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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 613. 



more understanding the particular science 

 he has before him. It is also certainly the 

 pedagogic duty of the instructor in science 

 to get far enough into the consciousness of 

 the student to present the part to him by 

 means of the whole. 



The second point of view suggested for 

 approach to the specialized study of science 

 was that of the survey of the present field. 

 If we can find the counterparts of the his- 

 torical course in the biographies of great 

 scientists, we can find that of the survey 

 course in such treatises as the popular lec- 

 tures of eminent scientists, such as those of 

 Tyndall on 'Sound,' or many of the pop- 

 ular lectures of men like von Helmholtz, 

 du Bois Reymond and a score of others. 

 "We highly approve of such lectures when 

 they appear on the lyceum or the univer- 

 sity extension platform. We encourage 

 the reading of such books, considering them 

 distinctly educative, but we deny that they 

 have a place in the university curriculum. 

 The prevailing assumption is that when one 

 can not follow out the scientific process by 

 which the results are reached, it is indeed 

 better that he should have the result pre- 

 sented in a form which he can understand 

 than not to have them at all, though it is not 

 the place of the university to perform this 

 function, except through its extension de- 

 partment. This statement, however, over- 

 looks the fact that such acquaintance with 

 the results of scientific research is also the 

 source of interest in the research itself. 

 What is merely keeping up with the prog- 

 ress of the world on the part of the business 

 man is preparation for the student who has 

 to approach a new field. I presume that 

 no one would question that those who had 

 listened with intense interest and enthu- 

 siasm to an extension lecture upon the 

 solar system would be better prepared for 

 the study of astronomy. Indeed, we as- 

 sume that university extension will serve in 

 this fashion as a feeder of the university. 



but for some reason we feel that this same 

 sort of preparatory work has no place in- 

 side of the university itself. From the 

 point of view of education we are mis- 

 taken, for nothing is out of place which 

 makes the approach of the students to the 

 subject-matter a normal one. And until 

 the student feels the problem of the science 

 he undertakes to be a problem of his own, 

 springing out of his own thought and ex- 

 perience, his approach is not a normal one. 



One or two courses, then, from the stand- 

 point of the history of science, and from 

 that of the survey of the scientific field of 

 to-day in the junior college, would organize 

 the vague information of the student, 

 would correlate it with the political and 

 literary history with which he is familiar, 

 would give him the sense of growth and 

 vitality, would state the problems of science 

 in his own terms, and awaken in him the 

 passion to carry on the investigation him- 

 self which might otherwise remain dor- 

 mant. They would be feeders to the spe- 

 cialized scientific courses that follow. They 

 would break down the prejudice which 

 most students bring against science from 

 the high school. But not least, they would 

 be as educative as any course in history 

 could possibly be. They would serve as 

 valuable a function as those courses which 

 aim to acquaint the student with the social 

 and political forces which dominate the 

 world into which he is to enter. 



What has been said so far has borne 

 directly upon introductory courses in the 

 junior college. It is only in the last re- 

 mark that I have touched upon the de- 

 mands which the university may make 

 upon its scientists for the interpretation of 

 the world for those who do not follow its 

 special courses. If in the present day, 

 under the sign of science in nature and 

 society, any one leaves an institution of 

 higher learning without a comprehension 

 of the results of science, which he can grasp 



