232 University of California Publications in Zoology (Vou. 9 
And undoubtedly many, perhaps not all, professional biolo- 
gists are abundantly endowed by nature with the ability to do 
this extracting and preparing for general consumption. Aequir- 
ing the knack to do it is dependent first and foremost on being 
convinced that it ought to be done. The fact that many biologists 
develop splendidly the talent for graphie art in response to the 
need of illustrating the organisms and organs with which they 
deal, is proof positive that the art instinct is not wanting in 
them; and there is every reason to believe that this instinet would 
come out as literary skill here and there, as well as in the form 
of skill in delineation, were the need felt as keenly in the one 
case as in the other. 
Assuming the contention to be sound that biological knowledge 
ought to be more widely disseminated than it is, and that so far 
as concerns the capabilities and desires of people such dissemina- 
tion is possible, the familiar question arises, ‘‘What are you 
going to do about it?’’ ‘‘The schools!’’ Nine out of ten, I 
suppose, of those who would assent to my contention would turn 
automatically in this direction. 
To forestall doubt about my just appraisement of the schools, 
the college, the university, in educating the young, I refer to an 
article (‘‘Feeling in the interpretation of nature,’’ Pop. Sei. Mo., 
79, 1911) in which I have taken the ground that these instru- 
ments ought to and could, do vastly more than they do toward 
making the people appreciative of and intelligent toward nature. 
Here I would insist that no matter how efficiently and broadly 
the tasks of institutional instruction might be performed, they 
would still have to be extensively supplemented before the real 
saving power of knowledge could be realized. This supplement- 
ing would have to be done in two places particularly: In the 
home for young children before school age is reached; and for 
grown-ups after the school period is passed. 
Our eyes must be opened in some way to the fact that educa- 
tion taken in the full sweep of its meaning, is too life-and-death 
a matter for us as a nation to be left to the formalities of the 
schoolroom, the university lecture hall and the laboratory, even 
though these be excellent beyond the possibility of improvement. 
This truth is being forced upon us at a few points. As oné 
