692 INSTRUCTION TO SCIENCE TEACHERS. 
placed in the duct of the submaxillary gland. Great care was 
taken that none of the experiments exhibited to or performed by 
the members of the class should be open to the charge of cruelty, 
the animals used being either completely narcotised, or (as in the 
case of the frogs), having the cerebral portion of the nervous sys- 
tem destroyed in the proper manner. 
Throughout the course the morning’s lecture was made prepara- 
tory to or an extension of what was afterwards brought under 
actual observation. The concluding lecture was devoted to a retro- 
spect of the work which had been gone through, and an exposition 
of the idea which had guided the scheme of study pursued, the ob- 
ject having been not to make botanists, nor zoologists, nor anat- 
omists of the members of the class, but to give them a practical 
insight into the structures and activities of living things, in such 
a way as to enable them to observe for themselves the relations 
and connections of the various forms of life, and to follow from 
actual examples the characteristics and increasing complexity of 
different plans of structure. 
The reports of work and lectures daily sent in by the members 
of the class were entirely satisfactory, and the spirit and enthu- 
siasm displayed throughout proved how greatly the value of the 
course was appreciated. When it is remembered that with scarcely 
an exception, these teachers had hitherto never used the micro- ~ 
scope, never dissected a single organ or organism for themselves, 
nor seen one properly dissected, the advantage gained by the ex- 
perience they have now obtained, even if only a portion of what 
was condensed into six weeks’ work remains with them, is some- 
thing very considerable, for it is something of a new kind, a form 
of knowledge which they entirely failed to obtain before. 
It is exceedingly interesting to find that no difficulty was expe 
rienced in going over all these matters in a class which was not 
confined to men alone, and most heartily do we hope to see in the 
future a larger proportion of women engaged in this and other 
branches of scientific study. Those who imagine that women have 
some innate incapacity, and assert that if admitted to classes now 
limited to men they would be unable to profit by them, or would 
hinder the progress of the class by the greater attention they 
would require in order to keep them to the level of male students, 
_ may take this fact to heart—one of the microscopes offered as a 
prize for the best work done, and the best record of the lectures 
