Professor Morgan's Address 139 



NATURE-STUDY IN ELEMENTARY 

 EDUCATION 



By Professor C. LLOYD MORGAN, F.R.S., Principal 

 OF University College, Bristol 



To the question, " What are we to understand by 

 Nature-study?" I would reply, "A process by which 

 simple natural objects and events acquire meaning". 



Those who are interested in the early stages of 

 genetic psychology, those who endeavour to trace the 

 first steps which intelligence takes towards a practical 

 knowledge of its environment, are impressed by the 

 fact that the method by which experience grows is 

 the acquirement of meaning. The newly-hatched 

 chick sees here a brown looper caterpillar, there one 

 ringed with orange and black. Instinctive tendencies 

 prompt it to peck at both. The one is found to be 

 palatable, and is promptly swallowed; the other 

 proves nauseous, and is rejected. For the future, just 

 in so far as memory in its simplest form holds (and in 

 these matters and in this form it holds with remark- 

 able tenacity), each has acquired meaning. The 

 appearance of the one means "nice"; that of the 

 other means "nasty". The environment is so far 

 differentiated in accordance with its meaning for the 

 palate. The essential feature of this process, which 

 I have illustrated by a very simple example, is that 

 meaning is acquired by the bringing together and 

 correlating of the data obtained through different 

 senses. Sights or sounds have no meaning until they 

 remind us of a wider experience than is gained by 

 seeing or hearing alone. 



