Mr. Elliot's Address 231 



Three difficulties are always serious. It is very 

 hard to get good demonstrators, and even harder to 

 keep them when discovered. The pay is not sufficient 

 for me to be able conscientiously to advise a student 

 to go in permanently for Nature-study teaching. 



Now these demonstrators must be well - trained, 

 able to influence students; and especially they must 

 be gifted with that enthusiasm for Nature without 

 which no equipment is of the least use. Such people 

 are rare, and cannot be advised to delay their medical 

 or other work for Nature-study. If we were convinced 

 of the permanence of such classes, no doubt it would 

 be possible to offer inducements quite equal to those 

 which are open to, say, a lady medical student. But, 

 at present, with all the real eagerness in the country 

 for technical efficiency, it is quite impossible to obtain 

 any post (however humble) by mere efficiency in 

 some technical, botanical, or agricultural subject. 



Another serious difficulty lies in the distaste of the 

 average student for using his reasoning power; he is 

 unaccustomed to do this, and regards it as a suspicious 

 novelty. On the other hand, he is delighted to learn 

 up words, and especially those Latin and Greek terms 

 which he supposes to constitute " science ". 



Many text-books are responsible for this pernicious 

 habit, which will, for instance, make students say that 

 "on injudicious contact with the common nettle, a 

 prickly sensation takes place ". Care must also be 

 taken lest students learn up hints and suggestions 

 by heart and without intelligence. Such sentences as 

 " the fruit of the oak is carried by ants ", " the waxy 

 appearance of this plant keeps off injurious insects ", 

 show this tendency. 



