Mr. Miall on Pedantry 



339 



cruelty against those who collect them, nor is there any fear 

 that rare species may be exterminated. It would be an 

 excellent thing if at all educational museums an autumnal 

 exhibition of fungals could be annually got together. The 

 show would probably improve year by year, field work would 

 be pleasurably stimulated, and in addition to the development 

 of local knowledge, some real additions to botanical science 

 might from time to time be expected. We shall be much 

 gratified if the Notes which we offered last month should 

 prove helpful to those who may incline to attempt such 

 exhibitions. 



MR. MIALL ON PEDANTRY. 



We quote the following observations from an excellent little 

 book by a very distinguished naturalist : — 



"As a very young man I used to defend the learned language of 

 Botany and Zoology, and I know pretty well the arguments that can 

 be used in favour of it. But when I came to teach Natural History 

 to others, I quickly felt what a hindrance the language is to those 

 (the vast majority, of course) who read no Latin or Greek. Only a 

 few ever come to master it, and most of those few are the worse for 

 what they seem to have gained. For the technical terms are allowed 

 to count as real knowledge. The student with much labour learns 

 to apply his rules of nomenclature to natural objects, and then thinks 

 that he has made a step towards understanding the objects themselves. 

 Very often he has only interposed a fresh barrier between his own 

 mind and the world of Nature. Learned words easily disguise the 

 want of observation and thought. You may set down all the 

 formulas respecting a plant that ingenious pedantry can devise, and 

 yet know nothing about it that signifies. The more learned the 

 phrase the easier it is to deceive yourself. With few exceptions every 

 result of the study of Nature which is at once well ascertained and 

 important can be adequately expressed in plain English." — Miall's 

 " Round the Year," p. 209. 



