Louis Compton Miall. 



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zoology. This is far from my intention. No one can study the great 

 naturalists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries without feeling how 

 seriously their work is impaired by the defective systems of the time. It is 

 not systematic, but aimless work that I deprecate — work that springs from 

 no real curiosity about nature and attempts to answer no scientific questions." 

 The book was illustrated by A. K. Hammond, who collaborated with Miall in 

 the production of the " Harlequin Fly," and made most of the beautiful 

 illustrations for that work also. 



In 1892, Miall's many preoccupations obliged him to give up the Curator- 

 ship of the Philosophical Society, though he still continued to serve on its 

 council. About this time he left Leeds and went with his wife to live at 

 Ilkley, as their children were all scattered for the moment. He subsequently 

 took a house at Ben Ehydding, where he wrote " Bound the Year," a series of 

 nature studies, in some respects the most memorable book that has appeared 

 from his pen. He was by this time 54, and henceforward undertook no new 

 work that involved much close microscopic investigation, such as he had given 

 to the Cockroach and the Harlequin Fly, but devoted himself rather to general 

 topics of natural history and to educational work. " Bound the Year " may 

 almost be regarded as a piece of literature ; it has been compared with 

 Gilbert White's Letters and was written in the same spirit, not as work, but 

 as a pleasant relaxation in the twilight of a busy day. It led to the study of 

 Gilbert White, and to the preparation of a new edition of the Natural History 

 of Selborne in conjunction with Dr. W. Warde Fowler. It was followed, in 

 1904, by another book of the same kind, "House, Garden, and Field," which 

 has not quite the freshness of " Bound the Year," and was meant partly to 

 satisfy the teachers who were clamouring for more object lessons. The author 

 thought it would be better if they made their own lessons, and that nature 

 study could not be taught effectively by those who lacked time or inclination 

 to do so, but he was quite willing to suggest topics for those who cared to 

 develop them. 



In 1897 appeared " Thirty Years of Teaching," which embodies his experience 

 in various kinds of teaching, including the education of his own children. Agood 

 deal of it had been printed in the " Journal of Education," and was written in 

 the train going to and from Leeds. The most important feature of the book 

 is the method of treating University or College students which it advocates — 

 a method not indeed new, except as applied to them. 



When the British Association met in Toronto in 1896, Miall was President 

 of Section D. His address to the section was an eloquent plea for studying 

 life, the modes of growth of individuals and races, the causes of decay and 

 extinction, and the adaptation of living organisms to their surroundings. " The 

 animals set before the young zoologist are all dead ; it is much if they are not 

 pickled as well," he complains, and he asks why we study animals at all, 

 giving various answers to the question, but ending " to know more of life is 

 an aim as nearly ultimate and self-explanatory as any purpose that man can 

 entertain." Furthermore he urges the historical method of treating various 



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