1876.) University Instruction in Botany. 998 
for the slender means of most young people. The microscope as 
an optical instrument comes under the province of physics, and 
microscopy is no more a science apart from biology and pathol- 
ogy than is cutlery. We might just as well have a department 
of cutlery in which we could include those animals and plants 
which are usually studied by sections made with razors and 
knives. Every college where botany is taught should be pro- 
vided with a number of compound microscopes. Microscopes 
sufficiently good for ordinary purposes can be purchased in Eu- 
rope for thirty dollars gold, or even somewhat less, and can be 
imported free of duty for college use. Even with duty paid, 
fifty dollars ought to secure a very fair French or German mi- 
croscope. 
Our proposed course implies a tolerably large proportion of 
laboratory work, and we may be allowed here to say a few 
words on what seems to be a growing evil in this country, the 
abuse of laboratories. A few years ago, when it was seen that 
instruction in natural history could not be imparted successfully - 
from books alone, laboratories were introduced to remedy the 
evil. It was said, In the laboratory the student will see the ob- 
ject itself ; he will learn to compare, to reason, and, instead of 
merely committing a number of pages to memory, he will have 
a practical knowledge of the subject. But the laboratory system 
has worked in a curious way, although in a way which might 
have been anticipated, and it has not proved such a complete 
Panacea as had been expected. If, on the one hand, to those 
who are anxious to learn and are fond of investigation, laboratory 
exercises are of incalculable value, it must be said, on the other 
hand, that the average American student is thoroughly impressed 
with the idea that, if he does not understand a thing at once, it 
1s the business of the instructor to explain it to him. It never | 
occurs to him that it may be for his advantage to work the thing 
“iad himself. From childhood up, having been taught that edu- 
cation consists in the acquisition of facts, he cannot see that the 
Mere process of acquiring a fact may be of more importance than 
the fact itself, But the case is even worse. The fourth class of 
students which we described, those who wish to have as easy a 
time as possible, regard the laboratories as especially created for 
‘he purpose of escaping study, and to the laboratories they flock 
m crowds, They seriously interfere with the work of the good 
Students, by compelling the instructor to spend a great part of 
1s time in explaining things which they ought to work out for 
