12 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN SCIENCE. 



its form, or substance, comes under the domain of physics and 

 chemistry. Some knowledge of these subjects is therefore neces- 

 sary to intelligent work in any other department of science. 



Botany treats of the vegetable kingdom, including trees, flow- 

 ering plants, ferns, mosses, fungi, molds, alga?, etc., considering 

 their form and structure, the conditions of their growth, and 

 their relation on one side to minerals and on the other to ani- 

 mals. Zoology and its sub-departments deals with animal life, 

 including birds, fish, insects, reptiles, mammals, etc., in much the 

 same way that botany deals with vegetation. 



Geology, drawing largely from other branches of science, con- 

 siders the earth as a working organism, giving special attention 

 to climate and those relations between the mineral, vegetable 

 and animal worlds which have so largely determined the past 

 and present conditions of our eartk. Geology covers much of 

 the field usually treated in physical geography, taking a general 

 view of the earth as a whole. 



Yon Humboldt, at the beginning of the century, was able to 

 master the whole domain of science as known at that time. No 

 student of to-day could survey the whole field of science; in fact, 

 few can master the whole work of any one of its departments. 

 The growth of scientific knowledge during the present century 

 has been wonderful, not only as to quantity but as to quality. 

 It is as if workers from all parts of the world, bringing the pro- 

 ducts of their investigations, as bricks and stones, had laid them 

 somewhat haphazard into an edifice; these workers, following 

 the lead of a few master builders, have laid a structure of giant 

 proportions, rugged in form, incomplete in detail, but broad of 

 foundation, showing few lines of weakness and possessing a unity 

 and symmetry surpassing the work done by man in any other 

 field of human endeavor. The strength, unity and symmetry 

 of this body of knowledge depends mainly upon the scientific 

 method. 



The great body of scientific knowledge may well discourage us 

 from attempting to master the whole, but should not turn us 

 aside from this important study. Careful scientific work in any 



