NATURE STUDY 



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NATURE STUDY 



prove, and that it is only by observation of 

 present forms and their fitness for their envi- 

 ronment that we are able to believe in selec- 

 tion. 



One of the most satisfactory proofs of the 

 theory is the way that man is able, by breeding 

 domestic animals, to produce characteristics 

 which will make his animals more useful to him. 

 All the domestic animals have wild ancestors: 

 the wild boar has been domesticated into the 

 pig ; wolves, foxes and hyenas into dogs ; horses, 

 p and cattle were once wild creatures, and 

 all fowls have been domesticated; once tamed, 

 man's animals have been bred to produce spe- 

 cific traits for his convenience and use. 



Another argument in favor of Darwin's 

 theory is the importance of protective coloring 

 in determining survivals. If green and brown 

 moths of the same genus are exposed on brown 

 grass, after a short time the green ones will have 

 disappeared, eaten by birds, while the brown 

 moths, rendered invisible by the similarity of 

 their coloring to that of the grass, will survive. 



Luther Burbank, whose production of new 

 fruit and flower forms has seemed like magic, 

 is a disciple of Darwin, and he puts his princi- 

 ples into operation. Eugenics, "the newest of 

 the evolutionary sciences," is man's attempt to 

 do for his own race what he has so long been 

 doing for his plants and animals. See EUGEN- 

 ICS; EVOLUTION; BURBANK, LUTHER. A.C. 



Consult Thomson's Darwinism and Human 

 Life; Lloyd's The Growth of Groups in the Animal 

 Kingdom. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY, the system of the- 

 ology which holds that God may be known 

 through His works. In the eighteenth and 

 nineteenth centuries it was considered to be 

 directly opposed to the theology of revelation 

 and to deny all that is miraculous and super- 

 natural in religion. However, in the thought of 

 to-day, in which both natural and supernatural 

 are regarded as being subject to similar laws, 

 Nature and the Bible are generally viewed as 

 harmonious sources of knowledge, and the old 

 contention has died out. 



THE STORY OF NATURE STUDY 



ATURE STUDY is a means of awak- 

 \\T\K in boys and girls an intelligent interest in 

 the wonders and beauties of the world about 

 them. The great naturalist Huxley once said 

 that a person who knows little or nothing of 

 natural history is to be compared to one who 

 passes through an art gallery which has its pic- 

 lures turned toward the wall. Such, indeed, is 

 the lot of boys and girls who arc permitted to 

 go through school life with "eyes that sec not" 

 and "ears that hear not," in so far as the world 

 of nature is concerned. Happily, modern edu- 

 cators have come to see tint the systematic 

 study of objects in nature should have a place 



cry school curriculum 



How the Idea Developed. So general is the 

 ion now that a part of every school day 

 should be spent in stu-lvum the outdoor world 

 by observation that it is hard to 

 nun -h resistance this idea met with \\lun it was 

 first introduced, about the year 1885. Nature 

 study was unknown before that time, although 



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textbooks in natural history were not unfa- 

 miliar to the school children of that day. Once 

 the idea was introduced, people for the most 

 part held that it would be a mere waste of time 

 to put this study into the school curriculum; 

 that the school day was already all too short 

 and that to introduce a new study was to take 

 time which was needed for those necessary ones 

 aln ady established. 



Howe \i r. the best educators, who were fa- 

 thering a larger educational movement away 

 from "culture studies," so called, of which this 

 was only one aspect. m-i-tr.l on the importance 

 of the new study. They contended that the end 

 of education was not mm !> tin- acquiring of a 

 certain amount of learning. They held that 

 education had no ri^ht to tin- name unless it 

 i or its purpose as well the preparing of men 

 and women to lm> britrr. Children needed to 

 be equipped for active, productive, joyous living 

 as well as to be grounded in the elementary 

 studies reading, writing, arithmetic, etc. The 



