236 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



wherein is the advantage with instruction ? Every teaching 

 investigator can answer that ; and the answer will be, that 

 power of exposition can be acquired and perfected by class 

 work and lectures to an extent otherwise unattainable. In this 

 we need no better example than Huxley. If rare powers of 

 exposition are sometimes gained without teaching, as in the 

 case of Darwin, that in no way weakens the position here 

 taken, which is that teaching is the most effective method, 

 not the only one, yet an essential one to the highest attainment. 



One thing more on this point. Why do we place so high a 

 value on investigation ? Because it is the only way of advanc- 

 ing knowledge, and because it affords a most attractive field 

 for the exercise of the mind. But if knowledge needs advance- 

 ment, so does the investigator, and whatever contributes to the 

 increase and improvement of his powers makes him the better 

 investigator, and thus indirectly raises the quality and augments 

 the quantity of his researches. Herein instruction plays a very 

 important part, as becomes evident when we remember that 

 with increasing specialization in science the investigator him- 

 self becomes more and more dependent upon the instruction 

 which he draws, not only from books and journals, but also 

 directly from his colleagues and his pupils. Indeed, he may 

 learn in this way much quicker and more thoroughly than by 

 reading, and often a long time in advance of publication. That 

 is an immense advantage realized in a variety of ways, as in 

 lectures giving the more important results of work before pub- 

 lication; in seminars where the results of individual investi- 

 gators are brought forward and discussed, while the work is 

 still in progress; in journal clubs devoted to reviews and dis- 

 cussions; in direct intercourse with pupils, seeing with their 

 eyes and working with their hands; in daily intercourse of 

 thought and comparison of observations with fellow-workers, 

 etc. Indeed, it may be truly said that no one stands in such 

 close and pressing need of continual instruction as the investi- 

 gator. No one else absorbs it more eagerly and copiously, and 

 no one else can convert it so directly into the results of research. 



Another advantage supplied by instruction must be men- 

 tioned here, for in it I see opportunities for development of 



