April 



SCIENCE. 



269 



Shall We Teach Geology? 



Perhaps Professor Winchell and his reviewer have said as much 

 as is profitable on the points at issue between them, and yet I for 

 one should feel sorry to have the discussion end precisely as " Re- 

 viewer " leaves it. We all gladly admit that the Roman Empire is 

 a more interesting object of study than the " old red sandstone ; " 

 but how if a study of the " old red sandstone " helps us to under- 

 stand the Roman Empire, in the first place by giving us a superior 

 method of study, and then by teaching us something about the 

 theatre upon which the Roman and other empires played their 

 parts ? And especially how if one is teaching children to whom 

 the Roman Empire is very distant and very dead, while the " old 

 red sandstone " crops out just befbre the schoolhouse door, and is 

 so attractive and interesting to them that they often ask questions 

 about it ? Unquestionably, our national hero, when properly 

 brought before the mind, is a more gracious figure than a plesio- 

 saurus ; and yet it is very easy to teach American history in such a 

 way that one form shall seem to the children about as rigid and un- 

 stimulating as the other. If a plesiosaurus is just being exhumed 

 in the neighborhood (it is proposed to teach children only the near 

 and the attractive in nature), I am not sure but he will prove, for a 

 few days at least, the more interesting object. 



It seems to me that " Reviewer " is afraid of a word. Suppose 

 we say nothing about geology, but simply give the children an 

 opjjortunity, at proper times and in due measure, to vary their 

 studies by some minute and careful examination of minerals, plants, 

 and animals. Such study need take but little time, but, if properly 

 directed, may be very valuable ; may, indeed, exert a transforming 

 influence over those who are subjected to it, giving them new apti- 

 tudes, new sensibilities, and a finer organization. Is this too much 

 to ask ? Have not twenty-five years of discussion brought us at 

 least as far as this ? 



What is demanded is not the introduction of a new subject of 

 study into an already crowded curriculum, but an organized course 



of nature-study running through the whole period of school-life. 

 The particular objects of study are not so important, but plants 

 and minerals will naturally form in the lower schools the main 

 part of this material. The point is, that the instruction should be 

 continuous enough and yet fresh enough to catch and hold the mind 

 in its varying stages of development from youth to manhood. Good 

 collegiate must be grounded upon good preparatory work. Accept- 

 ing "Reviewer's" test — that also of Johnson and Arnold — of 

 teaching that which is " interesting to the mass of men," does it 

 bear out his inferences.' If so, let us drop this subject altogether, 

 and not cling to the dead form of " geology as an optional study in 

 the high schools and colleges." The ordinary college presents 

 many disheartening sights ; but I know of no one more dishearten- 

 ing than to see the members of a senior class who have never taken 

 up a stone except in anger, and never thought of one except as a 

 missile passing from hand to hand, — the pikes jusiificatives of a 

 lecture on geology. E. A. STRONG. 



Ypsilanti, Micli., April i. 



Curves of Literary Style. 



It seems necessary to explain occasionally that in the construc- 

 tion of curves of literary style, concerning which two or three notes 

 have recently appeared in Science, a very lare^e number of words 

 or sentences must be used. The method is distinctly based on a 

 supposed constancy in the long-run. In the original article the 

 statement is made that probably not less than one hundred thou- 

 sand words or sentences would be required for the construction of 

 a " characteristic curve." If Mr. Parker had counted only thirty 

 sentences from " Sartor Resartus," he might have found a close 

 agreement with the curve of the "French Revolution," or he might 

 have found a wide divergence. In neither case would the result 

 have had any significance. A comparison of three hundred sen- 

 tences proves nothing, one way or the other. M. 



Terre Haute, Ind., April i. 



GUARANTY INYESTMENT COMPANY 



CAPITAL $250,000. 



Hon. ALBERT B. HOETOK (diet Joslice, Kmsas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Prts't 



71 Guaranteed Farm Morteaees 7 







The Company calls the special attention of Investors to the following points : 



I. All loans guaranteed and interest payable semi-annually at the Importers' & Traders' National Bank, New 

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II. Unusual fulness of information, not only about the security itself, but about the general development of the 

 section where the farm is located. 



III. An examination each year of the general business of the Company and the Mortgages themselves by a COM- 

 MITTEE OF INVESTORS sent for the purpose. 



IV. Many hundred Mortgages taken and NOT A SINGLE FORECLOSURE. 



V. Exhibitions in New York at frequent intervals, of Kansas and Nebraska Farm Products. The Exhibition at 

 the American Institute in the fall of 1888, received the HIGHEST A WARD of superiority. 



VI. Monthly Bulletins giving full information about all Mortgages offered for sale. 



Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors' Committee Report for 1888, 



HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. 



