara- 

 tive Anatomy, Zoology or Botany, if properly cultivated by 

 means of specimens, for even a short period, being eminently 

 caladated to develope habits of close examination, and to 

 strengthen those po?vers of reasoning upon observed facts, 

 which must be habitually exercised by medical men every- 

 where, but which must be exercised with the greatest energy 

 and promptitude by those who practise in a tropical cli- 

 mate, and who are often thrown wholly upon their own 

 resources." 



This announcement we hail as one of the " signs of the 

 times ;" Natural History is to be studied for the mental 

 training it induces, not merely taken up as an amusement. 



