Apeil 2, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



535 



human anatomy and physiology. The 

 vexed and vexing problem of how to teach 

 the effects of nai'cotics in our schools can 

 not be solved until our teachers are more 

 thoroughly grounded in the matter to be 

 taught and their profound convictions 

 have awakened corresponding emotion 

 which will result in consistency in instruc- 

 tion and in life. 



Time forbids detailed mention even of 

 an outline course of study of botany, the 

 most easily taught and the most available 

 of the biological subjects. It should have 

 a place in every grade from the kinder- 

 garten to the University. 



I am met with the objection that proper 

 equipment of schools for study of biology 

 and anatomy is expensive. To which I 

 gladly make reply: The equipment of a 

 school for the study of English or of the 

 Classics is expensive, but who ever argued 

 against the study of Latin or Greek because 

 of expense of lexicon or grammar or text, 

 and furthermore the objection is based upon 

 a misapprehension of the facts. It is not 

 necessary to have a museum in every 

 school. Type-forms alone are required. 

 Fresh-water clams, snails, slugs with the 

 convenient salt-water clams are accessible 

 for a few cents, and these furnish the data 

 for the study of the lamellibranchs, their 

 diiferentiEe and their homologies. Fresh- 

 water and marine lobsters are within reach 

 of every school, and no one will complain 

 because of scarcity of material for the study 

 of insects. 



The study of the life history of a common 

 beetle will fix in the mind of the student 

 the relation of environment to life more 

 vividly, hence more availably than tomes of 

 unintelligible literature, made unintelligible 

 because of lack of experience as the founda- 

 tion of interpretation. 



It may matter little whether a stray bone 

 belongs to ruminant or rodent, but it matters 

 not a little whether the boy who finds the 



bone has awakened in him a desire to know 

 its relation and whether he knows how to 

 proceed to solve the problem. The habit of 

 comparative study, the abdity to give just 

 values to data, to weigh evidence, so indis- 

 pensable to success, but alas, so rare, cannot 

 be over estimated. 



Time limitations exclude the discussion 

 of the value of the habit of confidence in 

 ultimate discovery of truth . The attitude of 

 soul with which the student of nature ad- 

 dresses himself to a given task is no less sub- 

 lime than that with which the Priest of Is- 

 rael entered the Holy of Holies to have direct 

 audience with the / Am. This faith in law, 

 this love for truth, this sympathy with 

 creature and Creator are the birth-right of 

 every child ; the school can give it ; angels 

 can do no more. 



Mr. Charles N". Cobb, of the Regents' 

 office, said that, however desirable it might 

 be to have science taught in our schools by 

 college graduates, the fact is that most of 

 our science teachers are not college gradu- 

 ates. A large part of the science pupils of 

 the State are in the small village schools. 

 Many of the science teachers in these 

 schools are normal graduates. The teacher 

 of science in the normal school may be 

 called on to teach physics, chemistry, zo- 

 ology, physiology, geology, mineralogy and 

 astronomy. The established normal course 

 in this State gives 20 weeks tO each of the 

 first two previouslj^ mentioned sciences, 

 and ten weeks to each of the others. This 

 is modified slightly by the various normal 

 schools. 



The discussion of Mr. Cobb's remarks 

 developed the fact that normal school grad- 

 uates, prepared in this manner, frequently 

 find their way into the high schools of the 

 State as teachers of science, often, however, 

 against the best judgment and advice of 

 their normal school teachers. 



Dr. C. W. Hargitt, of Syracuse Univer- 



