38s Transactions. 
study. What are our arctic and tropic, seasons and tides, tem- 
peratures and mechanisms but the expression of man’s attempts 
at catching hold of the universal law, of his assimilating as much 
or as little of it as he can to the wants of his own nature ? 
And this one grand medium for the accomplishment of a pro- 
ductive study of nature, this one faculty without which a Newton 
or a Humboldt were impossible, with which the humblest of us 
can add a cubit to the stature of scientific truth, is Observation. 
We can never emphasis this fact too deeply. The ingenious 
scientist of the middle ages sat in his cell and dreamed out a 
theory of the universe; and a pretty brainful of cobwebs he 
bequeathed to the keener vision of our age. The modern 
scientist, albeit his ingenuity lacks something of the charm of 
his predecessor's, begins and holds to the right method through- 
out his enquiries, and into what hidden regions his microscope 
and scalpel plunge, not many of us as yet perhaps fully acknow- 
ledge. 
It is not, however, on medizval theories or modern specula- 
tions that I want to speak to-night; not to weigh planets or 
compute the age of the Glacial epoch; but, with the view of 
helping fellow-students, novices especially, towards cultivating 
this faculty of observation, I am going to describe a little of the 
life that goes on, all unheeded by most of us, close to the ground 
and amongst the foliage of common plants on any common bit of 
mother earth. We transport ourselves during the glowing hours 
of a fair summer’s day out of sound and sight of brick and mortar, 
and choose a strip of hedgerow well feathered with the despised 
“weeds” which the roadman shovels aside into unsightly heaps. 
So long as it is not excessively dry, it is pretty much a matter of 
indifference what spot we choose. Here, for instance, is a grand 
clump of the common cow parsnip (Heraclewm Sphondylium), 
with its stout bristly stem and handsome leaves. In one of the 
deep-cloven sinuations of this leaf you will very likely find a tiny 
land-snail (Zonites nitidulus ), whose glossy house shines with a 
lustre Aladdin might envy. If you lift the shell, the warmth of 
your finger will doubtless tempt the little creature to crawl 
out, when, with your pocket lens, you note its dark, clear grey 
tentacles and brown-tinged body ; touch it ever so gently, and in 
go “horns” and body back into the glossy shell—timid, sensitive 
little mollusk! Perhaps at the root of our tall umbelliferous 
plant a good specimen of a very common but well-marked land- 
