"NATURAL HISTORY, 1."

I NOTICE, in the list of the elective and required studies for next year, a Sophomore elective included under the head of Natural History, entitled "Physical Geography, Meteorology, and Structural Geology." About this course I have something to say. I am well aware how guarded

must be the criticisms admitted into a college paper; they must be neither too bold, for fear of giving offence to the Faculty, nor too mild, for fear of their not finding readers. Usually a criticism upon any study in college, or upon any particular part of it, - either as relating to its usefulness or to the manner in which it is taught, - has to be stated in very general terms; if it is not so put, if anything specific is pointed out, the instructors in that branch are apt to feel that the criticism arises from personal dislike rather than from any existing fault. I most certainly wish to avoid making any such impression, and because I definitely point out the course to which I refer, and endeavor plainly to present my objections to the method in which it is conducted, I hope I shall not be considered as presumptuous or given to a spirit of fault-finding. Why is it that students electing this course are never given an opportunity of inspecting specimens of metals, fossils, and rocks, to which continual reference is made, and the description of which forms no small portion of the work used as a text-book? Students are compelled to learn the classification of rocks, their various subdivisions, and the numerous qualities of many in their simple state, and of some after they have been changed by subterraneous action; and this, too, without having seen a single specimen. Nearly every student who has elected this course feels that this method of teaching is not a very successful one. To memorize these names and properties is a useless task unless the objects to which they belong can be examined. Would he who had never seen a beautiful landscape paint one as well as he who had? Is it not foolish to attempt a study of the anatomy of animals without specimens? If we have given any mineral or rock, can we remember its color or its degree of hardness better by reading about it, or by actually seeing and handling specimens of the subject described? A few years ago Professor Cooke, in giving a series of lectures on a course similar in some respects to this one, secured to the students the advantages of specimens. Can they not now be thus accommodated? Boylston Hall contains, or did contain, a collection which embraces just what is needed; can it not be used?

ROX.