University Reform. 303 



and lifeless things, when contemplated merely in 

 their places upon a logical chart. To become cor 

 rect reasoners, it is not enough that we should 

 know what classes and sub-classes are ; we should 

 also know how to cunningly make them. From 

 pure considerations of discipline, therefore, biol 

 ogy should form one of the regular studies of 

 the university course, and some proficiency in it 

 should be expected of every candidate for a bach 

 elor s degree. Practical considerations also join 

 in urging that steps should be taken to raise the 

 organic sciences from the insignificant position 

 now assigned them. If some sagacious traveller 

 from a distant world, like Voltaire s Microme gas, 

 were to visit Harvard College, he would doubtless 

 give vent to unpleasant sarcasms concerning the 

 profound anatomical ignorance of its graduating 

 classes. He would pronounce it hardly creditable 

 to the institution that men who have received its 

 honours should be guilty of classifying cuttle-fishes 

 with the vertebrata (we state facts), and should 

 betray even less acquaintance with the structure 

 of their own bodies than with the physical con 

 figuration of the moon. The scientific study of 

 life has its practical as well as its speculative 

 advantages. For want of sound views of biolog 

 ical method, intelligent persons are daily seen 



