140 Second Conference 



Now, this acquirement of meaning is an essentially 

 practical process, and is effected by what we may 

 term investigation, that is, the application of all the 

 available senses to the object, so as to test in all 

 possible ways its nature, and to ascertain its meaning 

 for future guidance. Watch any young animal and 

 you will see how large a proportion of its waking 

 hours are occupied in gaining a practical knowledge 

 of its surroundings by persistent investigation, through 

 which the several objects acquire fuller and fuller 

 meaning, so that the behaviour of the animal towards 

 them may be suitably adjusted. And to this end, 

 that the application of the process shall be thorough 

 and persistent, there is inbred in all animals capable 

 of intelligent progress that curiosity which is the 

 mother of investigation. 



But in no animal is this inbred spirit of curious 

 investigation more firmly implanted than in the 

 human child, and in accordance with the definition I 

 gave at the outset, Nature-study, as a factor in ele- 

 mentary education, may be regarded as the applica- 

 tion of rational guidance to a process which has its 

 foundations deeply laid in the instinctive tendencies 

 of animal life. 



Of course, we who believe firmly in the value of 

 Nature-study, and who desire to organize means for 

 its further development, must expect to be regarded 

 as faddists; we shall no doubt be asked: "What is the 

 use of it?" To my mind a more satisfactory form of 

 the question is: "What is the good of it?" Use so often 

 demands an answer in terms of > s. d. Sir Andrew 

 Ramsay was wont to tell of a parent who brought his 

 son to study geology at the School of Mines, and who 



