122 THE MICROSCOPE. [May, 



[The paper called forth many questions, and Mr. Breckenfeld 

 was kept busy for some time in answering them, and then pro- 

 ceeded to explain the many specimens he had under the micro- 

 scopes belonging to the Society or loaned by friends illustrating 

 his paper.] 



editor:s 



DEPARTMENT 



^^^ 



Popularizing Science. — One of our most esteemed contem- 

 poraries utters in his March editorial some comments upon the 

 lack of appreciation of science which is shown by the public. 

 He says that a dance or a dinner party is a most successful rival 

 of a meeting of a society devoted to the pursuit of science or phil- 

 osophv. '*' Where the heels or the stomach have the call, the 

 brain has to retire into innocuous desuetude." We take no excep- 

 tion to his statement of the case, but we have a suggestion to make 

 as to why it is so, and how to combat the situation. 



People who can appreciate a dance or a dinner attend it ; those 

 who can appreciate science cultivate it. In order that people may 

 appreciate dancing there are evening schools provided in which 

 the novice may actually enjoy the drill by means of which he be- 

 comes expert. Where has science yet provided similarly attrac- 

 tive means to the end? The microscopical soiree comes nearest 

 to this, but it is only an annual exhibition, and often lacks the 

 most desirable feature for this purpose, viz., explanation. Let 

 the soiree become a monthly, semi-monthly, or weekly gathering, 

 and let the visitors spend 30 minutes in each evening in looking 

 at the objects, after which they take their seats and listen to ex- 

 planations of the exhibits and of the apparatus. Then let them 

 return again to the inspection of the instruments, and it will be 

 found that the soiree has begun to perform some of the functions 

 of the dancinof-school. We believe that such a course of instruc- 

 tion would pay, and that a considerable fee could be charged for 

 the service. If adults can be taught science as conveniently as they 

 can be taught dancing we believe that more people in this country 

 would yield to the ambition to learn science than to learn dancing. 

 By the former they may advance not only socially, but financially 

 and intellectually, whereas no one learns to dance with the idea 

 that the investment will pay financially or intellectually. Many 



