PLAN OF STUDY OF
THE VARIOUS INDUSTRIES.

_The naturalists of yesterday and the naturalists of to-day._--The
study of animals, plants, rocks, and of natural objects generally, was
formerly called "natural history"; but this term is tending to
disappear from our vocabulary and to give place to the term "natural
sciences." What is the reason of this change, and to what does it
correspond? for it is rare for a word to be modified in so short a
time if the thing designated has not itself varied.

Exterior forms have certainly changed, and the naturalist of yesterday
makes upon us the impression of a legendary being. I refer to the
person described in George Sand's romances, marching vigorously over
hills and valleys in search of a rare insect, which he pricked with
delight, or of a plant difficult to reach, which he triumphantly dried
and fixed on a leaf of paper bearing the date of the discovery and the
name of the locality. A herbarium became a sort of journal, recalling
to its fortunate possessor all the wanderings of the happy chase, all
the delightful sounds and sights of the country. Every naturalist
concealed within him a lover of idylls or eclogues. Assuredly all the
preliminary studies which resulted from these excursions were
necessary; we owe gratitude to our predecessors, and we profit from
their labours, sometimes regretting the loss of the picturesque
fashion in which their researches were carried out.

The naturalist of to-day usually lives more in the laboratory than in
the country. Occasional expeditions to the coast or dredgings are the
only links that attach him to nature; the scalpel and the microtome
have replaced the collector's pins, and the magnifying glass gives
place to the microscope. When the observer begins to pursue his
studies in the laboratory he no longer cares to pass the threshold. He
has still so much to learn concerning the most common creatures that
it seems useless to him to waste his time in seeking those that are
rarer, unless he takes into account the unquestionable pleasure of
rambling through woods or along coasts;--but such a consideration does
not belong to the scientific domain.

A change of conditions of this nature does not suffice to create a
science. To take away from a study all that rendered it pleasant and
easy, and to make it the property of a small coterie, when it was
formerly accessible to all, is not sufficient to render it scientific.
It is a fatality r