Modern culture : its true aims and requirements, a series of addresses and arguments on the claims of scientific education / By Professors Tyndall, Daubeny, Henfrey, Huxley, Paget, Whewell, Faraday, Draper, Masson, De Morgan, Owen; Drs. Hodgson, Carpenter, Hooker, Acland, Forbes, Grove, Herbert Spencer, Sir John Herschel, Sir Charles Lyell, Dr. Seguin, etc. Edited by Edward L. Youmans.

Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern culture : its true aims and requirements, a series of addresses and arguments on the claims of scientific education / By Professors Tyndall, Daubeny, Henfrey, Huxley, Paget, Whewell, Faraday, Draper, Masson, De Morgan, Owen; Drs. Hodgson, Carpenter, Hooker, Acland, Forbes, Grove, Herbert Spencer, Sir John Herschel, Sir Charles Lyell, Dr. Seguin, etc. Edited by Edward L. Youmans. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    father-in-law, the late Professor Hcnslow, Professor of Botany at Cambridge. He introduced botany into one of the lowest possible class of schools,—that of village labourers' children in a remote part of Suffolk. Q. Perhaps you will have the goodness to tell us the system he pursued ?—A. It was an entirely voluntary system. He offered to enrol the school children in a class to be taught botany once a week. The number of children in the class was limited, I think, to forty-two. As his parish contained only 1,000 inhabitants, there never were, I suppose, the full forty-two children in the class ; their ages varied from about eight years old to about fourteen or fifteen. The class mostly consisted of girls. ... He required, that, before they were enrolled in the class, they should be able to spell a few elementary botanical terms, including some of the most difficult to spell, and those that were the most essential to begin with. Those who brought proof that they could do this were put into the third class ; then they were taught once a week, by himself generally, for an hour or an hour and a half, sometimes for two hours (for they were exceedingly fond of it). Q. Did he use to take them out in the country, or was it simply lessons in the school ?—A. He left them to collqct for themselves ; but he visited his parish daily, Avhen the children used to come up to him, and bring the plants they had collected ; so that the lessons went on all the week round. There was only one day in the week on which definite instruction was given to the class; but on Sunday afternoon he used to allow the senior class, and those who got marks at the examinations, to attend at his house. . . . Q. Did he find any difficulty in teaching this subject in class ?— A. None whatever ; less than he would have had in dealing with almost any other subject. Q. Do you know in what way he taught it ? did he illustrate it ? —A. Invariably : he made it practical. He made it an objective study. The children were taught to know the plants, and to pull them to pieces ; to give their proper names to the parts ; to indicate the relations of the parts to one another ; and to find out the rela- tion of one plant to another by the knowledge thus obtained. Q. They were children, you say, generally from eight to twelve ? —A. Yes, and up to fourteen. Q. And they learnt it readily ?—A. Readily and voluntarily, entirely. Q. And were interested in it ?— A. Extremely interested in it. They were exceedingly fond of it. Q. Do you happen to know whether Professor Henslow thought that the study of botany developed the faculties of the mind,—that it taught these children to think ? and do you know whether he perceived any improvement in their mental faculties from that ?— A. Yes : he used to think it was the most important agent that could be employed for cultivating their faculties of observation, and for strengthening their reasoning powers. Q. He really thought that he had arrived at a practical result?— A. Undoubtedly; and so did every one who visited the school or