i 



REAL NATURE STUDY 63 



theories of the several sciences should be under- 

 taken — more especially in view of the great ad- 

 vances that have been made in recent years in 

 scientific education, and of the spread of a desire 

 for knowledge of scientific subjects among the 

 general public. The very encouraging revival of 

 popular interest in natural history which has led 

 to and accompanied the development of Nature 

 Study, both in schools and among the general 

 public, emphasises this contention. 



" It is impossible now to be a biologist without 

 possessing some acquaintance with Physics and 

 Chemistry; Biology itself includes both Botany 

 and Zoology; Physiology deals with the vital 

 phenomena which are common to both plants and 

 animals, while Geology is based on Physics, 

 Chemistry, and Astronomy. Biology, regarded 

 from another point of view, leads directly on to 

 Anthropology and Ethnology, and may be held to 

 culminate in Sociology." 



It would be well for all those engaged or in- 

 terested in Nature Study to follow out carefully 

 this line of thought, and, starting with Astronomy, 

 perhaps the widest and most wonderful subject of 

 all, to pass to the book of the Rocks, i,e.^ Geology, 

 or the study of the Earth — to Physics and 

 Chemistry, which deal with the forces at work 

 upon the latter — to Biology, or the study of 

 the living organisms it bears — and, finally, to 



