36 Editorial Com'inent. 
slow as to be perfectly inappreciable by the side of the enor- 
mous consumption. Our store of natural gas is a capital stock 
on which our draughts are growing greater from year to year^ 
and the end is obvious. B}^ and by they will be returned with 
the words written across them "No effects." 
And what then? Shall we go back to coal and coal smoke, 
or shall we devise some way of making gas that will be less 
costly than the present, and can be used for manufacturing pur- 
poses. It is as yet impossible to say what the ingenuity of man 
can do when stimulated by the prospect of advantage. But 
this time, and no long time, will show. 
EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
GEOLOGY IN THE EDUCATIONAT, STRUGGLE FOR 
EXISTENCE. 
In the pressure of subjects for recognition in the educational 
curriculum, geology is one which has had to struggle under 
great disadvantages. Generally, geology is a study among 
the least and last appreciated by the framers of educational 
opinion, and the controllers of educational practice. It is the 
last of the natural sciences to be admitted into courses of 
study ; when admitted, it is generally assigned to a stage in the 
course at which the student's tastes are already bent in other 
directions; when the time at his disposal has been largely pre- 
occupied, and he is looking with some degree of impatience 
for the conclusion of his academic career and his entrance upon 
the arena of business life. Under such circumstances, geology- 
is apt to be a subject held in low esteem by the educational pub- 
lic and the student community. The controlling authorities 
partake of the general impression; and from this results a dis- 
advantage greater than all the others — one which prevents a 
study of capital importance and transcendent interest, from con- 
quering, as on its merits it would, all the disadvantages of rela- 
tive position in the curriculum. 
