120 

 REVIEWS. 



Coulter and Patterson's Practical Nature Study* 



The writer once heard from T. C. Mendenhall the story of his 

 first impulses to a scientific career ; and that history has always 

 remained with him as instructive and valuable because suggestive 

 of what the elementary school may do for the progress of sci- 

 ence. Mendenhall said that when he was a boy in a country 

 school in Ohio, his teacher took pains to perform with her scholars 

 simple experiments in natural philosophy for the purpose of arous- 

 ing their curiosity, opening their eyes, and stimulating their 

 minds. One of these experiments was to place a coin in the 

 center of a basin, arrange the scholars around in such positions 

 that the coin was concealed from every eye by the rim of the 

 basin, and then to pour in water until, no one having moved in 

 the least, the coin became visible to all. At another time the 

 schoolroom was darkened, light was admitted through a small 

 aperture, so that the camera obscura effect was obtained, and the 

 images of children playing outside were thrown in their natural 

 colors on the opposite wall of the room. These simple exhibi- 

 tions powerfully stirred young Mendenhall's imagination. The 

 result, as everyone knows, was a career of service in the advance- 

 ment of science, the conduct of government surveys, and the 

 administration of great educational institutions. 



It is highly important that considerable numbers of people 

 form the habit of finding out things for themselves, with respect 

 to the processes of nature. As a custom of the race this is not 

 an old habit, only about three hundred years old ; yet its effects 

 are those which most — at least most visibly — distinguish our 

 age from every age that has gone before. 



The school may assume a favorable relation to the growth of 

 science considered as human endeavor. Boys and girls may be 

 awakened by the contact with nature which we give them, as 

 Mendenhall was awakened, and thus the numbers of those deal- 

 ing with nature in an original way to the end of bringing its 

 forces into our employ may be augmented. 



* Coulter, John M., Coulter, John G., and Patterson, Alice J. Practical Natuer 

 Study on an Agricultural Basis. A manual for the use of teachers and normal stu- 

 dents. Pp. ix -|- 350. 1909. Appleton & Co., New York. ^1.35. 



