i84 
The Ohio Xnturalist. 
[Vol. IV, No. 8,. 
of nature, and the plan has come forward as a new method of 
education at intervals ever since ; only, however, to lapse again 
and again into dependence upon the indirect one of reference to 
printed authority or the mere dictum of the teacher. Nature 
study is certainly old, but it needs constant rehabilitation or it 
reverts to the methods of repetition. 
But while Agassiz died and the Penikese station was aban- 
doned, the spirit of the enterprise has blos.somed out in hosts of 
schools and research stations where the fundamental purpose is 
identical with his. P'irst and foremost of these is the famous 
zoological station at Naples, and our own Woods Holl stands, 
doubtless, next to it in length of life and scientific product. 
Mere mention of the stations at Bayonne, Plymouth. Plon, 
Beaufort, Cold Spring Harbor, Casco Bay, P'lat Head Lake, 
Illinois River, Madi.son, Winona Lake, Bermuda, Kingston, 
Jamaica and Vancouver’s, shows the extent to which it has 
grown. They have contributed not only to the bod\’ of knowl- 
edge concerning plant and animal life but, more, they have 
taught the methods of original research and given inspiration to 
hosts of teachers throughout the country who have carried the 
research method into high .schools and colleges to the profound 
improvement of methods of instruction. 
This is not merely a process of teaching how to investigate ; it 
is using the method of investigation as a process in education. 
Its purpose is to give the student both the impulse and the train- 
ing bj" which he ma}' gain new facts properly and correlate them 
with previous knowledge that is presented to him from the past. 
In short, to acquire and prove for himself that which he is asked 
to accept as the results of previous work by his predecessors. 
It will be .seen that we have a two fold purpose though at bot- 
tom a single end — instruction and investigation. In our instruc- 
tion we aim to .show the methods of research msed in investiga- 
tions and to instruct or furnish information in the essential 
proce.sses connected with the growth and perfection of science. 
But we may go further and recognize that the acqui.sition of 
knowledge has wider purpose than the mere gratification of 
mental curiosity or the building up of aii educational structure. 
Knowledge has its ultimate service in contributing to human 
needs, material as well as intellectual, in the promotion of human 
life and activity. I believe that we may, with perfect jrropriety, 
insist on the educational value of a method which involves, 
includes in its scope, the determining of facts that will be of 
practical .service in the community and state. 
The elaborate study of mosquito conditions on Long Island by 
the members of the laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor lose none 
of their scientific value and interest from the fact that they fur- 
nish a basis for most important service in prevention of di.sease 
