those who have taken part in the conferences or have 
promised to do so. A short account of some of the 
addresses and papers is given below. 
THE CONFERENCES, 
Mr. Hanbury, President of the Board of Agriculture, 
presided at the first of the meetings on July 24 and spoke of 
the general educational value of nature-study and of the special 
dependence of agricultural industry upon habits of careful obser- 
vation. He further pointed out how his Board and that of 
Education were working in harmony together, and said with 
regard to those agricultural colleges which have been under- 
taking the training of teachers that their work ought to be 
recognised by the bestowal of extra grants by the Board of 
Agriculture, 
Lord Avebury took as the subject of the first address ‘* The 
Study of Nature.” He attributed a most curious ignorance of 
common things to the fact that great public schools omit the 
subject altogether, or devote to it only an hour or two in the 
week snatched from the insatiable demands of Latin and Greek. 
Oxford and Cambridge have most excellent science schools, but 
prizes and fellowships are still mainly given to classics and 
mathematics ; degrees are given there, and now, alas! even at 
the University of London, without requiring any knowledge of 
the world in which we live. Our universities give excellent 
teaching, they prepare learned specialists, but are places of 
instruction rather than of education. Lord Avebury touched also 
on early specialisation ; on the use and abuse of collections ; 
and the various lines along which nature may be studied. 
Mr. Henry Hobhouse, M.P., read a paper on ‘*‘ How County 
Councils may encourage Nature-Study.” Their chief work, he 
said, lies in the direction of training teachers, and this training, 
though not necessarily a thoroughly scientific one, should impart 
the elements of certain sciences, and more particularly a know- 
ledge of the best methods of inculcating habits of observation. 
Mr. Hobhouse summarised what the county councils had already 
done, and said that much more still remained to be accom- 
plished. As it was not to be expected that every village school- 
mistress would be able to teach nature-study, an arrangement 
would have to be made for peripatetic teachers to visit groups of 
small schools: school gardens and school museums would also 
have to be organised. Useful work in the protection of wild 
birds might be done by holding classes to which gamekeepers 
might be specially asked to attend, and much economic nature- 
study could be taken up. 
Prof. Geddes was unable to be present, and his paper was 
taken as read ; its vital points are (1) that nature is a moving 
unity or pageant of the seasons, not an abstract syllabus of 
“fobject lessons” or even dissected ‘‘types”; (2) that the 
essential strategic point for the nature teacher is to give the 
pupil the joy of nature before the intellectual analysis of it ; (3) 
among immediate practical possibilities, and taking excursions 
for granted, the essential desideratum to be secured for country 
and suburban schools without delay and for town schools so far 
as possible is the school garden, always provided this is designed 
to show to the full, the living seasonal beauty of its chosen plants 
and be not a cats’ graveyard of labels, however orderly. The 
introduction of a flower border, however small, into the present 
desert playground is pleaded for on all grounds, moral as well as 
intellectual and zesthetic. 
Prof, J. Arthur Thomson began his most interesting and 
suggestive paper by quoting the definition of nature-study 
given by his friend Prof. Geddes, it is ‘‘ the habit of observing 
and thinking for oneself and at one’s best, without books or helps, 
in the presence of the facts and in the open air.” Prof. Thomson 
had next a word to say on the danger of doing nature-study teach- 
ing badly and distorting the child’s outlook on the world. Given 
aman or woman withthe mood of the naturalist, the country 
schoolmaster who knows and loves the birds, or the country school- 
mistress who knows and loves the flowers, then the course of 
nature-study—now compulsory—is sure to be healthful. Given, 
however, a teacher who, through overwork, or preoccupation 
with other disciplines, or lack of early training, is only coercively, 
not organically, interested in nature-lore, then Prof. Thomson 
feared that the result would be very bad indeed. The title 
of the paper was the ‘‘ Seasonal Study of Natural History,” 
anda sketch of a seasonal course was given, arranged so that 
the scholars faced appropriate problems at appropriate times. 
NO. 1709, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[JULY 3F, 1902 
It was argued that the seasonal order and method of study, 
though not the easiest, was the most natural. It was the most 
primitive method, yet the exhibits seemed to show that it was 
capable of being the most evolved. It followed up the pre-school 
education of the child, and was justified by physiological and 
psychological facts. Furthermore, the seasonal method worked 
exceedingly well in practice, being always relevant to what the 
pupils are seeing and feeling out of school, facilitating the de- 
sirable cooperation of the class in securing the specimens for 
the actual work, and being readily correlated with other school 
studies. 
Mr. H. Coates illustrated the subject of local museums as 
aids in the teaching of nature with reference to Perth Museum, 
in connection with which children’s essay competitions are most 
successfully held. 
Lord Strathcona, as chairman at the second conference on 
July 28, gave an account of work in Canada carried out by the 
generosity of Sir William McDonald, who has given three- 
quarters of a million of money. Model farms were touched 
upon, and Lord Strathcona gave a particularly interesting 
account of his own work in introducing vegetable culture into 
Labrador, which had previously been unknown. 
Prof. Lloyd Morgan had also a definition to give when dealing 
with nature-study in elementary education. He said that it 
was ‘‘a means by which simple natural objects and processes 
acquire meaning.” Like Prof. Thomson’s paper, the whole 
question is so carefully considered that no brief notice could 
do it justice. The movement which the meeting was to 
foster and develop, according to the speaker, is part of 
that reform of educational procedure which has been in 
progress for many years. One of the points to be regarded is the 
patchiness of a child’s mind, to whom even the beginnings 
of science are impossible. The teacher, say a scientific 
botanist, must not, therefore, get tired of fostering the powers 
of observation and affording facilities for simple investigation, 
and instead endeavour to inculcate general laws and principles 
beyond the comprehension of the child. Technical terms where 
they are simple nouns and not descriptions are allowable, but 
after reading a long description of the dandelion taken from a 
nature-study book Prof. Morgan begged his hearers to stop 
before they got to ‘‘ anthers syngenesious.” ; 
Mr. Franklin dealt with how to bring children into touch with 
nature, and the work of the Leicester School Board was de- 
scribed by Mr. Major. Miss Mary Simpson, in speaking of 
the teacher as an observer, suggested that if. the teacher had 
reached that stage most of the difficulties would be gone. 
Finally, at this meeting, which during the latter half was pre- 
sided over by Sir Joshua Fitch, Mr. John Evans urged the 
advantages of using trees as a means of nature-study. 
On Tuesday, July 29, the chair was taken by the Lord Balfour 
of Burleigh, K.T., Secretary for Scotland. He gave an 
account of the excellent progress of the ‘‘ nature-study ” move- 
ment started several years ago across the border. ‘‘ Nature- 
study,” he said, must be rather looked upon by the children as 
recreation ; their minds must not be filled with facts, but must 
be taught to make observations and to investigate. If this 
were done it would redound to the credit of education in all 
countries. 
Mr. Choate, the American Ambassador, in introducing Prof. 
Albert Bickmore, of the Natural History Museum, New 
York, added the weight of his testimony to the value of the 
work in hand. After this Prof. Bickmore briefly explained his 
methods of visual instruction, at first geographical and now 
combined with nature-study ; and after the conference in the 
club-room the audience adjourned to the museum in the gar- 
dens to see a series of views thrown upon the screen with the 
lantern to illustrate further Prof. Bickmore’s methods, with 
children, older scholars, university students and teachers. He 
began his work with a class of 28, and last winter the atten- 
dance at his lectures was 26,910. 
Mr. Herbert Morrell, M.P., brought forward many trenchant 
and amusing examples of the value of ‘‘ Nature-Study in relation 
to Rural Pursuits.” 
Prof. Hall, of Wye College, in defining the *‘ Proper Attitude 
of the Teacher,” had some excellent points to lay before his 
hearers. He appeared, however, to think, contrary to others 
interested in the subject, that ‘‘ facts” must be accompanied 
by ‘‘ ideas,” which brings it near to elementary science teaching. 
The subject taken from the standpoint of a teacher in an 
elementary school and considered in a paper by Mr. G. H. 
