BIOLOGY IN EDUCATION. 15 



admirably it may serve advanced students, or those of an 

 age willing and able to pay close attention to the subject- 

 matter of the discourse, cannot, in my opinion, success- 

 fully answer the requirements of the biological teacher in 

 average schools. The preliminary statement of dry facts or 

 propositions, and the subsequent explanation, appear to me 

 to form the mode of instruction exactly suitable where both 

 time and means exist for after-demonstration ; or, in other 

 words, where the pupils are subsequently brought face to 

 face with the actualities of which the lecturer has treated. 

 Then, also, in teaching science to schoolboys and girls, the 

 first care and duty of the teacher must be to excite the 

 interest of the pupils ; since, if his instruction awakens no 

 feeling even of ordinary curiosity as a stepping-stone to a 

 real interest being taken in the study, his labours will prove 

 but fruitless and unthankful in the extreme. Through 

 abundant illustration, and by telling his audience the history 

 of natural things much as he would tell an interesting 

 narrative, the biological teacher can alone hope to success- 

 fully fulfil his mission in the school. He stands on a very 

 different footing from the university professor, or school of 

 medicine lecturer. He has to cater for various tastes, and 

 to create, as well as to foster, a love for his study ; and in 

 the exercise of his imperative duties he cannot tie himself to 

 the systematic routine of propositions and explanations 

 suitable for the older student, on whom the study devolves 

 generally as a plain necessity. 



In my experience as a school-lecturer, I have usually 

 found that a lecture of one hour's duration, on a subject 

 however interesting, will tend to weary the pupils. Un- 

 accustomed to bear such a lengthened and continuous strain 

 on their powers of hearing and appreciating, one cannot 

 wonder that to young pupils the latter half of many a 

 lecture must prove a weariness to the flesh and mind as 

 well. Even older people, in the majority of cases, find it 

 . a hard matter to pay continuous and undivided attention 

 to a speaker, however eloquent he may prove himself to 



