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like botany and zoólogy, at least as they were taught. Now, 
however, the great increase in the development of the experi- 
mental side, which in its last analysis leads to the provinces of 
chemistry and physics, makes botany for instructional pur- 
poses, as well as for itself, a science in which pure observation 
is greatly tempered by experiment. Such a combination is 
a peculiarly fortunate one, and it is just here that botany presents 
practical educational advantages over almost any other science. 
We have, then, the possibility of training students in direct 
observation from natural objects in conjunction with observa- 
tion of experimental phenomena from which conclusions may 
be drawn more or less indirectly." 
Important also is the ability to see things as they are without 
prejudgment or prejudice. While the value is the same in 
training in any kind of clear thinking, e. g., mathematics or 
botany, the laboratory makes its own addition to the value of a 
science like botany. There the student comes in actual contact 
with the living material. “Не learns in the beginning that 
each line that he draws has its meaning and that no careless 
slipshod sketch can represent with accuracy the object before 
him. He then further finds that sins of omission are equally 
fatal to accurate representation as sins of commission. Не must 
recognize the naked truth. It is not the question of his own 
or any one else's opinion whether a certain appearance is or is 
not as he thinks he has observed it, but it is a question of fact, and 
he is forced to appeal to the object itself for his answer. Another 
point of advantage is the segregation of the student in the labo- 
ratory, since he is thereby forced to do his own work and his own 
thinking. It is the fault of the instructor if he is helped too 
much or is allowed to be prejudiced by drawings or descriptions 
of the objects studied. It was this spirit which imbued the 
teaching of the elder Agassiz, and which, in a modified form, is 
still recognized as an important principle of the best instruction. 
Of course, like all things good in themselves, the practice of 
making the student work for himself can be overdone, for it is 
impossible for the ontogeny of the mental development of an 
individual to recapitulate in toto the phylogeny of the develop- 
