"NATURAL HISTORY, 1."

THE criticism on the method of instruction in this elective which appeared in the Magenta of May 16, although just to a certain extent, is rather too broad to pass by unnoticed. In order that the course may not appear in an unpropitious light to those who intend to elect it next year, justice demands that some corrections be made in the article in question. The subject of the elective embraces the elements of "Physical Geography, Meteorology, and Structural Geology." That the desired specimens of "metals, fossils, and rocks" cannot be introduced in two of these divisions is self-evident. For instruction in Physical Geography a fine globe, maps, and other necessary means for instruction in the department are employed, not perhaps sufficient for an extended course, but for all that the elective professes to embrace. Object-teaching has, as yet, hardly been introduced into the study of Meteorology, and where such teaching has been introduced it tends rather to Physics and kindred branches. The objection to the method of teaching pursued in this course is, then, restricted to a third part of the whole elective, and is worthy of consideration only in this relation.

In the department of Geology the criticism is far less valid than it at first appears. Necessarily, Structural Geology must be distinguished from those other divisions, Paleontology and Mineralogy. This course deals only with the forces which have led to the structure of the earth's crust. It is an elementary review of the great agents of formation and change in the character of the solid parts of the earth. It is manifestly out of place to introduce in a study of this kind specimens of fossils and metals. The inspection of these would doubtless be interesting, but when the studies are as distinct as Structural Geology and Paleontology on the one hand, or Mineralogy on the other, the instructor is compelled to limit his teaching to one of these branches alone.

A PRIORI.