NOTES. 799 
eral, vegetable and animal. 
n a few concluding remarks the lecturer spoke of the general 
incompleteness of definitions, but also showed that they were es- 
sential to the analytical method of teaching, and, when used with 
the careful exclusion of all doubtful facts, of great use in classify- 
ing natural objects. 
This principle was amply illustrated by the objects on the table. 
It was really surprising to witness how much might be done with 
such simple things as a piece of marble, an apple, a plant, a squir- 
rel, a flask of water, etc., in giving a child the fundamental ideas 
that govern the distribution and classification of the three great 
kingdoms of nature. The spirit manifested by the teachers pres- 
ent was evidently very gratifying to the lecturer, and he referred 
We learn from one of the committee that they have long recog- 
nized the hopelessness of attempting to work upon the public at 
large by means of the usual lecture system. However effectual 
this may be as a means of cultivating a taste for natural science, 
it certainly does not produce any very definite or encouraging re- 
sults. Collateral study and practical work with specimens are 
essentials without which mere lectures are very barren to the ma- 
jority of minds. They have therefore concluded that their efforts 
should be concentrated upon the public system of education, and 
here they have been nobly seconded by the teachers, who have 
come forward to the number of seven hundred and fifty, while an 
average of nearly six hundred have actually been in attendance 
at the lectures, which have been given by Prof. W. H. Niles upon 
physical geography. On this subject the whole class of teachers 
can be instructed at once, but in subsequent courses upon miner- 
alogy, zoology and botany, it is proposed to divide them into 
