Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/817

Rh German second-hand dealer. In this vast mountain of printed matter a number of lines were particularly richly represented; among them was taxonomic botany, a surprising number of rare books turning up which Prof. Coulter had been watching for through years without succeeding in finding. In 1875, at Hanover College, the Botanical Gazette first saw light, and it has enjoyed continuous existence up to the present, always under Dr. Coulter's editorial supervision. At first a personal enterprise, it was taken over by the university in March, 1896. It is a monthly journal, the numbers comprising from eighty to one hundred and twenty pages, and has always been a favorite medium for the exchange of botanical ideas and for the publication of important papers. Notwithstanding the extensive arrangements for the study of botany made at the University of Chicago, Dr. Coulter writes: "But when all the space is used as planned, the demands for work in plant diseases, so extensively cultivated by the Government and at experiment stations; in economic botany, including the great field of forestry; in paleobotany, which is in sad need of being cultivated in a botanical atmosphere, are not met. It will be seen, therefore, that abundant as the space and the privileges are from a comparative standpoint, from the standpoint of the subject in relation to a great university the necessities are far greater."

While the work of the Departments of Sociology, Philology, and Philosophy perhaps deserves mention here, our aim is rather to present those lines of science which by instrumental equipment, museum collections, or rigidly scientific methods of instruction occur immediately to the mind upon the mention of the word science. It is hardly possible, however, for us to omit reference to the University School. Closely connected with the Department of Philosophy and under the same direction is the Department of Pedagogy. The work is both theory and method. To illustrate principles and to furnish opportunity for scientific study of a well-balanced curriculum in the earlier grades, a school is conducted. Something over thirty pupils are in attendance. Prof. Dewey's own statement regarding this school may well be quoted:

"The conception underlying the school is that of a laboratory; it bears the same relation to work in pedagogy that a laboratory bears to biology, physics, or chemistry. Like any such laboratory, it has two main purposes: (1) to exhibit, test, verify, and criticise theoretical statements and principles; (2) to add to the sum of facts and principles in its special line.

"As it is not the primary function of a laboratory to devise ways and means that can at once be put to practical use, so it is not the primary purpose of this school to devise methods with reference to their direct application in the graded school system.