July 24, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



121 



sarily too many names and too many, and 

 often too fine, distinctive characters. In a 

 seminar one group after another can be taken 

 up. Each member studies one group, familiar- 

 izes himself with the characteristics, data, life 

 histories, etc., and gives his demonstration. 

 In a beginners' seminar the main groups may 

 thus be treated; in an advanced seminar a 

 small group may be studied more completely, 

 and the members will have an opportunity to 

 familiarize themselves with the main literature 

 on the group, etc. 



(3) A seminar can give the student an op- 

 portunity to see and compare more material 

 than is possible in the laboratory course, and 

 to see it better than is possible in a lecture or 

 in the few minutes just before and after the 

 lecture. The knowledge and faculty of ob- 

 servation gained by previous laboratory work 

 enables the student to get a great deal out of 

 the demonstration of comparatively much ma- 

 terial which passes through his hands in a 

 seminar. A student may have had, say a 

 course in the dissection of an animal, the frog 

 or the cat, for instance, and he may also have 

 taken a course in comparative anatomy, and 

 dissected a number of types such as Amphi- 

 oxus, Petromyzon, a teleost, an amphibian, a 

 reptile, a bird and a mammal. Then in a 

 seminar it may seem desirable to study the 

 different groups of fishes or amphibia more 

 carefully. Each member malces a preparation 

 of one system, or of all the systems of one 

 animal, and gives his talk and demonstration 

 on it. (Some of the better dissections may 

 then 1)0 added to the museum.) Some skill- 

 ful member may even be trusted with a dis- 

 section of a C(Bcilian, or the instructor may 

 do that himself. Or the sexual organs, the 

 nervous system, may be taken and studied in 

 the seminar by means of demonstrations, 

 microscopic slides and talks prepared by the 

 individual members. Such a series for the 

 sexual organs would be: Petromyzon, Myxine 

 and Bdellostoma; Amia, Lepidosleus and 

 Acipenser; Teleosts: Perca, Salmo or Esox for 

 the male, Perca, Esox and Salmo for the fe- 

 male. Scrrannx, Emhiofociis; Profopferiis and 

 Cerafodiis; Scyllium, Miistela Iwvis, Raja, 

 Chimwra; Nectitrus, Cryptobranchus. Diemyc- 



(ilis and Triton, Amhlystoma, Plethodon, 

 liana, Bufo; coecilian; snake, turtle, lizard, 

 crocodile; bird; Echidna and Ornithorhynchus, 

 marsupial, rabbit, cat, bat, monkey, man. 



(4) Each member may work his studies into 

 a little written composition which afterwards 

 circulates among all the other members, who 

 may add remarks and ask questions, and is 

 finally handed in to the instructor. This work, 

 it seems to me, is much more valuable to the 

 students than keeping note-books. As we all 

 know, note-books are a very doubtful means 

 of education. They do not prove that the 

 student has mastered the subject, for we have 

 often seen students coming together and one 

 of them dictating what the others put down 

 with little individual changes. In other cases, 

 the temptation of copying from books is too 

 great. Under these circumstances, it seems an 

 enormous waste of time for the student to say 

 in his imperfect way what others have said 

 ten times better, more clearly and correctly, 

 and what he ought to read, or to have read, 

 along with his studies, just as well as for the 

 instructor to spend his time in correcting them, 

 which he ought to spend in doing original 

 work. The seminar obliges the student to 

 work a subject up, making himself thoroughly 

 familiar with it, and then present it in a way 

 wliieh, while it is not original research, cer- 

 tainly means an individual representation, 

 and, as such, is an important step towards in- 

 dependent work. 



K W. Genthe. 

 Tkixity College, Hartford, Cox.v. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



STUDIES OF W.\TER MOLDS. 



Dr. Br.ujley M. Dams, of the University of 

 Chicago, has just issued a quarto pamphlet of 

 thirty-two pages, accompanied by two large 

 plates devoted to the oogenesis of certain 

 species of water molds (Saprolegnia). The 

 paper appears as one of the Decennial Publi- 

 cations of the University of Chicago, and is 

 well worthy of appearing in this notable 

 scries. The treatment is modern, and Dr. 

 Davis is quite inclined to cut across some 

 of the views which have fastened themselves 



