August 21, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



211 



If we take some of the aspects under 

 which zoology may be considered, as anat- 

 omy, physiology, embryology, classification 

 and economics, and think for a moment 

 what is involved in understanding them, 

 perhaps it will be clear why it is so insisted 

 upon that to gain true mental culture from 

 zoology time is required. Time for observa- 

 tion and study, and, after that, time for re- 

 flection, so that there may be assimilation 

 and some kind of real comprehension of the 

 subjects considered. And I take it that in 

 the comprehension gained lies the very pith 

 and marrow of whatever culture zoology 

 can give.f . 



If anatomy is considered, what a field is 

 there for observation and study. This ani- 

 mal machine with its muscles and nerves, 

 digestive system and brain, bones and sin- 

 ews ; what nice adaptations they show for 

 their various purposes, and to the far seeing 

 eye how many bungles and compromises 

 there are too. As compared with the 

 machines made by human hands the animal 

 machine is as a printed volume to a simple 



sions upon subjects for culture, teachers and 

 methods, it seems to be assumed that, given a proper 

 subject of study, a good method and an expert 

 teacher, the desired result will be attained. That is, 

 the material upon which the teacher works is tacitly 

 left out of the count, and the teacher is blamed or 

 the method or subject is condemned if cultured men 

 and women are not turned out regardless of their 

 ability. It is a historical fact, however, that vnth 

 good or poor teachers or with no teachers, with good 

 or poor methods or apparently with no methods, and 

 with a great variety of subjects, cultured men and 

 women have appeared in all ages. Subject, method 

 and teacher are only helps that the student uses ac- 

 cording to his ability, and important as the helps are, 

 the result depends infinitely more upon the native 

 ability of the student than upon the helps. Subject, 

 method and teacher cannot create they can only 

 modify or facilitate development. 



fit is not for a moment claimed that so thorough a 

 study of zoology as is here advocated is the only way 

 to obtain useful information concerning the animals 

 upon the earth and in the water. To continue the 

 comparison used in the text, a little knowledge of 

 Greek is useful in studying astronomy, and for gain- 



diagram. In these archives are stored the 

 history of the past, the ascent or the de- 

 scent from something different, but like the 

 manuscript that has been written over and 

 over after partial erasure, so is this structure 

 clear only in part. Some words have been 

 spelled out, but the master to decipher the 

 whole manuscript is yet to appear. 



And physiology, that is, the activities of 

 the living animal, how beautiful they are, 

 how diverse. The mother love that saves 

 the world, the mighty thought of I^ewton 

 or Shakespeare are somehow bound up with 

 or in this living matter whose chemistry 

 and physics even, still almost wholly elude 

 us. 



Then if we turn to embryology and try 

 to trace with patient care the work of the 

 unseen artificer who arranges the appar- 

 ently simple and almost structureless mass 

 of the ovum into heart and brain, muscle 

 and nerve, and changes the formless into 

 forms of beauty and power, be it butterfly, 

 bird or man, we cannot but receive culture 

 and uplifting ; for are we not seeing with 

 ing a better appreciation of English words derived 

 from the Greek, but no one claims that such elementary 

 knowledge is Greek culture. So information con- 

 cerning edible fishes, moUusks and the ordinary four- 

 footed creatures, a knowledge of poisonous snakes, 

 useful and harmful insects, and many other practical 

 and useful things, may be known about the animals, 

 but that is not the knowledge that makes culture, 

 although the profounder knowledge advocated in this 

 paper and which comes with culture in zoological 

 science includes this which in itself is merely practi- 

 cal and useful. Eeal science or culture gives founda- 

 tion principles which alone make applied or useful 

 knowledge possible in the higher fields. While I be- 

 lieve most thoroughly that zoology for culture is a 

 very serious subject and one requiring much time as 

 well as much observation and reflection, it is not de- 

 sired for a moment to discourage the study of zoology, 

 or indeed any subject, for purely utilitarian or prac- 

 tical purposes. While indeed such knowledge cannot 

 be called culture, it is often true, as aptly stated by 

 Prof. Atkinson in discussing this series of papers, that 

 study for purely utilitarian purposes is very likely to 

 lead to the higher kind of study which does make for 

 culture. 



