Ixxxvil The Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society 
On a former occasion I enjoyed the privilege of laying before you 
some observations with regard to the adaptation of our vegetation to 
the extremes and variations of the climate of South Africa.* I could 
not but help pointing out in that paper that few, very few, such investi- 
gations, or even observations of single facts, were carried out in this 
country and recorded. 
It is with extreme regret that I feel constrained to repeat and to 
emphasize what I stated then, and I may be permitted to ask: What 
is the cause of the utter neglect with which the intellectual portion of 
the population of South Africa treats the living world that surrounds 
it ? for I do not hesitate to add that the little which is generally known 
about the life of our indigenous fauna is not much more than that 
known of the flora. . 
The cause is not far to seek. How can one expect that men or 
women should feel any interest in their surroundings, when they are 
allowed to grow up without becoming acquainted with the most 
elementary laws, which govern that living world around them. This 
defect in our educational system is serious, not only because it neglects 
the best means for training the powers of observation, but especially 
because it affects the general culture of the growing generation. 
Languages and mathematics are not only necessary for practical reasons, 
but also on account of their training power for the logical faculties ; 
physics and chemistry accustom the young mind to the idea of absolute 
causality in nature, but these subjects do not bring the pupil into 
contact with that part of creation which is really nearest to him ; none 
of them teach him that there is life in hundreds and thousands of 
forms outside his own self; they by themselves do not show him his 
real place in Nature. In order to achieve this, the teaching of biolog 
and physiology must receive its due share in the development of the 
youthful mind. How deplorable a state of things exists in this respect 
is best shown by the entire absence of any such subject in our higher 
educational institutes, and by the anomaly that, in a country embracing 
three phyto-geographical regions, each one richer than the whole of 
Northern and Central Europe together, not a single botanic garden is 
in existence. Let us hope that a speedy improvement may be effected. 
That it will take place is certain, for, however slowly, we cannot but 
follow the progress of education in other countries. 
I cherish the hope that this improvement may not have to wait for the 
completion of our University. Butif, unfortunately, it should be deferred 
so long, we have the consolation that then at least some provision must 
also be made for the biological sciences, which, I have no doubt, would 
give a strong impetus to a more general teaching and study of all of them. 
* See Transactions, 1890. 
