96 



SCIEN'CE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 208 



dissecting-table and the microscope, no less than 

 seven men and women who either are or have 

 been members of the Agassiz association. Here 

 is the moral of it : youthful observation of na- 

 ture, wisely directed, grows into manly and 

 womanly consecration to science. 



Now, one thing our association ought to do in 

 the near future is to secure control of one or more 

 tables in this and other thoroughly equipped lab- 

 oratories, and place them year by year freely at 

 the disposal of such of our number as may show 

 themselves worthy. May we not in time hope to 

 establish here and there laboratories of our own, 

 manned by our own professors ? ' 



We wish also to establish courses of study with 

 greater regularity, and of wider range. I should 

 like to see a yearly correspondence course in each 

 of the branches of natural science, conducted by 

 the best teachers of America. I should wish these 

 courses, specimens included, to be absolutely free ; 

 and I should wish the men who give them well 

 paid for their time and work. 



At present, as we depend entirely upon volun- 

 teers, our courses, though frequent, are rather 

 desultory, and accompanied with some slight ex- 

 pense for specimens and printing. To do all we 

 hope to do will cost much money, and the money 

 must be raised. The Agassiz association must be 

 endowed, and the money will come, as time and 

 devoted labor have long since come. There are 

 plenty of wealthy men and women ready to give 

 money as soon as we can prove that it can be given 

 safely, worthily, and well. Now, here we have a 

 school of more than ten thousand pupils, confined 

 to no one city, no one state, no one denomination. 

 We have-a corps of fifty volunteer instructors. We 

 need no expensive buildings. And if we find that 

 in order to meet the needs of our maturing mem- 

 bership we need a fund of ten or twenty or fifty 

 thousand dollars, whose income shall be applied to 

 giving worthy young men and women a chance 

 to work under competent instruction, I have faith 

 to believe that some man will be found deep 

 enough in pocket, and broad enough in heart, to 

 endow the Agassiz association as he might a 

 collegiate chair or a private school. Let each 

 chapter and each member be like Diogenes, ever 

 peering about with lighted lantern to find this 

 man. 



But we need not wait for that. There is enough 

 we can do unaided ; and, indeed, I am inclined to 

 think that labor voluntarily expended by boys and 

 girls in building their own cabinets, and by girls 

 in decorating and caring for their assembly-rooms, 

 is the cause of the truest satisfaction and enjoy- 

 ment, and is also productive of the greatest inter- 

 est in the weightier matters of scientific study. 



You can see most clearly through a microscope 

 that you have worked and waited for. 



If the endowment ought to come, it will come in 

 due time ; but in the mean while let each continue 

 to do his best where he happens to be. The way to 

 help the whole association is to give your best at- 

 tention to your individual work. Let the little 

 ones gather their pebbles and their flowers. Let 

 the elder look more closely into the structure and 

 the habits of bird, or beast, or plant. Let us all 

 be always living for the truth, and striving to 

 read in every leaf of Nature's book her lesson of 

 faith, her lesson of hope, her lesson of love. 



Admirably has one of our Iowa chapters united 

 science and humanity. Organized as a society of 

 scientific workers, it has made itself also a band 

 of mercy. It has i^roved, that, although the eye 

 of Science is keen, her heart need not be cold, and 

 that her hand, however cunning, may yet be kind. 

 Two kindred spirits were Agassiz and Audubon ; 

 and very many who, with us, have enrolled them- 

 selves under the name ' Agassiz,' have also joined 

 the Audubon society, while many others are 

 learning — regarding birds not only, but every liv- 

 ing thing — never needlessly tohiirt or to destroy. 



But Agassiz was not only merciful : he was de- 

 vout. Before opening his famous school at Peni- 

 kese, he bowed his head in silent prayer ; and, as 

 the ocean-breeze gently lifted his whitening locks, 

 every head was bowed with reverence, and it 

 seemed as though the Spirit of God were there. 

 We therefore beg our members, as they walk 

 through tliis fair garden of the Lord (and this 

 thought I echo from the lips of Dr. Parkhurst), 

 not to let the beauty of the creation hide from 

 them the face of the Creator. We do not believe 

 that faith is inconsistent with intelligence, hope 

 at variance with knowledge, or love opposed to 

 science. "The garden of the Lord should not 

 conceal the Lord of the garden," Let us study 

 with the eye not only, but with the heart ; and 

 may we all be lifted to a sweet consciousness of 

 Nature's ministrations, the beauty of her handi- 

 work, the music of her singing, and the tender- 

 ness of her love. Harlan H. Ballard. 



A CRITICISM OF PASTEUR. 



At the meeting of the Paris academy of medi- 

 cine, Jan. 4, Professor Peter, the well-known an- 

 tagonist of Pasteur's theory, read a paper concern- 

 ing a case of death by hydrophobia after preven- 

 tive inoculations. 



It seems that a cart-driver by the name of Ee- 

 veillac was bitten in the finger some time since by 

 a mad dog. Twenty-four hours after the accident 

 the wound was cauterized ; and the next^day, fol- 



