452 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by Mr. W. C. Greenough, of the Providence Normal School; zool- 

 ogy? by Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, then custodian of the Boston Society 

 of Natural History; botany, by Dr. W. G. Farlow, of Cambridge 



in all thirty-three lessons. 

 These courses were wholly 

 tentative and experimental, 

 but attained success that was 

 most encouraging. 



Through the kindness of 

 Professor Runkle, President 

 of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology, Hunting- 

 ton Hall, in which so many 

 great scientists have spoken, 

 was opened for the first les- 

 son in geography. Professor 

 Niles here delivered six lec- 

 tures. " He undertook to 

 give the more general fea- 

 tures of the earth's surface, 

 and then to apply these gen- 

 eral principles to the explana- 

 tion of the physical charac- 

 teristics of Massachusetts." 



The success of this course may be judged by the average attend- 

 ance, which was about six hundred teachers of all grades, and by 

 the fact that the teaching of geography in some of the public schools 

 at once underwent a change in favor of the more natural method 

 introduced by him. 



" On account of the necessity of actually handling and dissect- 

 ing specimens, the tickets issued for the succeeding lessons were 

 limited, and at the six lessons on mineralogy and eleven on zoology 

 there was an average attendance of about fifty-five. The mate- 

 rials for the course in zoology were gathered in sufficient abundance 

 through the extraordinary facilities for collecting marine animals 

 afforded by Prof. S. F. Baird, United States Commissioner of Fisher- 

 ies; those for the course in botany were furnished with equal readi- 

 ness and generosity by Prof. Asa Gray from his botanical garden 

 at Cambridge." 



The society's attempt to introduce natural history into the pub- 

 lic schools met with favor at the hands of the superintendent, Mr. 

 Philbrick, and a committee of school principals was appointed, with 

 Mr. James A. Page as chairman, who canvassed the teachers re- 

 garding this matter. Accordingly, in October, 1871, a circular was 



JOHN CUMMINGS. 



