Nature Study: Ideal and Real. 



23 



whole aspect of the scholars' life has changed — certainly for 

 the better — since the teacher and a few friends instructed the 

 pupils in the plants, etc., of their district. Their journeys to 

 and from school are now both a pleasure and a profit to them ; 

 and the school collection, though of pressed plants and dead 

 specimens, is unquestionable evidence of the good that has been 

 done. We are also assured that the training given by these 

 observational lessons has given the scholars a much keener 

 interest in their whole work ; they are much happier, their 

 spare time is largely occupied in a much better way than was 

 previously the case, and (what will appeal to teachers, at any 

 rate) the attendance at school has improved. 



The above remarks are suggested by a perusal of Professor 

 Miall's recently published work,'" in which many of his views, 

 given verbally at Beverley, are put into type, together with 

 others, which, as the author anticipates, will not meet with the 

 approval of all his fellow-workers. This volume contains a 

 collection of excellent ' short nature studies,' put together 

 without any apparent arrangement, and including here and 

 there chapters on 'Natural History Clubs,' 'The Natural 

 History Excursion,' ' Museums and their Teaching of Elementary 

 Natural History,' etc., in which the author's somewhat extreme 

 views are put forward. It is perhaps in the chapter on ' Natural 

 History Clubs' that we get the most surprises. The Professor 

 tells us that he has belonged to many natural history clubs, 

 but has found hardly any of them profitable. He therefore 

 gives the following advice, presumably with the object of making 

 such clubs profitable: — 'Let no papers be read to the club.' 

 'Let there be no lectures, as a rule.' 'Let no local lists be 

 prepared, read, or printed ; they are hardly ever worth the paper 

 they are printed on.' ' It is nearly always a mistake for an 

 amateur club to print anything, even an annual report.' With 

 these remarks we most emphatically disagree, and can only 

 hope that they are based on the experience the Professor has 

 had with the Natural History Club at the University of Leeds, 

 which ' asks only for a shilling subscription, which is entirely (!) 

 spent on refreshments. We have no constitution ; we have 

 only two officers, and we never print a line.' The modus operandi 

 of this ideal Natural History Society is described in detail, and 

 we learn that ' the discussion is preceded by a cup of tea and 

 half-an-hour's chat.' 



* ' House, Garden, and Field,' by Professor L. C. Miall, F.R.S. Edward 

 Arnold, 1904. 6s. 



190-5 Januarj' 2. 



