necessarily the best scheme, but as a reasonable and practical scheme which may at least serve to illustrate the general principles which we have formulated.

In the Primary Schools and in the lower grades of the Grammar Schools, we would recommend that the study of plants and animals should be the main part of the scientific work. The botanical instruction should commence with such simple exercises as drawing and describing different forms of leaves, and should gradually advance to the easier and more conspicuous flowers, and later to the more obscure and difficult forms of flowers, the fruits and seeds.

The zoological instruction in the lower Schools should not attempt a systematic survey of the whole animal kingdom, but attention should be directed chiefly to the most familiar animals, and to those which the pupils can see alive. The common domesticated mammals should first be studied, and later the birds, the lower vertebrates, the insects, crustacea, and mollusks. While the range of zoological instruction must be limited as regards the number of forms studied, those few familiar forms should be so compared with each other as to give the pupils, very early, some conception of the main lines of biological study-morphology, physiology, taxonomy.

Special prominence should be given to the study of plants and animals which are useful to man in any way; and the teacher may advantageously, from time to time, give familiar talks in regard to useful products of vegetable and animal origin, and the processes of their manufacture.

Attention should also be given to the more obvious characteristics of the kinds of minerals and rocks common in the region in which any school is situated, and to such geological phenomena as are comparatively simple and easily observed.

A most important feature of the scientific instruction in the lower grades, should be to encourage the pupils to collect specimens of all sorts of natural objects, and to make those specimens the subject of object lessons. The curiosity of the children will thereby be rationally cultivated and guided.

The subject of human physiology and hygiene is of so immense practical importance, and so few comparatively of the pupils ever enter the High School, that we regard as desirable some attempt to teach the rudiments of the subject in the Grammar, and even in the Primary, Schools.

We would recommend the introduction of exceedingly rudimentary courses in physics and chemistry in the highest grades of the Grammar School.

We would recommend as perhaps the most desirable branches of science to be included in the Classical courses in the High School, and to be required for admission to College, physical geography, phænogamic botany, and human physiology. The first is suggested as tending to keep alive in the student's mind a sympathetic acquaintance with nature in its broader aspects; the second, as affording unequaled opportunities for discipline in observation; the third, as affording knowledge of the greatest practical importance.

The rudiments of physics and chemistry, which we propose for the Grammar Schools, will enable physical geography and physiology to be intelligently studied in the early years of the High School

course.

For the scholars in the English course in the High School, there will naturally be more advanced and systematic instruction in chemistry, physics, and zoology, and also instruction in geology and astronomy. But the Classical students may with propriety leave these studies until they reach them in the College course. The scientific instruction they will have received in the Primary and Grammar Schools, and the study of the three branches above specified in their High School course, will be sufficient to preserve that natural and wholesome sympathy with nature, the loss of which is now the main obstacle to the successful study of Natural Science in the Colleges. SAMUEL F. CLARKE, Williams College.

WILLIAM NORTH RICE, Wesleyan University.
WILLIAM G. FARLOW, Harvard University.

GEORGE MACLOSKIE, College of New Jersey, Princeton.
C. O. WHITMAN, Editor Journal of Morphology.

DECEMBER 28, 1888.

At the close of this paper the lateness of the hour precluded discussion of the important subject introduced, and an adjournment was taken until evening.

FRIDAY EVENING.

At 7:45, the chair was taken by Dr. C. F. P. Bancroft of Phillips Academy, Andover, who introduced as the speaker of the evening President Timothy Dwight, of Yale University. He took as his subject," What a Boy Ought to Know at Eighteen."

The audience, which numbered about a hundred, enjoyed most heartily the fresh, enthusiastic treatment of the theme. At the close of the address, the members and their guests passed to another room to participate in a delightful social reunion. Through the kind service of a committee consisting of Professor A. W. Buck, Mr. M. Grant Daniell and Miss Julia A. Eastman, tables loaded with flowers and refreshments were at hand to heighten the pleasure of the occasion.

SATURDAY MORNING.

The Association was called to order at 9:30 by President Dwight. The report of the Treasurer was read and accepted. The main items were these: Balance Oct. 13, 1888, $13.38. Receipts from assessments, $126.50. Payments, $81.51. Balance Oct. 12, 1889, $58.37.

Mr. John Tetlow, for the Executive Committee, nominated for membership in the Association the following persons, who were unanimously elected:

Frank W. Freeborn, Boston, Master in Public Latin School; James A. Tufts, Exeter, N. H., Teacher in Phillips Academy; Charles E. Putney, St. Johnsbury, Vt., Principal of St. Johnsbury Academy; Henry K. White, Newcastle, Me., Principal of Lincoln Academy; Mary E. B. Roberts, Wellesley, Instructor in Wellesley College; Frances Ellen Lord, Wellesley, Professor in Wellesley College; Hubert A. Newton, New Haven, Professor in Yale University; Lyman R. Williston, Boston, Master in Girls' Latin School; Howard M. Rice, Providence, Principal of English and Classical School; Edward Parker, Jr., Brockton, Principal of High School; G. Stanley Hall, Worcester, President of Clark University; Albion W. Small, Waterville, Me., President of Colby University; E. Benjamin Andrews, Providence, President of Brown University; Bradford P. Raymond, Middletown, Conn., President of Wesleyan University; Edwin De Merritte, Boston, Principal of Berkeley School; John J. McCook, Hartford, Professor in Trinity College; Alphonse N. van Daell, Boston, Professor in Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Edwin J. Goodwin, Newton, Principal of the High School; Isaac B. Burgess, Boston, Master in Public Latin School; George F. Forbes, Roxbury, Master in Roxbury Latin School.

Professor Charles E. Fay, for the Committee on Nominations, reported a list of officers. These were unanimously elected to the offices for which they were nominated. The list is as follows: President Mr. William C. Collar.

Vice-Presidents-President Timothy Dwight and Mr. John Tetlow. Secretary and Treasurer-Mr. Ray Greene Huling.

Executive Committee-(with the preceding) Dr. C. F. P. Bancroft, President Helen A. Shafer, Professor William Carey Poland, President L. Clark Seelye, and Mr. Horace M. Willard.

The Committee to confer with the Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examinations, was re-appointed, and is constituted as follows: Mr. Frank A. Hill, Dr. C. F. P. Bancroft, and Mr. George L. Fox.

President E. H. Capen, of Tuft's College, offered the following resolution, which on motion of Mr. Tetlow, seconded by Mr. Goff, was unanimously adopted:

Resolved: That the subject brought to our attention by the American Society of Naturalists, through Professor William North Rice, is one of great importance; and therefore we would, as far as we are empowered to act, commend it to the careful consideration of the faculties of the New England colleges and the teachers of the secondary schools.

The Committee to confer with the Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examinations, through Mr. Frank A. Hill, presented their report, which was accepted. The report is as follows:

CAMBRIDGE, October 12, 1889.

The work of the Committee since their last report, made at the third annual meeting, October 13, 1888, has been limited to two recommendations made by them in behalf of this Association to the Commission of Colleges in New England.

The first of these recommendations favored the division of the examination in Roman and in Greek history. This subject was first brought to the attention of the Commission in April, 1887, but was not considered either at this meeting or at the April meeting in 1888. The absorption of the Commission in the discussion of the admission requirements in English very naturally forbade such consideration.

In October, 1888, the attention of the Commission through their Secretary, was again invited to this subject, and a formal statement of the reasons for the division was submitted by your Committee.

The second recommendation was based on the formally expressed opinion of this Association that a conference between the professors of modern languages in the colleges and a certain number of teachers in the preparatory schools was desirable. Accordingly the Committee recommended to the Commission in behalf of the Association, that such a conference be arranged.

In response to these two recommendations the following communication has been received from the Secretary of the Commission:

7 COOKE ST., PROVIDENCE, R. I., 4th October, 1889. Messrs. F. A. Hill, C. F. P. Bancroft, and G. L. Fox, Committee of the New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools to confer with the Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examinations :

DEAR SIRS:-At the last annual meeting of your Association on the 12th and 13th of October, 1888, the following vote was passed:

"That it is the sense of this Association that there be held a conference on requirements for admission to college between the professors of modern languages in the New England colleges and a certain number of teachers of the preparatory schools."

It was voted also:

"That this conference be called through the Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examinations."

These votes were communicated to me as Secretary of the Commission. I brought them to the attention of our Executive Committee, who decided to call such a conference. The conference was held in connection with our third annual meeting on Friday evening, the 5th of last April. To it were invited the professors of modern languages in all our associated colleges and sixteen representative preparatory teachers, including yourselves. Beside the fifteen members of our Commission, twenty-one persons were present, representing the colleges and the preparatory schools. The conference was opened by Mr. John Tetlow, who was followed by Professors Fay, Cohn, Sée and Wenckebach, and Drs. van Daell and Faulhaber.

On Saturday morning, the 6th of April, by request of the Commission, a meeting of the professors of modern languages was held to consider the questions raised at the conference. Eight professors were at this meeting. By their request Mr. Tetlow also met with