SYNOPSIS OF PROCEEDINGS. 243 



a number of persons now live to seventy years as lived to forty three 

 hundred years ago," and, in striking confirmation of this, it is a well- 

 known fact that the British government, in the management of its sys- 

 tem of annuities, which is based upon the average of life, was, some 

 years since, in consequence of this prolongation of life, compelled to 

 revise its calculations. It may be mentioned, in this connection, that 

 it has been claimed that the single discovery of the anaesthetics is of 

 greater value to the human race than all the arts, literatures, and 

 achievements of ancient civilizations. The passing glimpse we have 

 thus taken of the great practical advantages resulting from scientific 

 study, while necessarily meagre and imperfect, will sufficiently reveal 

 the transcendent importance of these researches, and justify us in 

 claiming for science a prominent, if not first place, in any general sys- 

 tem of education. 



When we contemplate the enormous progress made in scientific dis- 

 covery during recent centuries, we are led to inquire as to the causes 

 which have set in motion this great movement, and, not without reason, 

 we look to our institutions of learning — our universities, colleges, acad- 

 emies, and seminaries — for the instrumentalities which have inspired 

 this study of nature, and produced the extraordinary developments of 

 modern science. When, however, we come to examine the curricula 

 of these institutions, we find that, with, perhaps, the exception of the 

 German universities, they have given but little or no aid to scientific 

 research. Strange as it may seem, it will be disclosed that the remark- 

 able advances made in scientific research and discovery have been 

 almost entirely accomplished through individual zeal and enterprise, 

 and through scientific societies and academies established and main- 

 tained by private minificence. The great universities of England and 

 America have devoted their energies mainly to the study of Greek and 

 Latin, and the other scholastic branches usually included in a classical 

 course, and have left science to shift for itself. It will further be 

 found that the example set by these great institutions has reached 

 down through all the gradations of educational organizations, and in- 

 fluenced even the course of study in our public schools. I am not 

 disposed to undervalue a classical education, and readily concede the 

 worth of these linguistic studies in giving exactness and elegance in the' 

 use of language. I am free to admit that the clergyman, the physician, 

 the lawyer, the journalist, and the scholar trained for literary pursuits, 

 if they do not find them essential, will derive benefit from these classical 

 studies. I am, however, impressed with the conviction that the English 

 language, which furnished a sufficient vocabulary for Shakespeare, Addi- 

 son, Goldsmith, for Lowell, Longfellow, and Bancroft, should be ample 

 for the graduates of our public schools, and that the study by the pupils 

 in these schools, of all foreign languages, dead or living, is not only a 

 sheer waste of time, but a culpable perversion of the system. I therefore 

 maintain that these branches should be dropped from the curriculum of 

 the public schools, and that there should be substituted such instruction 

 at least in anatomy, physiology, hygiene, as will induce correct living, 

 such skill of hand as will fit its graduates for some industrial calling, 

 and such knowledge of civics as will secure intelligent citizenship. 



