168 



SCIE^N'CE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 211 



Euclid, i. 4, holds generally, while we need some- 

 thing more than practical experiment to prove, say, 

 that vertically opposite angles are equal, or that 

 the three angles of any triangle are always together 

 equal to two right angles. The need for proofs 

 that are generally true may be brought out very 

 clearly in such a matter as the consideration of the 

 best practical methods for measuring plane sur- 

 faces, or some other similar work. In any case, 

 let us bring home to the learner the need for more 

 general proofs, and the nature of the method 

 adopted for obtaining them ; while, all through our 

 geometrical work, let us keep in mind how refresh- 

 ing it is to be allowed to see and appreciate the bear- 

 ing of theory on practice, — the practical utility of 

 the results cf our theoretical work. Once again, 

 what better means can we have for exercising pu- 

 pils in mixed inductive and deductive reasoning 

 than political economy ? We may begin with a 

 story from Miss Martineau's collection, — or, to be 

 more precise, we may take ' The shipwrecked 

 sailors,' from Mrs. Fawcett's ' Tales in political 

 economy," and work up to the question as to 

 whether luxurious expenditure and waste are good 

 for trade, or to the great problem of demand and 

 supply, and the price of commodities, — making- 

 deductions from the principles at which we arrive, 

 and testing them by comparison with the results 

 of practical experience. 



I will conclude by reminding you, that, for pure 

 induction, you will generally have to rely on the 

 physical sciences, — of which botany, energetics 

 (if I may use the word), and chemistry will be 

 the best for school purposes ; while, for deduction, 

 the whole field of mathematics lies before you. I 

 may add that you will find an excellent model 

 lesson in induction on the ' pile-driving machine' 

 in Professor Payne's 'Lectures on education.' In 

 mathematics, perhaps the best and simplest ex- 

 ample of induction suitable to beginners is the 

 well-known ' binomial theorem ' for positive in- 

 tegral indices. H. Courthope Bowen. 



MODERN BIOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF 

 EDUCATION. 



A GLANCE at our higher educational institutions 

 to-day shows a tendency toward an increase in 

 the importance of biological science. Everywhere 

 biology is being separated as a distinct depart- 

 ment, and at least one school is founded for the ex- 

 press purpose of pursuing this study. An in- 

 creasing stress is being placed upon this science as 

 a part of a liberal education, and its number of 

 students is growing rapidly. We wish, in a few 

 words, to show why this is so, and to give the 

 grounds upon which biology is every year de- 

 manding more recognition. 



Biology is sometimes called a new science. This 

 is not because the subject-matter treated of is 

 new, nor because living nature is a new subject 

 for study, but rather because the method of study 

 has so changed in the last twenty-five years that 

 the study of life appears under an entirely new 

 aspect. As material for a descriptive science, 

 animals and plants have been studied for cen- 

 turies, but biology as a dynamical science is of 

 comparatively recent growth. Modern biology is 

 neither zoology nor botany, though it of course 

 includes the study of both animals and plants. 

 The terms ' zoology ' and ' botany ' usually convey 

 to the mind the idea of long names and tedious de- 

 scriptions, with an overwhelming abundance of 

 uninteresting details, and the student well asks 

 what is their value to him. If biology offered to 

 its students to-day no more than a description of 

 animals and plants, it would be well questioned 

 whether it should in justice demand any greater 

 attention than has been allotted to zoology and 

 botany for fifty years past. But scientific teach- 

 ers are beginning to see that the learning of names 

 and descriptions should bear about the same rela- 

 tion to biology that the learning of dates bears to 

 history. Some dates must be learned in studying 

 history, and some names and descriptions must be 

 learned in studying biology ; but the former does 

 not constitute history, nor the latter biology. The 

 rapid extension of observation on vital phenomena, 

 and the more careful thought thereon, have been 

 teaching scientists to comprise large groups of 

 facts under general forms, and thus to deduce 

 general laws regulating life. It is the study of 

 these principles which is coming more and more 

 to constitute the science of biology. The enor- 

 mous multiplication of species is making zoology 

 and botany unwieldy subjects to be treated in any 

 general way. Classifications have, by reason of 

 recent discoveries, grown so intricate and compli- 

 cated that they can no longer be taught to the 

 general student with any degree of satisfaction. 

 But this very increase in discovery is adding to 

 science new laws, is rendering intelligible the 

 older ones, so that the material for the study of 

 biology, as separate from zoology and botany, 

 is becoming more abundant. Biology is thus 

 rapidly freeing itself from the dry bones of de- 

 tailed classification, and becoming of more and 

 more interest and significance to the general stu- 

 dent. Biology is growing to be more the study of 

 life-principles as illustrated by animals and plants ; 

 is becoming, therefore, more a study of life, and 

 not so much as it has been a study of living things. 



It is biology with some such scope as indicated 

 above, that is now claiming to be recognized as a 

 necessaiy part of a liberal education. Education 



