BIOLOGY IX EDUCATION. 13. 



been of a special kind. The professional training necessary 

 to develop such a teacher can only be acquired in the 

 course of such a thorough curriculum of studies as is under- 

 taken by the student of medicine or by the student of pure 

 science. To the medical profession and to the ranks of 

 the professed scientists we must accordingly look for the 

 recruits who are alone qualified by their training to fulfil 

 in all its details the task of biological instructors. And it 

 may also be noted that such an instructor is qualified in 

 virtue of his training to instruct pupils of all ages in his 

 special subjects. Indeed, as experience teaches, such a 

 professed scientist is likely to be far more successful than 

 any other in interesting and instructing the youngest pupils ; 

 since his full acquaintance with his subject and its sur- 

 roundings enables him to draw very copiously upon all its 

 parts for the illustrations and comparisons so necessary for 

 the successful teaching of science to the young. And the 

 confidence such knowledge gives, is the most favourable 

 condition to his playing the role of an intellectual crushing- 

 mill, in grinding down the harder and more inexplicable 

 details into fragments adapted for the youngest and feeblest 

 of mental digestions. 



But I do not limit the teaching of science to the pro- 

 fessed biologist, with his special training, and his technical 

 education. There are circumstances in which the employ- 

 ment of the services of such a teacher may be an im- 

 possibility, or a very inconvenient matter; and in such 

 cases it may be asked how his place may be most suitably 

 and ably supplied. In the case of primary schools, I see 

 no reason why an intelligent master or mistress should not 

 be able to introduce to the notice of their pupils the ele- 

 mentary facts of biology. The amount of knowledge re- 

 quired to pass even the primary stage of the biological 

 subjects in the Government examinations held under the 

 auspices of the Science and Art Department, and certainly 

 that which enables the candidate to pass in the advanced 

 grade, may be taken as fair and readily appreciable tests of 



