Apeil 24, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



611' 



struction is that the two should be associ- 

 ated so as to give the men of science leisure 

 for their studies as well as an opportunity 

 to influence, youths by their teachings. 



INTERDEPENDENCE BETAVEEN RESEARCH AND 

 INSTRUCTION IN GEOLOGY. 



There are good reasons why the con- 

 nection between research and instruction 

 should be preserved in geology, even if it 

 be abandoned in the case of the other 

 sciences . In those other branches of natural 

 learning the subject-matter can be brought 

 into the laboratory, or, at least, as in the 

 case of astronomy, be in some measure 

 made immediately visible to the student, 

 but in geology only a very small part of the 

 facts can be demonstrated by laboratory 

 means. Even where the teacher finds him- 

 self in a field which is rich in illustrations, 

 he is sure to lack examples of the greater 

 part of the important facts which he has to 

 bring to the understanding of his pupils. 

 Under these conditions good teaching de- 

 pends upon the development of the inquiring 

 spirit without the stimulus of a satisfactory 

 direct contact with phenomena. This task 

 cannot be accomplished by any routine 

 methods or bj^ instructors who are not true 

 men of science. It can only be done by 

 those who have the spirit of the investigator 

 in them, who know the range of fact in the 

 intimate and personal way which will en- 

 able them to arouse the constructive im- 

 aginations of the youth to the task of pictur- 

 ing the unseen — a task which is at the 

 foundation of the best culture which science 

 has to give. 



A capital instance of what can be done 

 by a teacher who is also an inquirer is 

 afforded by the work of Louis Agassiz in 

 extending the interest in glacial geology in 

 this country. His lectures on the subject 

 were so vivid, they so effectively presented 

 the physiognomy of the Swiss glaciers, that 

 they quickened the imaginations of the 



dullest persons. They aroused an interest 

 in the matter which was so intense and on 

 the whole so well informed that the study 

 of glacial geology in the larger sense of the 

 term developed more rapidly and on better 

 lines in this country, where existing ice 

 fields are lacking, than in European lands, 

 where examples abound. In such work we 

 see the part of the master in instruction. As 

 a contrast I may be allowed to relate a story 

 which gives us a notion of what science 

 teaching is lilaely to become when it is left 

 to the people of routine. 



The professor of mineralogy in Harvard 

 University one day observed two young 

 women examining his mineral cabinet, one 

 of whom was evidently searching for some 

 particular species. Offering his help, he 

 found that the object of her quest was feld- 

 spar. When shown the mineral she seemed 

 ■ very much interested in the specimens, ex- 

 pressing herself as gratified at having the 

 chance to see and touch them. The pro- 

 fessor asked her why she so desired to see 

 the particular mineral. The answer was 

 that for some years she had been obliged to 

 teach in a neighboring high school, among 

 other things, mineralogy and geology, and 

 that the word feldspar occurred so often in 

 the text-book that her curiosity had become 

 aroused as to its appearance. 



It will, of course, be possible to give the 

 routine teachers some practical knowl- 

 edge of feldspar and of the other matters of 

 fact with which they have to deal in their 

 text-book work, but the motive, or the lack 

 of it, which is indicated by the incident 

 will always have to be reckoned on as in- 

 separable from the millwork of ordinary 

 schools. So far as geology is concerned, 

 the instruction of this text-book kind which 

 may be essayed in the secondary schools is 

 quite in vain. Its only effect is to make 

 the youths on whom it is inflicted quite un- 

 approachable by the teacher who may after- 

 wards undertake to introduce them to 



