34 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



throughout life a child-like mind in their freshness and 

 keenness, their insatiable curiosity in regard to the causes 

 of phenomena and their independence of mere authority. 

 The pity is that so many child-like minds are ruined, so 

 many bright spirits quenched ; and it is to be hoped that 

 Nature-study in schools followed by elementary science, 

 taught not by the ordinary school teachers, but by those 

 trained in science who can treat the subject not as mere 

 book knowledge but practically — for that is essential — 

 may tend to turn out young men and women not wholly 

 ignorant of the natural objects and processes in the world 

 around them, still keen albout something beyond hockey 

 and football and able to observe and reason, to tackle a 

 practical problem and to face with equanimity some novel 

 and unexpected situation. 



I find writers in recent American journals* speaking 

 of " the peculiar value of biology in the lives of our boys 

 " and girls,'' and of " the educational and ethical values 

 " of the study of botany, zoology and physiology." One 

 writer, after pointing out the value of Botany, adds, " But 

 " it does not connect itself so closely with the important 

 " subject of human physiology, neither does it offer as 

 " many or clear illustrations of the theory of development 

 " as the zoological material. Then, too, the little glance 

 " which the student gets into the botanical and zoological 



* And I may add from one the following references to the subject : — 



1. Home Study Eeview, September, 1896. "The Educational 

 Value of the Biological Sciences." Jacob Eeighard. 



2. Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1897. 

 " Zoology in the High School Curriculum." H. B. Ward. 



3. The Forum, vol. xiv., page 411, December, 1892. "Wherein 

 Popular Education has Failed." President Eliot. 



4. Popular Science Monthly, vol. xiv. " Scientific Relation of 

 Sociology to Biology." Jos. LeConte. 



5. Social Evolution. Kidd. Chap. 1. 



C. New Miscellanies. Chas. Kingsley. " The Study of Natural 

 History." 



