he also made studies and valuable collections of birds, mammals,
reptiles, and fishes; and he seems, Mr. Barrows says, "to have
possessed, in a high degree, that strong characteristic of a true
naturalist, a full appreciation of the value of good specimens. Many
of his specimens are now preserved at the Agricultural College, and
among his shells are many which are of more than ordinary value from
having served as types of new species, or as specimens from type
localities, or as part or all of the material which has helped to
clear up mistakes and misconceptions about species and their
distribution." Mr. Walker speaks of his having done a great work in
conchology. His catalogue, which contained a list of one hundred and
sixty-one species, was by far the most complete published up to that
time. "He described two new species--_Planorbis truncatus_ and _Unio
leprosus_. The former is one of the few species which are, so far as
known, peculiar to Michigan, and is a very beautiful and distinct
form; while the latter, although now considered as synonymous with
another species, has peculiarities which in the then slight knowledge
of the variability of the species was a justification of his position.
He was also the discoverer of two other forms which were named after
him by one of our most eminent conchologists--viz., _Campeloma
Milesii_ (Lea) and _Guiobasis Milesii_ (Lea)." Mr. Walker believes
that "in general, it can be truthfully stated that Dr. Miles did more
to develop the general natural history of that State (Michigan) than
any other man either before or since he completed his work as State
Geologist."
As professor of zoölogy and animal physiology, Dr. Miles is described
by one of his students, who afterward became a professor in the
college and then its president, as having been thoroughly interested
in the subjects he taught, and shown that interest in his work and in
his treatment of his students. He labored as faithfully and
industriously with the class of five to which President Clute belonged
as if it "had numbered as many score." He supplemented the meager
equipment of his department from his more extensive private apparatus
and collections, which were freely used for class work; and, when
there was need, he had the skill to prepare new pieces of apparatus.
"He was on the alert for every chance for illustration which occasion
offered: an animal slaughtered for the tables gave him an opportunity
to lecture on its viscera; a walk over the drift-covered fields found
many specimens of rock which he taught us to distinguish; the mud and
the sand banks along the river showed how in the periods of the dim
past were formed fossil footprints and ripples; the woods and swamps
and lakes gave many useful living specimens, some of which became the
material for the improvised dissecting room; the crayon in his hand
produced on board or paper the chart of geologic ages, the table of
classification, or the drawing of the part of an animal under
discussion."
Prof. R. C. Kedzie came to the college a little later, in 1863, when
Dr. Miles had been for two years a professor, and found him then the
authority "for professors and students alike on beasts, birds, and
reptiles, on the stones of the field, and insects of the air,"
thorough, scholarly, and enthusiastic, and therefore very popular with
his classes.
The projection of agricultural colleges under the Agricultural College
Land Grant Act of 1862 stimulated a demand for teachers of scientific
agriculture, and it was found that they were rare. Of old school
students of science there was no lack--able men, as President Clute
well says, who were familiar with their little laboratories and with
the old theories and methods, but who did not possess the new vision
of evolution and the conservation of energy, men of the study rather
than the field, and least of all men of the orchard and stock farm;
and they knew nothing of the practical application of chemistry to
fertilization and the raising of crops and the composition of feed
stuffs, of physiology to stock-breeding, and of geology and physics to
the study of the soils.
With a thorough knowledge of science and familiarity with practical
agriculture Professor Miles had an inclination to enter this field,
and this inclination was encouraged by President Abbott and some of
the members of the Board of Agriculture. He had filled the
professorship of zoölogy and animal physiology with complete success,
and had he consulted his most cherished tastes alone he would have
remained there, but he gradually suffered himself to be called to
another field. The duties of "acting superintendent of the farm" were
attached to his chair in 1864. In 1865 he became professor of animal
physiology and practical agriculture and superintendent of the farm;
in 1869 he ceased to teach physiology, and gave his whole time to the
agricultural branch of his work; and in 1875 the work of the
superintendent of the farm was consigned to other hands, and he
confined himself to the professorship proper of practical agriculture.
The farm and its appurtenances, with fields cumbered with stumps and
undrained, with inadequate and poorly constructed buildings, with
inferior live stock, and everything primitive, were in poor condition
for the teaching or the successful practice of agriculture. Professor
Miles's first business was to set these things in order. Year by year
something was done to remove evils or improve existing features in
some of the departments of the life and management of the premises,
till the concern in a certain measure approached the superintendent's
ideal--as being a laboratory for teaching agriculture, conducting
experiments, and training men, rather than a money-making
establishment.
In this new field, Professor Kedzie says, Professor Miles was even
more popular than before with students, and created an enthusiasm for
operations and labors of the farm which had been regarded before as a
disagreeable drudgery. The students "were never happier than when
detailed for a day's work with Dr. Miles in laying out some difficult
ditch or surveying some field. One reason why he was so popular was
that he was not afraid of soiling his hands. His favorite uniform for
field work was a pair of brown overalls. The late Judge Tenney came to
a gang of students at work on a troublesome ditch and inquired where
he could find Dr. Miles. 'That man in overalls down in the quicksands
of the ditch is Dr. Miles'; the professor of practical agriculture was
in touch with the soil."
Prof. Byron D. Halsted, of the New Jersey Agricultural College
Experiment Station, who was an agricultural pupil of Dr. Miles in
Lansing, characterizes him as having been a full man who knew his
subjects deeply and fondly. "In those days I am safe in writing that
he represented the forefront of advanced agriculture in America. He
was in close touch with such men as Lawes and Gilbert, Rothamstead,
England, the famous field-crop experimenters of the world, and as for
his knowledge of breeds of live stock and their origin, Miles's
Stock-Breeding is a classic work. Dr. Miles, in short, was a close
student, a born investigator, hating an error, but using it as a
stepping-stone toward truth. He did American farming a lasting
service, and his deeds live after him."
While loved by his students, most of whom have been successful and
many have gained eminence as agricultural professors or workers in
experiment stations, and while receiving sympathy and support from
President Abbott, Dr. Miles was not appreciated by the politicians, or
by all of the Board of Agriculture, or even by the public at large.
Unkind and captious criticisms were made of his work, and it was found
fault with on economical grounds, as if its prime purpose had been to
make money. He therefore resigned his position in 1875, and accepted
the professorship of agriculture in the Illinois State University.
Thence he removed to the Houghton Farm of Lawson Valentine, near
Mountainville, N. Y., where he occupied himself with scientific
experimental investigation. He was afterward professor of agriculture
in the Massachusetts Agricultural College, at Amherst. In announcing
this appointment to the students, Dr. Chadbourne, then president of
the institution, and himself a most successful teacher, stated that he
considered Dr. Miles as the ablest man in the United States for that
position. In 1886, shortly after Dr. Chadbourne's death, Dr. Miles
returned to his old home in Lansing, Michigan, where he spent the rest
of his life in study, research, and the writing of books and articles
for scientific publications.
During these later years of his life he took up again with what had
been his favorite pursuit in earlier days, but with which he had not
occupied himself for thirty years--the study of mollusks--with the
enthusiasm of a young man, Mr. Walker says, who being interested in
the same study, was in constant correspondence with him at this time;
"and as far as his strength permitted labored with all the acumen and
attention to details which were so characteristic of him. I was
particularly struck with his familiarity with the present drift of
scientific investigation and thought, and his thorough appreciation of
modern methods of work. He was greatly interested in the work I was
carrying on with reference to the geographical distribution of the
mollusca, and, as would naturally be supposed from his own work in
heredity in connection with our domestic animals, took great pleasure
in discussing the relations of the species as they are now found and
their possible lines of descent. He was a careful and accurate
observer of Nature, and if he had not drifted into other lines of work
would undoubtedly have made his mark as a great naturalist. As it is,
his name will always have an honored place in the scientific history
of Michigan."
When Professor Miles began to teach in the Michigan Agricultural
College, the "new education" was new indeed, and the textbook method
still held sway. But the improved methods were gradually taking the
place of the old ones, and Professor Miles was one of the first to
co-operate in them, and he did it with effect. He used text-books,
"but his living word," President Clute says, "supplemented the book;
and the animal from the farm under his knife and ours, the shells
which he led us to find under the rotten logs and along the rivers and
lakes, the insects he taught us to collect and classify, the minerals
and fossils he had collected on the geological survey of Michigan, all
were used to instruct and inspire his students, to cultivate in them
the scientific spirit and method."
Among the more important books by Professor Miles are Stock-Breeding,
which had a wide circulation and has been much used as a class-book;
Experiments with Indian Corn, giving the results of some important
work which he did at Houghton Farm; Silos and Ensilage, which helped
much in diffusing knowledge of the silo in the times when it had to
fight for recognition; and Land Drainage. Of his papers, he published
in the Popular Science Monthly articles on Scientific Farming at
Rothamstead; Ensilage and Fermentation; Lines of Progress in
Agriculture; Progress in Agricultural Science; and How Plants and
Animals Grow. To the American Association for the Advancement of
Science he contributed papers on Energy as a Factor in Rural Economy;
Heredity of Acquired Characters (also to the American Naturalist);
Surface Tension of Water and Evaporation; Energy as a Factor in
Nutrition; and Limits of Biological Experiments (also to the American
Naturalist). Other articles in the American Naturalist were on Animal
Mechanics and the Relative Efficiency of Animals as Machines. In the
Proceedings of the American Educational Association is an address by
him on Instruction in Manual Arts in Connection with Scientific
Studies. The records of the U and I Club, of Lansing, of which he was
a valued member for ten years, contain papers on a variety of
scientific subjects which were read before it, and were highly
appreciated. This list does not contain all of Professor Miles's
contributions to the literature of science, for throughout his life he
was a frequent contributor to the agricultural and scientific press,
and a frequent speaker before associations and institutes, "where his
lectures were able and practical."
No special record is made of the work of Professor Miles in the
American Agriculturist, but the correspondence of Professor Thurber
with him furnishes ample proof that he was one of the most trusted
advisers in the editorial conduct of that journal. The familiar tone
of Professor Thurber's letters, and the undoubting assurance with
which he asked for information and aid on various subjects, well
demonstrate how well the editor knew whom he could rely upon in an
emergency.
In all his work the great desire of Professor Miles was to find and
present the truth. His merits were recognized by many scientific
societies. He was made a corresponding member of the Buffalo Society
of Natural Sciences in 1862; a corresponding member of the
Entomological Society of Philadelphia in January, 1863; a
correspondent of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in
1864; a member of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science in 1880, and a Fellow of the same body in 1890; and held
memberships or other relations with other societies; and he received
the degree of D. V. S. from Columbia Veterinary College, New York, in
March, 1880.
His students and friends speak in terms of high admiration of the
genial qualities of Professor Miles as a companion. The resolutions of
the U and I Club of Lansing describe him as an easy and graceful
talker, a cheerful dispenser of his learning to others. "To spend an
hour in his 'den,' and watch his delicate experiments with 'films,'"
says President Clute, "and see the light in his eyes as he talked of
them, was a delight." "He was particularly fond of boys," says
another, "and never seemed happier than when in the company of boys or
young men who were trying to study and to inform themselves, and if he
could in any way assist them he was only too glad to do so"; and he
liked pets and children. Incidents are related showing that he had a
wonderful accuracy in noting and recollecting the minutest details
that came under his observation--a power that he was able to bring to
bear instantly when its exercise was called for.
Dr. Miles kept up his habits of reading and study to the last days of
his life; but all public work was made difficult to him in later years
by an increasing deafness. He was tireless in investigation, patient,
and always cheerful and looking for the bright side; and when one
inquired of him concerning his health, his usual answer was that he
was "all right," or, if he could not say that, that he would be "all
right to-morrow."
No sketch of Dr. Miles is complete without a word of tribute to his
high personal character, his life pure and noble in every
relationship, his unswerving devotion to truth, and the unfaltering
loyalty to his friends, which make his memory a benediction and an
inspiration to all who knew him well.
He was married in 1851 to Miss Mary E. Dodge, who remained his devoted
companion until his death, which occurred February 15, 1898.
Editor's Table.
_SCIENCE AND CULTURE._
We do not know from whom the philosopher Locke quotes the saying,
"_Non vitæ sed scholæ discimus_," but he translates it well, "We learn
not to live, but to dispute." The adage has reference to the old
systems of education which had for their aim neither the discovery of
truth nor the perfecting of the human faculties in any broad sense,
but the fitting of the individual to take his place in a world of
conventional ideas and discuss conventional topics upon conventional
lines. In other words, the preparation was for school, not for life,
the whole subsequent career of the individual being regarded simply as
a prolongation of the intellectual influences and discipline of the
school. That system, which was ecclesiastical in its origin, has now,
save for strictly ecclesiastical purposes, passed away. We consider
life as the end of school and not school as the end of life.
It may be questioned, however, whether we have as yet thoroughly
adapted our educational methods to this change of standpoint. Do we as
yet take a sufficiently broad view of life? If we conceive life
narrowly as essentially a business struggle, and adapt our procedure
to that conception, the results will show very little relation to the
larger and truer conception according to which life means development
of faculty, activity of function, and a harmonious adjustment of
relations between man and man. If, again, we make too much of
knowledge that has only a conventional value, having little or no
bearing on the understanding of things or the accomplishment of useful
work, we are so far falling into the old error of "learning for
school." The address by Sir Archibald Geikie, which we published last
month, gives a useful caution against undervaluing "the older
learning." The older learning can certainly be made an effective
instrument for the cultivation of taste, of sympathy, and of
intellectual accuracy along certain lines. It tends further, we
believe, to promote a certain intellectual self-respect, which is a
valuable quality. In the study of language and literature the human
mind surveys, as it were, its own peculiar possessions, and thus
acquires a sense of proprietorship which a study of the external world
can hardly give. Still, it is well to cultivate a consciousness of the
essentially limited and arbitrary nature of such knowledge. It is
important, we may admit, to have a good text of such an author as
Chaucer; but the minutiæ into which critics of his text enter can not
be said to possess any broad human interest. Whether he wrote this
word or that word, adopted this spelling or that, can not be a
question on which much depends; and could one know the exact truth on
a thousand such points, he would not really be much the wiser. Among
Chaucer scholars he could speak with a good deal of confidence; but
the knowledge of these details would not really help to round out any
useful _system_ of knowledge, nor could any single fact possess the
illuminating power which sometimes belongs to some single and, at
first sight, unimportant fact in the realm of natural knowledge.
This is not said with any intention of disparaging the culture that
comes of literary study. It is a culture that tends to brighten human
intercourse and to sweeten a man's own thoughts. It is a culture
eminently favorable to flexibility of mind and quick insight into
human character. So far it is a culture "for life"; but too often it
tends to become a culture "for school"--that is to say, when things
are learned simply to meet conventional demands and conform to the
fashion of the time.
A true and sufficient culture can never, as we conceive, be founded on
literature and language alone. No mind can be truly liberalized
without imbibing and assimilating the fundamental principles of
science. There is darkness in the mind that believes that anything can
come out of nothing and which has never obtained a glimpse of the
exactness with which Nature solves her equations. In the region of
mechanics alone there are a thousand beautiful and varied
illustrations of the unfailing constancy of natural laws. It is a
liberal education to trace the operation of one law under numberless
disguises, and thus arrive at an ineradicable conviction that the same
law must be reckoned with always and everywhere. The persistence of
force, the laws of the composition and resolution of forces, the laws
of falling bodies and projectiles, the conservation of energy, the
laws of heat, to mention only a few heads of elementary scientific
study, are capable, if properly unfolded and illustrated, of producing
in any mind open to large thoughts a sense of harmony and a trust in
the underlying reason of things, which are constitutive elements of
the very highest culture. Only, care must be taken to approach these
studies in a right spirit. There is a way of regarding the laws of
Nature which tends to vulgarize rather than refine the mind. If we
approach Nature merely as something to be exploited, we get no culture
from the study of it; but if we approach it as the great men of old
did, and feel that in learning its laws we are grasping the thoughts
which went to the building of the universe, and, by so doing, are
affirming our own high calling as intelligent beings, then every
moment given to the study of Nature means intellectual, moral, and
spiritual gain. When we look into literature there is much to charm,
much to delight and satisfy; and doubtless, in relation to what any
one man can accomplish, the field is infinite; but still we know we
are looking into the limited. On the other hand, when we are face to
face with Nature, we know we are looking into the infinite, and that,
however many veils we may take away, there is still "veil after veil
behind."
It is needless to say that there are thousands of minds in the world
possessed of good native power, but laboring under serious disability
for the want of that culture which science alone can bestow. Some of
these are sick with morbid longings for unattainable knowledge, and
openly or secretly rebellious at the limitations of a Nature whose
powers they have never even begun to explore. To such persons anything
like an adequate insight into the harmony amid diversity of Nature's
laws would come with all the force of a revelation, and would, we may
well believe, clear their minds of the feverish fancies which have
made them so restless and dissatisfied; but, alas! it is rarely that
such enlightenment comes to those who have not in youth imbibed a
portion of the scientific spirit. In this class are to be found the
victims of spiritualism, of the Keeley motor, and even of that
grotesque satire, the success of which we remember almost with fear
and trembling, the "sympsychograph." Still, to all such we would say:
"Come forth into the light of things;
Let Nature be your teacher."
The "Nature" which we require to teach us for the peace and
tranquillity of our souls is the Nature of everyday phenomena, the
Nature that forms the clouds and rounds the raindrops, that springs in
the grass and pulses in the tides, that glances in the sunbeam and
breathes in the flower, that works witchery in the crystal and breaks
into glory in the sunset. The mind that knows what can be known of
these things has feasted full of wonder and beauty, and makes no
greedy demand for higher grace or mightier miracle.
Then again there are those who for want of a little elementary
scientific knowledge, and particularly for want of an assured
conviction that Nature gives nothing for nothing, are continually
attempting the impossible in the way of projected inventions. They
catch at a phrase and think it must represent a fact; they fall
victims to a verbal mythology of their own manufacture. If there was
much hope of their learning anything of value through disappointment,
they might be left to the teaching of experience, costly as the
lessons of that master are. But they do not learn: their hopes are
blasted, their fortunes, if they had any, are wrecked, but their
infatuations survive. Where is the inventor of a perpetual motion who
ever ceased to have confidence in his peculiar contrivance? The thing
may be as motionless as a tombstone, save when urged by external force
into a momentary lumbering activity; but all the same, it only needs,
its misguided author thinks, a little doctoring, a trifling change
here or there, to make it tear round like mad. And so with other
inventors of the impossible: they take counsel not with Nature, but
with their own wholly incorrect notions of what the operations of
Nature are. The least power of truly analyzing a natural phenomenon,
and separating the factors that produce it, would show them the
falsity of their ideas; but that power they do not possess.
We can not, then, plead too strongly for the teaching of science, not
with a view to results in money, but with a view to the improvement of
the mind and heart of the learner, or, in other words, as a source of
culture. Literature introduces us to the world of human thought and
action, to the kingdom of man; and science shows us how the thought
and powers of man can be indefinitely enlarged by an ever increasing
acquaintance with the laws of the universe. Literature alone leaves
the mind without any firm grasp of the reality of things, and science
alone tends to produce a hard, prosaic, and sometimes antisocial
temper. Each helps to bring out the best possible results of the
other; and it is only by their joint action that human faculties and
human character can ever be brought to their perfection.
_SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST._