284 G. K. Gilbert — Inculcation of Scientific Method. 



Art. XXVII. — The Inculcation of Scientific Method by Example, 

 with an illustration drawn from the Quaternary Geology of 

 Utah; by G. K. Gilbert. (With a map, Plate VIII.) 



Presidential Address read before the American Society of Naturalists at Boston, 



December 27, 1885. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: — This is an association of 

 teachers of science and investigators. Those of us who are 

 primarily engaged in investigation have come here more espec- 

 ially as educators. It is our function to discuss, not our re- 

 sults, nor the subject matter of the several sciences with which 

 we are concerned, but our methods of investigation, our meth- 

 ods of publication or promulgation, our methods of teaching. 



It is fitting that this, one of the first formal addresses before 

 the Society, should deal with some of the most general consid- 

 erations affecting methods. In the statement of these consider- 

 ations it is impossible to avoid that which is familiar, and even 

 much that is trite. Indeed all expectation of entertaining or 

 edifying you with the original or the new may as well be 

 disclaimed at the outset. I shall merely attempt to outline cer- 

 tain familiar principles, the common property of scientific men, 

 with such accentuations of light and shade as belong to my 

 individual point of view. 



The teacher's work is susceptible of a logical division into 

 two parts. He stores minds, and he trains them. The modern 

 educator believes the second function to be the higher, because 

 the trained mind can store itself. Nevertheless the two go 

 hand in hand and are in great part inseparable. The effort of 

 the intelligent teacher is to employ such methods in storing the 

 minds of his pupils with knowledge that they shall acquire at 

 the same time the best training. 



In that particular department of teaching which is called 

 scientific, there is the same logical duality, and to a great 

 extent there is a practical unity; but in this case there is a 

 pre-determined classification of those who fall under the teach- 

 er's instruction, which has the effect of practically dividing his 

 methods. A portion of his pupils are preparing to engage in 

 the work of research, and look to a scientific career. Another 

 portion are to be occupied with business or in other pursuits 

 not implying research, at least in the ordinary sense, and 

 desire to obtain, as a part of a liberal education, an acquaint- 

 ance with the materials and results of science. The first de- 

 mand a training in methods, the second consciously ask only 

 for a store of knowledge. Nevertheless, the general student 

 can best accomplish his purpose with the aid of a certain 



