340 GENERAL TREATMENT. 



of ' Publications for the Promotion of Kindness to Animals,' 

 issued by Messrs. Partridge & Co., of London. The volumes 

 are copiously illustrated by Harrison Weir, and other artists, 

 and the authors include the well-known names of the "Rev. 

 F. 0. Morris, the Rev. Prebendary Jackson, Mary Howitt, 

 Mrs. S. C. Hall, Mrs. Bray, Shirley Hibberd, and Harland 

 Coultas. Equally specific in its character is ' The Humanity 

 Series of School Books ' a set of six, published by Messrs. 

 Murby, also of London, and edited by the Rev. F. O. Morris. 



But it is important that children be taught no nonsense 

 about zoology ; that their attention be rigidly confined to 

 what is true and capable of verification by themselves ; to 

 facts of observation, or to such fair or obvious inferences from 

 these facts as their own intellectual power enables them to 

 think out or deduce for themselves. I urge this strongly ; 

 because I have had occasion to examine many English read- 

 ing books used in the very best public academies of Scot- 

 land, including those both of Edinburgh and the provinces, 

 and I have been alarmed and disgusted at the kind and 

 amount of mischievous nonsense that is introduced in the 

 form of supposed zoological fact. Hence I think that such 

 school-books should either be drawn up or revised by our 

 most philosophical naturalists men like Huxley and Hooker, 

 who do not decline the humble but important task of pre- 

 paring school 'primers.' It has become obvious to me that 

 neither do the compilers of current school-books know any- 

 thing of natural history, nor do the teachers, for the latter 

 fail to call attention to the glaring errors in question. 



In short, it is an essential and inseparable part of any 

 system of tuition of the young in zoological knowledge that 

 the teachers themselves should first be taught. Notwith- 

 standing all the certificates and grades of the present public 

 or government educational system in this country, we have not 

 yet produced, except here and there rari aves in gurgite vasto 

 competent teachers possessed of a knowledge of even the 

 rudiments of natural history, zoology, physiology, psychology; 

 and until we do possess such teachers, it is hopeless to expect 

 proper instruction of their pupils. 



In the second place, much may be done in the form of 



