D. — ^ZOOLOGY. 95 



lies solely in a few sheets of the life histories of the cabbage butterfly 

 and other insects. Fossil sea urchins and shells are curiosities and 

 are used to teach names. The whole is taught — there are some striking 

 exceptions — with the minimum requirements of observation and intelli- 

 gence. Plants too often dominate. The lad can pluck flowers and 

 tear up roots ; there is a certain cruelty to be discouraged if animals 

 are treated similarly, but here there is none, for 'they are not alive ' as 

 we are. Which one of us would agree to this, and say that there is 

 not a similar ' cruelty ' in tearing up plants? The method is the 

 negation of science. The boy must be taught from the other end, from 

 flie one animal about which he does know a little, viz., himself. From 

 the commencement he must associate himself with all living matter. 

 The child — boy or girl^shows us the way in that he is invariably keener 

 on the domestic pets, while he has to be bribed by pennies to learn 

 plant names. 



As a result of the wrong teaching of zoology we see proposals to 

 make so-called ' nature study ' in our schools purely, botanical. Is 

 this proposal made in the interests of the teacher or the children ? It 

 surely can't be for ' decency ' if the teaching is honest, for the pheno- 

 mena are the same, and there is nothing ' indecent ' common to all 

 life. 'The proper study of mankind is man,' and the poor child, 

 atKirst for information about himself, is given a piece of moss or duck- 

 weed, or even a chaste buttercup. Is the child supposed to get some 

 knowledge it can apply economically? "Whatever the underlying ideas 

 may be, this course will not best develop the mind to enable it to 

 grapple with all phenomena, the aim of education. If necessary, the 

 school teacher must go to school ; he must bring himself up to date in 

 his own time, as every teacher in science has to do; it is the business 

 of Universities to help him, for nothing is more important to all science 

 than the foundations of knowledge. 



Into scliools is now moving the teaching required for the first 

 professional examination in medicine, and this profoundly affects the 

 whole attitude of teachers. It has a syllabus approved by the Union 

 of Medicine, the ' apprenticeship ' to which is as real and as difficult to 

 alter as that of any expert trade with its own union. It compels the 

 remembering of a number of anatomical facts relating to a miscellaneous 

 selection of animals and plants, and the aequirement of a certain 

 amount of technique. However it may be taught, its examination can 

 almost invariably be passed on memory and manual dexterity ; it implies 

 no standard of mental ability. Anatomy without function and know- 

 ledge of an organism without reference to its life is surely futile. And 

 yet, too often, this is what our colleagues concerned with the second 

 year of this apprenticeship directly or indirectly compel us to teach 

 in the first year. Surely it is time for us to rebel and insist that what 

 is required is education as to the real meaning of what life is. We 

 shall never reach complete agreement as to a syllabus, bul probably 

 we are all at one in regarding reproduction as the most interesting 

 biological phenomenon, and water and air as the most important environ- 

 ments. 



Unfortunately most Universities have adopted this in many ways 



