ZOOLOGICAL TEACHING 251 



better than one who does not. Of course, lecturing is 

 anything but the chief part of my duties, as I under- 

 stand them, and the rest I flatter myself I perform 

 decently.* 



When the teaching of Zoology in the University was 

 considerably changed about the year 1884, after the 

 death of Francis Balfour, Newton went to the trouble of 

 writing a course of lectures on Geographical Distribution, 

 and another course on Evidences of Evolution. They 

 were very correct, painstaking lectures, but unfortu- 

 nately he found that they would not stretch over a 

 whole term each, of three lectures a week. He 

 announced that he would lecture on Monday, Wednes- 

 day, and Friday at twelve oclock, but year after year 

 he told the class that next Monday he would unfortu- 

 nately not be able to lecture owing to urgent business ; 

 and this would continue throughout the term. He 

 went instead on a weekly tour of inspection of some 

 farms with the College Bursar, his friend F. Pattrick. 



It is quite certain that he put little value on lectures 

 as a means of teaching. What he thought of the 

 University course of zoological studies, or what he 

 would have liked to see substituted for it, is not so 

 plain to see. 



A course of Elementary Zoology is undoubtedly a 

 good thing and I wish there had been such a thing in 

 my younger days, but my experience of it here is that 

 it is very apt to disgust or at least dishearten the man 

 who is by nature a zoologist. If he can stand it, all the 

 better for him ; but it is only a groundwork, and the 

 mistake so many people make is that after they have 

 gone through the course they think they are finished 

 zoologists, f 



* Letter to Mrs. Strickland, March 18, 1874. 

 t Letter to N. B. Kinnear, February 13, 1907. 



