798 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 779 



in an experimental lecture with explanations. 

 The lecture may be made very clear and good; 

 and this will be an attractive and not difficult 

 method of teaching, and will meet most of the 

 requirementi5. It fails, however, in one. The boy 

 is helped over all the difficulties; he is never 

 brought face to face with nature and her prob- 

 lems; what cost the world centuries of thought 

 is told him in a minute; his attention, clearness 

 of understanding, and memory are all exercised; 

 but the one power which the study of physical 

 science ought preeminently to exercise, and almost 

 to create, the power of bringing the mind into 

 contact with facts, of seizing their relations, of 

 eliminating the irrelevant by experiment and 

 comparison, of groping after ideas and testing 

 them in their adequacy, in a word of exercising 

 all the active faculties which are required for 

 an investigation in any matter — these may lie 

 dormant in the class while the most learned 

 lecturer experiments with facility and explains 

 with clearness. 



In what has been said I have dealt only 

 with the most evident of the problems now 

 before the physics teachers— namely, the 

 problem of how to teach so as to leave the 

 pupil with an added power to achieve. I 

 have given it as my frank opinion that we 

 are not oversuceessful in this at present, 

 have urged that scientific experiment in 

 teaching offers the only means of finding 

 out how to become more successful, and 

 have suggested several working hypotheses 

 as possible guides to such experimenting. 

 The subject has, however, only been grazed 

 by what has been said. No mention has 

 been made of the contributions that phys- 

 ics teaching might make to the social effi- 

 ciency of the community ; nor has the prob- 

 lem of making the physics contribute its 

 share to moral education been considered. 

 The questions as to why America does not 

 contribute her just quota to the number of 

 the world's greatest scientists have not been 

 discussed. These larger problems of sci- 

 ence will have to be left for future discus- 

 sion. Their solution, like that of the 

 problem that has occupied our attention, is 



waiting for the scientific experiments in 

 education, which alone can lead us to a 

 satisfactory conclusion. 



C. R. Mann 

 The Univebsity of Chicago 



THE EIGHTH ZOOLOGICAL CONGRESS 



The preliminary announcement of the 

 eighth International Zoological Congress is 

 just issued and of it we make the following ab- 

 stract. The congress meets at Graz, Austria, 

 on August 15-20, 1910, under the presidency 

 of Hofrat, Professor Ludwig von Graff, who 

 was elected to the position at the Boston Con- 

 gress in 1907. 



At 9 A.M., on Monday, is the registration, 

 followed by a meeting of the permanent com- 

 mittee of the congress and an inspection of 

 the university. At 3 p.m. are the general for- 

 malities of opening, with addresses of wel- 

 come, presentation of delegates, formation of 

 sections and the like. At the close of the ses- 

 sion the members go to the Heimwald, where 

 there will be an informal gathering in the 

 restaurant. 



On Tuesday and the following days the 

 general sessions are at 9, with sectional meet- 

 ings at 2 in the afternoons, and on Tuesday 

 and Wednesday there are lantern lectures on 

 Styria and the Dalmatian coast. From 4:30 

 on there are small excursions to the beautiful 

 places in the surrounding mountains. On 

 Friday evening the congress proper ends with 

 a banquet to the congress. 



On Saturday the congress goes on an ex- 

 cursion to the Erzberg and Leopoldstein See 

 and on Sunday to Trieste, where the Austrian 

 Zoological Station forms the chief object of 

 interest. If possible the beautiful Imperial 

 Castle of Miramar (associated in the minds of 

 Americans with the unfortunate Maximilian 

 of Mexico) will be visited. 



From Monday, August 22, to Saturday 

 evening, there will be an excursion in one of 

 the steamers of the Austrian Lloyds down the 

 Dalmatian coast, stopping at Rovigno, Pola, 

 Sebenico, Trau, Spoleto, Lesina, Lissa, 

 Meleda, Ragusa and Cattaro. Ample time 

 will be allowed at the latter place for a trip 



