JANUARY 11, 1901.] 
this kind is frequently displayed by educated 
men without the least sign of compunction. 
In fact it is usually treated in a jocund way 
much as when one confesses his ignorance 
of the latest mode in garments or of other 
trivial affairs of life. One may infer from 
this attitude that a knowledge of biology is 
not widespread or highly esteemed among 
the educated people of our time, otherwise 
it would not be deemed expedient to treat 
this knowledge with the contempt of levity. 
The condition that actually exists recalls the 
state of affairs that prevailed some two or 
three hundred years ago, when “ Many a 
pretty fellow, who was a wit, too, ready of 
repartee, and possessed of a thousand graces 
would be puzzled if he had to write more 
than his own name.”’ The ability to write 
with moderate ease is widespread now, and 
not even the possession of a thousand graces, 
would save one from a sense of humiliation 
if he were deficient in the elements of an 
English education. It would really seem 
desirable that our colleges should provide 
against the possibility of their graduates 
entering life a thousand years or more in 
arrears in all that concerns vital phenom- 
ena. So far as I am aware it is possible for 
a man to go through college and he in- 
structed in the wisdom of the ancients and 
the history of mankind, and yet be left in 
a condition of child-like ignorance concern- 
ing what is known of the most striking and 
important phenomenon of the universe, 
namely, living matter and its properties. 
Next to living itself there is nothing, it 
would seem, that should so interest mortal 
man as that physical basis of life through 
which his living is effected and in such large 
part influenced and controlled. Biology 
seeks to discover what it may concerning 
this substance, its structure, the laws con- 
trolling its activity, its origin, its growth, its 
death. These are matters concerning which 
every intelligent man has a natural curios- 
ity, and concerning which every educated 
SCIENCE. 51 
man ought to have some reliable informa- 
tion, so much at least as would enable him 
to appreciate the modern point of view 
and follow the trend of contemporaneous 
thought. <A brief course in elementary bi- 
ology meets this requirement where a course 
in natural history, so-called, would probably 
prove insufficient. .The latter gives the 
large but external view of living nature, the 
former brings us into close contact with the 
inner structure of living matter, the medium 
of all the manifestations of life. On the other 
hand, those who have not had the advantage 
of some elementary instruction in biology 
will find that a large and important chapter 
in the revelations of modern science and the 
progress of modern civilization is written in 
a language which it will be difficult for them 
to comprehend. 
When one considers the interest and im- 
portance of biology and its peculiarly inti- 
mate relations with the act of living, it be- 
comes a fair question whether or not this 
side of knowledge should be represented in 
the course of study of every college student. 
It would seem to me that inasmuch as we 
are creatures of the senses, and must seek 
the foundations of our knowledge in the de- 
liverances of the senses concerning the 
world without, the education of every in- 
dividual should include some instruction 
concerning the animate as well as the in- 
animate world in which we find ourselves 
placed. He should possess some informa- 
tion about the means and method by which 
knowledge is acquired, and the external 
phenomena that are the occasion of this 
knowledge. 
Moreover, the culture inculeated by nat- 
ural science, both physical and biological, is 
a world culture that takes us back beyond 
the history of mankind and looks hopefully 
forward into the future expectant of greater 
and greater development. It is a culture 
too that we can share in common with all 
the sons of men, whether their classical tra- 
