Transcript

588 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

The data for botany shows a superior performance by women,but it is doubtful if the data are sufficient to settle this point.These may or may not mean that women are more interestedin botany than men. It does not however prove that women^sminds are more adapted to botany since in this institutionwomen are probably much more carefully selected than men,because the University makes provision for less than a thirdas many women as men.

In any case it seems doubtful to the writer that there is anyevidence that woman’s mind is especially adapted to botany,and a man’s mind to zoology.

CONCLUSIONS

The data submitted here seems sufficient to justify the follow-ing conclusions:

1. A high school course in biology does have a beneficial ef-fect on one’s performance in college zoology, provided thecourse has been pursued in our better schools. The beneficialeffect on botany, while present is not as evident from our data.

2. Individual laboratory work is preferable to demonstrationwhile intermediate size groups are less desirable than either in-dividual or demonstration, doubtless due to the fact that inmany cases the grouping of 4 or more is a make-shift procedure,while for demonstration more serious preparation is made bythe teacher.

3. Southern schools, while furnishing more failures, still fur-nish their full quota of better students. This is true of NorthCarolina schools, specifically.

4. As one might expect, professional outlook affects collegeperformance in zoology favorably.

5. The relative performances of men and women in zoologyor botany does not seem to differ materially, other things beingequal.

TEXTILE PRINTING AND DYEING WASTESEASILY MADE HARMLESS IN WATER

Pollution of rivers and other bodies of waters by at least one type of in-dustrial wastes, the discards of the textile printing and dyeing industries,can be easily and cheaply avoided. Foster D. Snell, Brooklyn consultingchemist, pointed out to the American Chemical Society how these wasteliquors can be made harmless to fish and plant life in streams by addingto every thousand gallons four pounds of copperas and four pounds oflime, at a total cost of less than five cents for each thousand gallons.

�Science Service

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