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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and who are still so strong that all the pro- ■ 

 fessions are affected by their resolution not 

 to retire, and the inability of younger men to 

 invent a reason for making their retirement 

 compulsory. To say that they are picked 

 lives is false, for they are so numerous that 

 the intense vitality of the old and intellectual 

 actually affects the organization of society ; 

 and to say that the unintellectual flourish 

 equally well ... is not probably true." The 

 stupid among the cultivated do not survive 

 in anything like the same proportion. Among 

 the ladies of the century, likewise, the old- 

 est have been the highest. 



Science in Elementary Schools. — Re- 

 marking, in a paper, on the Place of Science 

 in Elementary Schools, Prof. Samuel G. Wil- 

 liams observes that all sciences of Nature 

 have their very foundation in correct and 

 definite observation of the facts which Na- 

 ture presents. It is therefore of the very 

 essence of science that the pupil should be 

 first of all taught to observe, to use his own 

 senses directly upon appropriate objects, and 

 thus to increase their delicacy and power by 

 repeated employment ; and, moreover, to give 

 an account of what he has in any way experi- 

 enced, that the fact observed may be assured 

 and that its results may be embodied in lan- 

 guage. When even the youngest child is 

 thus brought into direct contact with Nature, 

 he is quick to note the infinite variety which 

 it presents, to see that this object is similar 

 to that and quite unlike the other. Incipient 

 powers of comparing and judging emerge, 

 and should be appealed to in all possible 

 ways ; for ripeness of judgment results only 

 from repeated acts of judging. Rude and 

 then more perfect classifications result from 

 the grouping of the like and the separation 

 of the unlike ; and the beginning of class 

 notions is made which future experience 

 shall fill with even clearer and more definite 

 meaning, until gradually and almost uncon- 

 sciously the pupil grows to a considerable 

 mastery of the general and abstract terms 

 which make so large a part of the language 

 of the more enlightened members of his race. 

 Even those large operations called generali- 

 zation and induction from observed facts 

 and phenomena, should have their definite 

 beginnings in some part of the elementary 

 course, and especially in certain easy and 



natural observations of physical phenomena. 

 The youngster whose attention has a few 

 times been directed to the flash of a distant 

 gun and the report which more tardily 

 reaches his ear, can readily be brought to 

 infer that sound travels more slowly than 

 light, and to apply his generalization to 

 lightning and the resultant roll of thunder. 

 Thus, it is obvious that the aim which the 

 science teacher should keep ever clearly in 

 view is first of all to train the senses to ever- 

 growing accuracy and completeness in ob- 

 servation ; as accessory to this, to secure the 

 expression and interpretation of what is ob- 

 served ; to neglect no opportunities, how- 

 ever slight, for the exercise of judgment ; 

 and to advance, gradually indeed, but always 

 with definite purpose, toward the classifica- 

 tion and generalization of results secured by 

 direct personal observation. It will be ob- 

 served that the keynote of the whole matter 

 is direct contact with Nature, and diligent 

 study of what she has to teach through the 

 proper use of trained senses. 



Fighting the Gypsy Moths. — The State 

 Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts, 

 through its agents, Prof. C. H. Fernald and 

 E. H. Forbush, appears to be carrying on an 

 effective campaign against the gypsy moth. 

 The work was begun systematically in 1890, 

 so that only the results of the first two 

 season's operations have yet been embraced 

 in the official report ; yet, though the at- 

 tempt was the first on a large scale ever 

 made in the Commonwealth to destroy a spe- 

 cies of insect, and the operators were with- 

 out experience, a very perceptible reduction 

 in the number of the insects and in the dam- 

 age by them was realized ; and trees and or- 

 chards that were stripped in 1891 enjoyed 

 the full luxuriance of their foliage in 1892 ; 

 and the members of the board are now con- 

 fident that it can be eradicated. Destruction 

 of the insect is found to be a most effectual 

 method of eradication. Another method is 

 to entrap the caterpillars within bands of 

 burlap fastened around the trees. They are 

 in the habit of seeking shelter during the 

 daytime, and if the holes in the trees are 

 stopped up they resort to the burlaps and 

 can then be easily destroyed. When the in- 

 sects get into the woodlands, dealing with 

 them is more difficult, on account of the un- 



