242 

NATURE 
(Xan. 26, 1871 

under three heads, classical boys, mathematical boys, 
and good-for-nothing boys. This last class exists mainly 
because the proper food for them has not been provided, 
they are allowed to starve for lack of it, and grow up as 
men with stunted and impoverished intellects ; they have 
not been educated, the powers of their minds have not 
been drawn out by the fit means, and they pass through 
the world as animated failures. 
Let Science work side by side with Classics}and Mathe- 
matics—not usurp their places—in the work of education, 
and the good-for-nothing class will be very sensibly 
diminished, if indeed it be not entirely done away with. 
But how is this to be done? Inthe first place, gradually ; 
in the second place, zealously; in the third place, 
thoroughly. Gradually, because it is a new thing, anda 
large proportion of our private schoolmasters have had no 
regular training in science themselves. Zealously, because 
if a teacher be not himself interested in what*he teaches, 
he can have no assurance of success, and no encourage- 
ment from his pupils. Thoroughly, because a thing worth 
doing at all is worth doing well. 
This is the spiritin which the work must be done, but 
what are the special means? Are boys to read about 
Science merely, or are they to touch and handle Science 
for themselves? It is doubtless a good thing to read 
about the truths of Science and their experimental 
illustration ; it is a better thing to see those truths illus- 
trated and proved by another; but it is by far the best 
thing to experiment upon and prove the truths by one’s self. 
There is nothing that comes home so much to a boy’s 
mind as an experimental proof. He may read of the 
dual character of electricity, and may get! some vague 
ideas on the subject ; as soon, however, as he takes two 
sticks of sealing-wax, suspends one, rubs both, and brings 
one near to the other, he, as it were, discovers for himself 
that the same bodies electrified by the same means repel 
one another, and on experimenting with glass and sealing- 
wax sticks he learns something of attraction, and is 
naturally led on from experiment to experiment until the 
powers of his mind become quite drawn out, or educated 
in the pleasurable pursuit of the subject. In the Science- 
teaching of boys, then, practical demonstrations must 
play an important part. Let reading, hearing lectures, 
and attending classes, and individual experimentation, be 
the working tools. A lecture of itself is but a poor tool, 
it produces an effect for the time, but in many cases no 
very permanent good. A lecturer must also be a teacher 
out of lecture hours. 
As a commencement of Science-teaching in schools we 
commend the following plan to the notice of Science- 
teachers. Let one or two evenings in the week be set 
apart for lectures on some branch of Science, Experimental 
Physics, Botany, or Geology. Each lecture to last xof 
more than an hour, and to be experimentally , illustrated 
in the way best suited to the subject, always bearing in 
mind that the simplest experiments, or those most easily 
imitated by the pupils, are the best. Let the pupils be 
encouraged to take notes, and let the lecturer sum 
up in a concise form at the end of the lecture the 
main points established, which may be written in the 
form of memoranda on a black board and copied by 
the pupils. A day or two after the lecture let him 
hold a conversational class, the attendance optional. He 

will then briefly run over the matter of the last lecture, 
find out by questioning what points are not thoroughly 
understood, re-explain or even re-experiment, and en- 
deavour to leave each mind with a perfect understanding 
of fundamentals. Ona third evening let him give a series of 
simple—not needlessly puzzling—examination questions, 
and look over each boy's answers with himself alone, if 
possible, in order to give an opportunity for a yet more 
thorough explanation of any difficult point suited to the 
individual capacity of each, Instead of a string of 
questions, a subject for an essay in connection with the 
lectures might occasionally be given. Private reading of 
text-books should’always be encouraged. 
Now, as to the results of a system of this kind, taking 
such a subject as Experimental Physics, it will be found 
that the lectures are always looked forward to with no 
ordinary pleasure, and are listened to with no ordinary 
attention, At the conversational classes the way in which 
such subjects teach boys to think is often clearly seen ; 
they ask most puzzling questions, yet natural ones, and in 
many cases seek to go far deeper into the subject than the 
lecturer had at first any idea of leading them. This 
general interest incites them to read and perform such 
simple experiments for themselves as are within their 
power. 
Generally speaking it is not the high classical or even 
the mathematical boys that have excelled in Science learn- 
ing, but precisely those who before occupied no promi- 
nent place in the school, had no special gift for classics or 
mathematics, and were considered, more or less, good-for- 
nothings. And here it is important to remember that a 
person may have a mathematical mind without being a 
mathematician. 
While such subjects as Chemistry and Physics claim, 
perhaps, the highest position as a means of scientific 
education, it is important to vary the programme as much 
as possible without treating any superficially. Thus Astro- 
nomy, Geology, Physiology,and Botany have strong claims. 
It is certainly most deplorable to think that even now 
in many of our private schools the pupils are being tacitly 
taught that the world was made in six days, and that man 
is but some 6,000 years old. They might as well learn that 
there are but four elements—earth, air, fire, and water. 
We look with confidence for better things in the future. 


COHN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BIOLOGY 
OF PLANTS 
Bettrage zur Biologte der Pflanzen. Herausgegeben von 
Dr. Ferdinand Cohn. Erster Heft. Mit sechs zum 
theil farbigen Tafeln. (Breslau, 1870. London : 
Williams and Norgate.) 
Wes is the first part of a new periodical established 
primarily for the publication of the results of the 
observations made at the Botanico-Physiological Insti- 
tute at Breslau. The part contains five papers on different 
microscopic algze and fungi, and their pathological effects. 
In subsequent numbers it is intended to give priority to 
botanical observations which relate to biological ques- 
tions, or which are more or less connected with practical 
natural science, medicine, agriculture, &c. It is hoped 
that the publication may fill the place formerly occupied 
by Karsten’s “ Botanische Untersuchungen.” 
