March 8, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



26T 



existence with his neighbors. He should 

 be provided with instruments, drawing and 

 dis.secting, that are his own, and these ought 

 not to l)e handed down from chiss to elass, 

 broken and rusty and inheriting mutilations 

 from a long line of ancestoi-s. P'ach table 

 should be provided with a drawer or locker 

 in which towel, dissecting tray, books, notes, 

 etc., can be safely kept, and any disposition 

 towards untidiness should be censured. 



I do not think that the best dissecting 

 material obtainable is any too good for the 

 college student. An advanced worker, or 

 one of a small class, may perhaps profitaljly 

 examine poorly prepared material, but noth- 

 ing can more effectually dampen the en- 

 thusiasm of an instructor than to see a 

 student pour fi-om cai-apace to the dissect- 

 ing dish the only too appropriately named 

 ' soft-parts ' of a crab or lobster. There is 

 everywhere an abundance of good laboratory 

 material, if the teacher will only exercise 

 a little activity and foresight. With the 

 numerous preserving fluids, and with alcohol 

 free of duty, the student should have per- 

 fectly preserved material, unless living 

 forms are available. 



The compromise that is often made be- 

 tween the lecture and laboratory, by the 

 mere exhibition of specimens or the passing 

 of specimens from hand to hand during the 

 lecture, is slipshod and dangerous. Such 

 a displaj' may come ofi' once or twice a 

 month, and if carefullj- conducted is of con- 

 siderable value, but if occurring frequently 

 there is bound to be a most unfortunate 

 .sameness in the style of presentatiou . The 

 average student who has cai-efully tlissected 

 the cranium of the cat or sheep will take 

 away with him a better understanding of 

 the mammalian skull than he who has 

 \iewed acres of diagrams or handled, for a 

 moment, the skulls of all the typical ver- 

 tebrates. 



In certain laboratories it is considered 

 good form to prohibit, or at least to dis- 



courage, the free consultation of books of 

 reference by the laboi-atory student. Pic- 

 tures and diagi-ams, illustrating the animals 

 under discussion, are supposed to poison the 

 adolescent mind and should only be kept in 

 the inner recesses of the professor "s studj', 

 where he may occasionally retreat for a few 

 moments of silent communication, after 

 having been floored by a poser fi-om one of 

 his students. In my opinion, the student 

 should be given every possible aid ; there 

 should be books galore ; cliarts and diagrams 

 should be conspicuous upon the wall; and 

 fine dissections, made possibly by advanced 

 students, anatomical preparations and 

 models should be freely displaj'ed upon the 

 reference table. Prof. Howes, in his ad- 

 mirably equipped laboratory in London, 

 has placed upon a ledge, running nearly 

 around the room, a series of most beautiful 

 dissections. In America these are too 

 often hidden away in cases, and I fail to un- 

 derstand why the best of such material is 

 placed in our museums, ostensibly for the 

 education of the public, but actually to tlic 

 sacrifice of the interests of the student. 



Speakers at earlier meetings of this So- 

 ciety have, I think, not over-estimated the 

 educational value of drawing, but we should 

 be very careful that the permission to dia- 

 grammatize is not interpreted as permission 

 for free-hand carelessness. The drawings 

 should be careftdly prejiared; outline, com- 

 posite pictures of the material studied. 



It is unfortunat*' that we must introduce 

 the microscope into our large class of ' zo- 

 ology students.' The question of first ex- 

 pense, for every student must have an in- 

 strument, is a serious one, and then there is 

 the time lost in giving a course in optics. 

 Here, however, a little forethought will pre- 

 vent much waste of the precious time actu- 

 ally appropriated to zoology. It is well to 

 liave one or two extra instruments in re- 

 serve, to use in case of accident, and there 

 should be an abundance of the material 



