NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



123 



tional Code that permits the time 

 spent in visits to museums under 

 proper guidance to be counted to 

 the children as time spent in school- 

 work. The account of a meeting 

 at the Whitechapel Museum, re- 

 ported in our News pages, shows 

 that the teachers are taking this 

 permission in earnest, and that 

 there are at least some curators 

 thoroughly in sympathy with the 

 aims of modern educationalists. 

 But, like the text-book, the muse- 

 um is only a substitute, and in our 

 editorial of April, we put forward 

 the claims of the hedgerow and 

 the quarry to a place in our own 

 system of teaching. We rejoice 

 to see that the prophecy on which 

 we ventured is even now being ful- 

 filled. 



A remarkable and inspiring cir- 

 cular (No. 369) has just been issu- 

 ed from the Educational Depart- 

 ment to H. M. Inspectors of 

 Schools. It is entitled "Object 

 Teaching," and is prefaced with 

 some admirable remarks by Sir 

 George Kekewich. First, he draws 

 the distinction we have so often 

 emphasised between observation of 

 the object itself and information 

 about the object. It should be al- 

 ways remembered," he says, "that 

 in Object Lessons the imparting of 

 information is secondary to the 

 cultivation of the faculty of obser- 

 vation." He distinguishes object 

 teaching from instruction in natur- 

 al science: "It it Elementary Sci- 

 ence only in so far as it aids the 

 child to observe some of the facts 

 of nature upon which Natural Sci- 

 ence is founded; but as it deals 

 with such topics without formal ar- 

 rangement, it differs widely from 

 the systematic study of a particu- 

 lar science." Science teaching be- 

 longs to a later stage of mental 

 discipline. "In Object Teaching 

 the chief interest in the lesson 

 should centre in the object itself." 

 Summing up the uses of object 

 teaching, Sir George says: "The 

 first 1 and most important is to 

 teach the children to observe, com- 

 pare and contrast; the second is to 

 impart information; and the third 

 is to reinforce the other two by 

 making the results of them the 

 basis for instruction in language, 

 drawing, number, modeling and 

 other hand-work. There are, how- 

 ever, other important uses of good 

 object teaching. It makes the 

 lives of the children more happy 

 and interesting by opening up an 

 easily accessible and attractive 

 field for the exercise of brain, 

 hand, and eye. It gives the chil- 

 dren an opportunity of learning 



the simplest natural facts and dir- 

 ects their attention to external Ob- 

 jects, making their education less 

 bookish. It further develops a 

 love of nature and an interest in 

 living things, and corrects the 

 tendency which exists in many 

 children to destructiveness and 

 thoughtless unkindness to animals, 

 and shows the ignorance and cruel- 

 ty of such conduct." 



But the chief point in the cir- 

 cular that has attracted our atten- 

 tion is one that may easily be over- 

 looked. After speaking of visits 

 to museums as advantageous in 

 connection with object teaching, 

 it proceeds, "Occasional class ex- 

 cursions out of school hours (or, 

 if the instruction be in accordance 

 with Art. 12 (/) of the Code, in 

 school hours), under proper guid- 

 ance, will enable teachers both to 

 provide suitable Objects and to 

 confirm previous impressions. It 

 should be borne in mind that Ob- 

 jects, when they are brought into 

 the classroom, cannot be there 

 studied under their ordinary con- 

 ditions; and therefore it is impor- 

 tant by a proper use of such ex- 

 peditions to let the children see 

 what part the Object plays in its 

 usual surroundings." When we 

 turn to the list of objects suggested 

 as appropriate to these lessons, we 

 find among them "Caves by the 

 sea formed by the waves; caves in- 

 land formed by rain dissolving 

 limestone. Springs and running 

 water. Study of flow of stream. 

 Study of seashore;" while for chil- 

 dren in towns are suggested "Riv- 

 er or canal, according to circum- 

 stances. Atlantic liners. The 

 park or public garden." It is 

 pretty obvious that seashores and 

 Atlantic liners cannot convenient- 

 ly be brought into the ordinary 

 class-room; so that outdoor excur- 

 sions are a necessary corollary of 

 Circular 369. We sincerely hope 

 that the teachers, with whom after 

 all the initiative must lie, will not 

 be afraid of laying on themselves 

 too great a burden,, and we trust 

 that they will not be prevented 

 from putting these ideas in force 

 by the apprehension, far too com- 

 mon among them, that a day in 

 the country, or an hour of school 

 time spent anywhere but in the 

 school house, means a loss of 

 marks and a consequent reduction 

 of grant. — Natural Science (Lon- 

 don). 



A New Cave. 



Prof. Gordon Curry, dean of the 

 College of Pharmacy of this city, 

 a nd a botanist of some note, ac- 



companied by Mr. Hugo Soltau; 

 an enthusiastic naturalist of New 

 York, spent yesterday in the neigh- 

 borhood of Rockhaven, 30 miles 

 from Louisville on the L., St. L: 

 & T. Road, searching for rare 

 plants and insects. While near 

 Rockhaven they discovered the 

 mouth of what proved to be a cave 

 over three miles long. The cave 

 is filled with stalactites and stalag- 

 mites, some of them in course of 

 formation. About half way in the 

 cave they found an underground 

 river with a temperature of about 

 40 degrees, or just about the freez- 

 ing point. They crossed the river, 

 which was in some places four or 

 five feet deep, where Mr. Soltau 

 found some rare insects of the bee- 

 tle species that have no eyes or 

 places for eyes. 



In speaking of the discovery last 

 night at the Louisville Hotel, Mr. 

 Soltau said: "The insects that I 

 found are of the beetle species, 

 whose technical name is anophtha- 

 lmia tenuis, and I never found or 

 heard of any of their kind any- 

 where else. They have no eyes, 

 and nature seems to have made no 

 provisions in them for these or- 

 gans. They are a small insect, 

 and I found them in the crevices 

 of the rocks inside the cave. They 

 were gotten from the crevices by 

 dashing water against the walls of 

 the cave. The cave is one of the 

 prettiest I ever saw. It is some- 

 thing near three miles long, as 

 near as I could judge, and we 

 found some beautiful stalactites 

 and stalagmites in it in all the pro- 

 cesses of formation. Prof. Curry 

 found lakes of the calcareous mat- 

 ter from which some of them are 

 formed, and some of the unfinish- 

 ed stalactites were as beautiful as 

 I ever saw in my life. 



"The river wound across the 

 cave in a zigzag fashion, and the 

 water was as clear as crystal. In 

 some places it was four or five feet 

 deep, and in other places it widen- 

 ed out into little pools that were 

 perfectly limpid. We were sur- 

 prised to find that it was ice-water. 

 The temperature of the cave was 

 about 60 degrees, and, of course, 

 the water was considerably colder. 

 We waded the stream and went to 

 the end of the cave, or as far as 

 we could see that the cave extend- 

 ed. The cave is reached only af- 

 ter a hard climb up a steep hill- 

 side. The mouth is so small that 

 it is necessary to crawl in order to 

 get into it, but the opening soon 

 gets wider, and finally it looks like 

 a dome above you." — Louisville 

 Courier- Journal. 



