SCIENCE TEACHING. 369 



raged and science is only made ridiculous." Committee of A. A. A. S. "The 

 pupil must actually see nature in all her manifold developments, or he cannot 

 understand her. No natural science, and especially geology, can be taught in 

 any other way. In vain our professors attempt to describe, and the students to 

 comprehend, without a tangible illustration." 



A striking illustration of this occurred, a few years ago, in Agassiz's Museum 

 itself, about the last place on this continent where such a thing should have taken 

 place, but it shows the sad need of time, even when the specimens are at hand, 

 to make the necessary preparations and present to the eye all the animal struc- 

 ture to be studied in a good course in zoology : A diagram of large size was 

 thoroughly explained by the professor and exhaustively discussed, as showing 

 the internal structure of the animal in question. After the students had made 

 their copious notes, and gained a good knowledge of the supposed monstrous 

 animal, they were not a little surprised, when the fact afterwards became inci- 

 dentally known, that the object of their interest and study was too small to be 

 seen without a powerful microscope. A similar proof came in my own experi- 

 ence. A few years ago, after a peculiarly bright class in geology had learned 

 and recited well about the monstrous animals of the Quaternary Age, giving 

 names, descriptions, and dimensions with satisfactory minuteness, I had the good 

 fortune to come in possession of a large amount of mastodon remains, from with- 

 in sight of the college recitation room. On showing the specimen and giving its 

 name, I was painfully but thoroughly convinced, by the blank expression of the 

 whole class, that not one of them had any just conception of the size or peculiar- 

 ities of the animal they had so glibly described. These things and many others, 

 demonstrate the truth of Mr. Agassiz's statement that, "the pupil studies nature 

 in the school-room and when he goes out of doors he cannot find her." " This 

 mode of teaching," says a committee of the American Association, "which is 

 by no mens confined to the public schools has been condemned in the most un- 

 sparing manner by all eminent scientific men as a ' deception,' a ' fraud,' an ' out- 

 rage upon the minds of the young,' and ' an imposture on education.' " 



The best place to study science is in the field. To get the greatest good 

 from objects of nature the student, and not less the teacher, must collect them 

 himself, so he may know their habitats and surroundings, whether they are soli- 

 tary or gregarious in their habits, their associations with other animals, etc. As, 

 however, facilities for comparative study of allied forms are not usually found in 

 chance gatherings from day to day, these should be supplemented by collections, 

 carefully arranged and correctly labeled, to which the student has free and ready 

 access at all times. 



" I confidently assert that any institution which undertakes to teach 

 geology can no more afford to dispense with them than it can with blackboards, 

 crayons, test-tubes, and air pumps." — Alex. Winchell, D. D., Michigan State 

 University. 



" It would be folly for any one pretending to teach geology not to make use 

 of them." — President Hitchcock, Amherst College. 



