SCIENCE.^SUPPLEMENT. 



FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1887. 



HISTORY OF THE AQASSIZ ASSOCIATIONS 



As we begin the publication of a magazine de- 

 voted to the interests of the Agassiz association, 

 it would eeem to be necessary to rehearse to the 

 large circle of acquaintances we now meet for 

 the first time our history and our hopes. 



Asking the indulgence, therefore, of our mem- 

 bers, to whom the facts are already familiar, we 

 will condense from addresses delivered in Phila- 

 delphia and Davenport as succinct an account as 

 possible of the history and aims of our society. 



The first hint that ever came to us of the forma- 

 tion of a society for the study of nature is found 

 in one of Jacob Abbott's famous RoUo books, — 

 ' RoUo's museum.' Published more than thirty 

 years ago, that little black volume is still as good 

 a guide as any known to me, to put into the 

 hands of young persons who wish to organize 

 themselves into a society. It was a half- 

 conscious recollection of the pleasure I derived 

 from reading this book when a child, that led me 

 more than ten years ago to propose a similar 

 society to the pupils in the Lenox high school. 



The proposition was received with enthusiasm. 

 Nearly half the school joined the society, which 

 was first called, I believe, the Lenox high school 

 scientific society. Our work was exti'emely sim- 

 ple. One boy kept a daily record of the tempera- 

 ture as indicated by a somewhat questionable 

 thermometer ; one kept the record of the weather, 

 which was quite laconic, being something like 

 this, "Monday pleasant, Tuesday rain, Wednes- 

 day cloudy, Thursday hot, Friday pleasant, Satur- 

 day rain." Then we began collecting specimens. 

 I remember one boy collected buds from twenty 

 or thirty different kinds of trees. He got them all 

 on the same day, and, by comparing them, learned 

 something about the times of leaf development. 



One expedition was made to study the sections 

 of trees that had been cut down. We wished to 

 find whether the heart is always in the middle of 

 the tree or not. We found it always nearest the 

 coldest and windiest quarter. " Ye see, the wind 

 blows the wood away from the heart," a con- 

 templative rustic explained ; thus unconsciously 

 illustrating the tendency of untenable theory to 

 follow in the wake of observed phenomena. With 

 1 From ttie first number of The Swiss Cross. 



these and other simple observations our little 

 society busied itself, and prospered for several 

 years. At one time there were on my desk about 

 a hundred cocoons of curious form. One of the 

 boys had found what he called ' pea-pods growing 

 on a lilac-bush,' and brought these cocoons all 

 gathered from one tree. Each was enclosed in a 

 lilac-leaf curiously folded around it. At that time 

 I had never seen a cocoon yield up its imprisoned 

 life. One day our school was visited by Mr. 

 George Walton, one of the Massachusetts board 

 of education. It so happened that while he was 

 listening to some recitation or other, I noticed 

 one of the pea-pods acting in a strange manner. 

 It rolled over of its own accord. 



I quietly picked it up and handed it to Mr. 

 Walton without a word. While he held it in his 

 hand, there emerged one of those beautiful crea- 

 tures known as Attacus promethea. It hung 

 down from the dry cocoon by its fore-legs, and 

 slowly expanded its wonderful wings. None of 

 us had seen the bursting of a chrysalis before, and 

 we vvere all deeply interested and delighted. We 

 then told him of our little society, and showed our 

 other treasures. He urged us to tell our plans to 

 friends about us, and to show them our speci- 

 mens. So, at a convention of teachers that met 

 soon after, I gave a short account of the matter, 

 and, opening a satchel, covered the table with 

 specimens which had been gathered and prepared 

 by the children. The thing seemed to them so 

 pleasant and so simple and easy to do, that at 

 the close of the meeting no less than fifty teachers 

 crowded around the table to examine the bugs 

 and butterflies, the stones and woods, flowers, 

 ferns, and grasses, and to ask all sorts of questions. 

 Several similar and corresponding societies were 

 formed. 



About the same time there appeared in the 

 New England journal of education a short article 

 by Count Pourtales (a former pupil of Professor 

 Agassiz) on the subject of school scientific societies. 

 From this article we first learned of the Swiss 

 societies of like nature, and of the boys and girls 

 who wear badges of green fir and go together 

 for frequent field and forest excursions. Thus 

 gradually grew the thought of extending to others 

 what had proved so pleasant to ourselves ; and as 

 the St. Nicholas magazine had organized, and for 

 a time maintained, a society called ' The bird-de- 

 fenders,' it was natural to apply to that magazine 

 for space in which to print an invitation to 



