MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 35 



" fields even in but one year's work gives, under good 

 " instruction, the wider horizon that is needed to interpret 

 "facts and things in e very-day life; to make intelligent 

 " the reading of the papers and magazines and to give the 

 " impulse of future work along these lines to the high 

 " school graduate who will not have the incentive of 

 " college life. The ideal condition would be one full 

 " year's work of each, botany and zoology. Then if desired 

 " the zoology could be merged into human physiology in a 

 " way that would make that subject full of life, thrilling 

 " with interest, and one of the most important in the 

 " curriculum. For the sake, then, first, of laying a 

 " foundation for human physiology ; second, of inculcating 

 " the theory of development ; third, of giving a broad view 

 " of life, I believe both botany and zoology should hold 

 " equal places in every high school course." 



Professor Reighard says: — "The place I would 

 " assign to the elements of Biology taught in a secondary 

 " school is as a training for all those studies that have to 

 " do with living things ; introductory then to history, 

 " physiology, and social science, and of incalculable benefit 

 " to every man whatever is to be his future occupation." 



The United States are progressive ; and all the recent 

 movements there bearing on our subject are in the 

 direction of enhancing the importance of Biology as a 

 subject of school and college education, and in the 

 direction of cultivating open air Xatural History. It 

 may seem paradoxical, but open air Natural History very 

 soon requires some sort of biological laboratory, however 

 simple and inexpensive, and the two are best combined 

 from the beginning. The laboratory may be only a table 

 in a window with a few dishes and magnifying glasses and 

 measuring and drawing materials, but it will enable much 

 information to be gained supplementary to what can be 



