22 



the accommodation of a number of students from the University who 

 have elected Natural History as their favorite study. The general 

 plan of instruction for these classes has been organized by Professor 

 Shaler, who has undertaken the entire charge of this department. 

 There are now between forty and fifty students working in the Muse- 

 um, most of them under his direction. In consideration of this more 

 direct co-operation with the University, the Corporation of Harvard 

 College has assumed the larger portion of the salary of Mr. Shaler, 

 and has also provided an assistant teacher, Mr. Tuttles, who gives 

 lessons to the same classes in the use of the microscope. The plan 

 of Mr. Shaler is one in harmony with the whole spirit of instruction 

 already established in the Institution ; namely, that of excluding text- 

 books, which, as a general thing, lead to the indolence of teachers 

 and the intellectual extinction of scholars, and substituting for them 

 the objects themselves ; making the specimen in- the student's hand his 

 teacher, assisting him only with such oral instruction and explanation 

 as may be necessary to prevent him from becoming discouraged in his 

 task. By this method the pupil learns from nature and not from books, 

 and his acquirements are the result of observation, not merely an effort 

 of memory. The teacher is also stimulated by the questions constantly 

 suggested or asked, and is kept up to the progress of investigation, while 

 text-books are constantly falling behind the actual state of scientific 

 knowledge. 



It may be asked of what use these studies are to men not intending 

 to be professional naturalists. The answer in detail would be a long 

 one, and would show that there are more points of contact between 

 science and commerce and professional pursuits than is generally sup- 

 posed. But without reference to what is called the practical side of 

 the question, a knowledge of the structure of the earth on which he 

 lives, of the beings by which he is surrounded, of the thousand pro- 

 cesses by which Nature works in her hidden laboratories, is of use to 

 any intelligent, thoughtful man. It may be added that the mental 

 training through which the naturalist passes will do good service in any 

 department of life. The methods of study by which nicety of discrim- 

 ination, readiness of comparison, power of detecting and classifying 

 resemblances and differences are obtained, are of universal application. 

 The man who has had these faculties fairly developed will never think 

 that the time he spent in acquiring them was lost or ill applied. 



The Museum is thus daily both by securing for itself a place among 

 the recognized centres of scientific research and, by associating itself 

 with the immediate practical interests of education, making good its 



