BROAD LINES 
 
 IN 
 SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002195794 
 
BROAD LINES IN 
 SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 U'' j;dited by 
 F. HODSON, Ph.D., B.Sc. 
 
 SENIOR SCIENCE MASTER OF BEDALES SCHOOL 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 Prof. M. E. SADLER, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY AND ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION, 
 
 VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1910 
 
Q 
 
 (''lit? 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THESE papers deal with the teaching 
 of science to boys and girls of second- 
 ary-school age. The editor's object 
 has been to cover a wide field, to 
 achieve, through variety of the contributors' 
 experience, variety of presentation, and so to 
 convince the reader of the many-sided human 
 value of science in modern education. If com- 
 pleteness can hardly be attained in so small a 
 compass, obvious gaps have, it is hoped, been 
 filled. The various writers have drawn attention 
 to requirements which in the ideal case should 
 be satisfied : correlation between subjects and 
 between stages, claims of rival departments of 
 scientific study, claims of heuristic or other 
 methods of teaching, claims of practical applica- 
 tion to health, home, and morals ; and the bear- 
 ing of scientific ideas in neighbouring branches 
 of learning has also been touched upon. It has 
 not been shown in detail how far such ideas and 
 requirements are being worked out and met in 
 individual schools or classes of schools. 
 
vi BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 Readers who wish to know something of this 
 side of the matter may turn, in the first place, 
 to a report which has appeared during the 
 passage of this work through the press. ^ This 
 report, edited by Mr. Latter of Charterhouse,^ 
 begins with an interesting retrospect, dealing 
 with the development of science teaching at four 
 well-known Public Schools. Then follows an 
 analysis of the replies received from fifty-six 
 schools, in answer to a circular of questions, 
 touching on many points of teaching and organi- 
 sation ; and the report concludes with appendices 
 giving in full a number of courses of work 
 actually in use. It is shown that individual 
 differences are considerable : and this is to be 
 expected and welcomed. We may hope with 
 Mr. Latter that personal interest and enthusiasm 
 will never be sacrificed to a rigid uniformity : in 
 this spirit the present set of papers has been 
 
 collected. 
 
 F. H. 
 
 September, 1909. 
 
 1 Board of Education. Report on Science Teaching in Public 
 Schools represented on the Association of Public School Science 
 Masters, 1909. 
 
 ^ See Paper IV, " Biology in Schools.'' 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION : By PROFESSOR SADLER Pages xv-xxxvi 
 
 I 
 
 THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOL 
 CURRICULUM 
 
 By J. H. BADLEY, M.A. 
 
 Headmaster of Bedales School ; Author of various papers on 
 
 educational subjects, 
 
 Spencer's fancy picture — Justification for parents' utilitarianism — 
 A place left for the humanities — Threefold educational value of 
 science — Present compromise unsatisfactory — Need of a wide 
 preliminary course — Place of science in general culture — Place 
 of the science group in the curriculum, before the age of 
 sixteen — Specialisation afterwards — Two points of method : 
 training rather than facts, and work not to be divorced from 
 daily life . . . . . Pages 1-15 
 
 II 
 
 THE SCOPE OF NATURE-STUDY 
 
 By EDWARD THOMAS 
 
 Author of " The Life of Richard Jefferies," " The Heart of 
 
 England" " Horce SoUtarice" etc. 
 
 Three determining causes : romantic revival, triumph of science, 
 growth of towns — Literature sends us to nature for happiness — 
 Towns send us for health — Science for knowledge — Modern 
 poets and the great religious books only understood by those 
 in touch with nature — Tolstoi — Value of knowledge of nature — 
 Must include pure brain-work — Aim is to widen culture^Mark 
 Pattison's experience — The sense of unity — Conclusion Pages 16-22 
 
viii BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 III 
 
 THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY 
 
 By CLOTILDE VON WYSS 
 
 London Day Training College ; Editor of " School 
 
 Nature Study. " 
 
 Evolutionary repetition in individual — Early stages of science utili- 
 tarian — Nature-study refers to the earliest phase — Teacher must 
 attend to general attitude of normal child and primitive man — 
 Wonder and curiosity — Animistic — Connection by contiguity not 
 by logic — Seasonal aspects — Three stages between ages of seven 
 and twelve — (l) "Making acquaintance" — (2) "Activity" — 
 (3) " Desire to investigate " — Examples of work at this stage 
 — Conclusion .... Pages 23-36 
 
 IV 
 
 BIOLOGY IN SCHOOLS 
 
 By OSWALD LATTER, M.A. 
 
 Senior Science Master at Charterhouse ; Author of 
 
 " The Natural History of some Common Animals" "Practical 
 
 Nature Study for Schools," etc. 
 
 Apparent aversion — Dearth of teachers — Schools must widen their 
 ground — Utilitarian side of chemistry and physics — Coming 
 market value of biology — An excellent hobby — Begin early — 
 Method of question and answer — Seasonal studies — Heuristic — 
 Close study of everyday creatures and plants — Small plots and 
 fresh and salt marshes — Insects, birds — Human physiology — 
 Evolutionary lines at sixteen to seventeen — Compound micro- 
 scope a necessity — Parker's course suggested — Lectures and 
 reading — School museum . . . Pages 37-4S 
 
 V 
 
 THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 
 
 By ALICE RAVENHILL 
 
 Late Lecturer on Hygiene, West Riding of Yorkshire ; 
 
 Lecturer, London University Board ; Author of '^ Practical Hygiene." 
 
 Education a process of adjustment — Hygiene — Position in pro- 
 gramme — Objections to direct method — Presentation as signifi- 
 cance of daily doings — Continuous and progressive — Methods 
 of teaching — Work of Miss Abrahall — Correlational work in 
 
CONTENTS ix 
 
 secondary schools — In geography and history — In the laboratory 
 — Girls' courses — Economics of health — Superstructural — Man's 
 place in nature — Inheritance and environment — Ethical and social 
 aspects — Parallel scheme for boys and girls — The training of the 
 teacher ..... Pages 49-63 
 
 VI 
 
 THE PLACE OF HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE 
 TEACHING 
 
 By T. PERCY NUNN, M.A., D.Sc. 
 
 Vice-Principal of the London Day Training College ; Author of 
 
 " The A ims of Scientific Method, "and other papers. 
 
 Story of Sir W. Hamilton — Schoolboys' questions about the "ether " 
 — Huxley : " like effects imply like causes " — The reality of ether, 
 ions, energy — Two types of scientist, the believer and the critic — 
 Success of a hypothesis leads to ■<!• less cautious feeling about it 
 — Mach — Pearson — The critical position — Teacher must take up 
 a position — May regret destructive consequences of criticism — 
 "Optimism with a difference" — Example from consideration of 
 molecules — A suggested "molar" treatment of molecules — 
 Sequence of the chemical experiments involved — Other cases for 
 analogous treatment .... Pages 64-79 
 
 VII 
 
 THE CLAIMS OF "RESEARCH" WORK AND 
 EXAMINATIONS 
 
 By FRED HODSON, B.Sc, Ph.D. 
 
 [editor] 
 
 Senior Science Master of Bedales School, Petersfield. 
 
 Three stages of school science — The middle stage — Choice of subjects 
 — Heuristic treatm^t — Liberally but discreetly employed — Read- 
 ing and discussion — High accuracy not attained — The later stage 
 — Examinations and their nature — Revision and expansion — No 
 longer time for heuristic plan — Not a disadvantage — Supplement- 
 ing by iiree-time work — Plunging — The escape from accumulated 
 knowledge — Youthful achievement — The few a stimulus to the 
 many — Actual work done — Conclusion . . Pages 80-92 
 
X BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 VIII 
 
 SCHOOL MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO 
 
 SCHOOL SCIENCE 
 
 By T. JAMES GARSTANG, M.A. 
 
 Senior Mathematical Master of Bedales School; Author of 
 
 various papers on mathematical teaching. 
 
 School mathematics cannot be limited to deductive processes- 
 Young's definition of "elementary," imperfect— Some views of 
 nature of science and its method — Boole — Pearson — Mach — 
 Language and notation — Babbage — Conclusions in regard to 
 teaching — Personal experience to awaken thought — Supreme 
 power of an adequate notation — Historical order — Descartes- 
 Newton — Synthesis of algebra and geometry — Classroom pro- 
 cedure — First stage an introduction to graphical methods — 
 Applications in physical laboratory — Table of cases — Second 
 stage : notion of a limit — Simple curves for application — Third 
 stage : notation, integration as an inverse operation — Function 
 found for an experimental curve — Fourth stage : ir by Gregory's 
 series — Conclusions from teaching experience . Pages 93-107 
 
 IX 
 
 CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING IN 
 
 SCHOOL AND COLLEGE: WITH SPECIAL 
 
 REFERENCE TO ELECTRICITY 
 
 AND MAGNETISM 
 
 By ALFRED W. PORTER, B.Sc. 
 
 Fellow and Assistant Professor of Physics in University of London 
 
 (University College), Examiner in Physics to University {Medical), 
 
 Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, etc. etc. 
 
 Existing overlapping — Comparison with Germany — Precarious foot- 
 hold of science in some schools — More work may be transferred 
 to schools — Or the leaving age may possibly be lowered — 
 Armstrong — Schools physics for medicals inadequate — Elementary 
 work in general — Should be no formal course of electricity, etc , 
 in schools — Mathematics — Mechanics — Electrostatics first — Rela- 
 tion to modern theory — Value of informal experimenting — Not 
 only heuristic — But no dogmatism — Case of exceptional boys — 
 Breadth of view required . . . Pages 108-121 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 GEOGRAPHY 
 
 By J. H. N. STEPHENSON, M.A. 
 
 Headmaster of Letch'worth School ; Author of ** The Elements 
 
 of Geography." 
 
 Claims of Geography — Concentration in early education — Method 
 and aim — Relation to science teaching — Geography to begin at 
 home ? — Some disadvantages — Nature-study important — Study 
 of life on the earth — Man in relation to nature — Anthropology 
 and economics — Regional geography an application of prin- 
 ciples to particular areas — Plea for advanced work — Nature under 
 man's control — Essay-writing . . . Pages 122-134 
 
 XI 
 SCIENCE IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 
 
 By F. M. POWICKE, M.A. 
 Fellow of Merton College, Oxford; Professor of Modern History 
 
 in the University of Belfast. 
 
 History-Science parallel — How reveal the laws of human action? — 
 Science and law in history — Too much time given to certain 
 causal relations — Illustration — Value of imagination — This con- 
 trolled by scientific method — Illustration — Teaching of young 
 children — History shows the fullness of life — Method — Set 
 teaching may begin late — Tests of success — What to teach — 
 Conclusion ..... Pages 135-145 
 
 XII 
 
 ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN SECONDARY 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 By AUGUSTUS KAHN, M.A. 
 
 Headmaster of the County Secondary School, Holloway, London, 
 
 and Lecturer on Commercial Methods in the 
 
 University of London, 
 
 Economics in arithmetic — Bearing of economics on citizenship — 
 Course of lessons from arithmetic — Interest — Money — Banking 
 system — Stocks and shares — Companies — Higher course for 
 special boys — Retail trading — Examples : efifect of various oper- 
 ations on the Bank of England — Syllabus of the course proposed 
 
 Pages 146-157 
 
xii BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 XIII 
 
 DOMESTIC SCIENCE 
 
 By ARTHUR SMITHELLS, F.R.S. 
 Professor of Chemistry in the University of Leeds. 
 
 Distinguished from domestic arts — Effect depends more on the 
 teacher than the subject — Science needed — But has been detached — 
 Cases in point — Application to hygiene — Scientific cookery will 
 achieve economies — And satisfy an intellectual appetite — Physics 
 and chemistry from the kitchen standpoint — Chemistry of foods — 
 Yeast— Sterilisation— Heller's syllabus . . Pages 158-166 
 
 XIV 
 
 THE TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY IN 
 
 TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 
 
 By HENRY GARRETT, B.Sc, Ph.D. 
 H.M. Inspector of Schools, Ireland. 
 
 Character of work done in universities, in secondary schools, and 
 in technical schools — Sub-groups among technical students — 
 Three classes of student — Course for industrials — Now too 
 academic — Method through applications is from familiar to un- 
 familiar, and therefore sound — First year : chemistry with physics 
 and mathematics — Second year : inorganic chemistry and one 
 technical class — Third year : organic chemistry and one technical 
 class — Fourth year : benzene derivatives and special class — Details 
 of the general course, reference to applications — Special work for 
 plumbers and painters .... Pages i6y-iJJ 
 
 XV 
 
 HOW THE SCHOOL MAY HELP AGRICULTURE 
 
 By E. W. read, M.A. 
 Headmaster of the Sutherland Technical Institute, Golspie, N.B. 
 
 How the practical man criticises agricultural science — The points of 
 business-efficiency forgotten by the lecturer — Education of future 
 small farmer — Education will not save a farmer if he does not 
 possess certain qualities — But will widen his outlook — And 
 teach him what qualities he needs to cultivate — Special schools 
 probably needed — Curriculum — English, with history and geo- 
 graphy — Mathematics and science — Manual work — Gardening and 
 forestry — Visits to farms — Correlation of work — Authority 
 appointed must study the needs of different districts — Importance 
 of women in country life, education of girls . . Pages 178-187 
 
CONTENTS xiii 
 
 XVI 
 
 ENGINEERING 
 
 By AN ASSOCIATE OF THE INSTITUTION OF 
 
 CIVIL ENGINEERS 
 
 Division into two classes, directing and rank and file— Ranks 
 
 — Should be no unskilled labour between elementary school and 
 
 age of sixeen — Pre-apprentice schools — Curriculum — Study of 
 
 English — Correlation in mathematics, mechanics, and handwork — 
 
 Defects of secondary-school course up to sixteen — Sir W. White's 
 
 report — What is done in public schools — Competition between 
 
 the general educational and the special technical interests — 
 
 Conclusion ..... Pages 188-198 
 
 XVII 
 
 SCIENCE TEACHING AND THE TRAINING 
 
 OF THE AFFECTIONS 
 
 By SIDNEY UNWIN, B.Sc. 
 
 Housemaster of Bedales School, Petersfield. 
 
 What parents should do — Schoolmaster must gain the same affectionate 
 relation — Course of life on the school estate — Seasons — Three 
 suggested divisions of science work : class work, farm and 
 garden, etc., voluntary work — Ordinary class work : animal 
 world, leading up to study of man — Economics — Practical work : 
 sympathy and faithful performance of duties — Hobbies — School 
 tone — Talks — Puberty — Girls — Brunn on co-education — Own 
 experience of co-education — School government — Fatherhood — 
 Chapel services .... Pages 199-210 
 
 XVIII 
 
 SCIENCE TEACHING AND A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY 
 
 By CORA B. SANDERS 
 
 Formerly Tutor at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; Author of 
 
 various papers on biological subjects. 
 
 The struggle between science and religion has been magnified — Two 
 problems, personal and social — The former here treated — For many 
 the old difficulties still exist — Causes : bad treatment or bad se- 
 quence — Suggested sequence — Average man has some philosophy 
 and so have children — Will is strong in the young — A world-order 
 in which personality has a place — The spiritual side — Early evolu- 
 tion-theory gives a thread — Theory need not stifle observation — 
 Parallel presentation of science and religion — Avoids confused 
 conception of causation — Scientist's open mind — Laws of nature- 
 Evil of too much inorganic work — Use of speculative theories — 
 Need of direct teaching — The hold of spirit . Pages 211-226 
 
xiv BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 XIX 
 
 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF PHYSICS 
 
 TEACHING IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 By C. R. MANN, Ph.D. 
 
 Professor of Physics in the University of Chicago, 
 
 Secretary of the American Federation of Teachers of the 
 
 Mathematical and the Natural Sciences, 
 
 Joint Author of Mann and T-wiss's " Text-book of Physics," etc. etc. 
 
 Advance in equipment during the last thirty years — Is the best use 
 being made of it ? — Factors in development — College influence and 
 the research-ideal — Idea of educating has been lost — The phrase- 
 ology not the spirit of research has been transplanted — Measure- 
 ments of a too accurate sort made on uninteresting material — A 
 Chicago case — Six causes of shortcomings — Associations which 
 exist to deal with the various difficulties — The present a time of 
 great opportunity .... Pages 227-238 
 
 XX 
 
 SCHOOL SCIENCE IN GERMANY 
 
 By the editor 
 
 Historical — Siivern's code — Rise of the Reabchule — Humanistic ideal 
 — Equal opportunity for two types of school — Hofler's views, es- 
 pecially dealing with physics, as mind-training in inductive logic — 
 Adjustment of historical and systematic claims — Help from Mach 
 — Critical completeness, philosophy — Selection of subject-matter — 
 The Meran Commission — Bavarian scheme — Physics in Gymnasia 
 — Kerschensteiner's views — Commission's recommendations for 
 physics — Chemistry and biology — Practical work — Fischer's en- 
 quiries — Difficulties : cost of equipment and training of teachers 
 — Fischer's course for teachers — Conclusion . . Pages 239-251 
 
 XXI 
 
 SOME PRACTICAL NOTES ON THE PLANNING 
 
 OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 
 
 By T. H. RUSSELL, M.A., Architect 
 
 Extension of science teaching — The building— Old rooms converted 
 — Moral effect of good arrangements — Simplicity — Laboratory for 
 elementary work — Space required, etc. — Chemical laboratories — 
 Lighting— Ventilation— Natural ventilation— Walls and floor— 
 Benches— Other fittings— Fire-risk — Draught-cupboards — Phy- 
 sical laboratories — Special requirements . . Pages 252-267 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY PROFESSOR SADLER 
 
 A MONG all the movements of thought 
 / ^ which have passed over modern 
 j^ ^ Europe, two only, and those separated 
 by a long interval of time, have had 
 in them enough of sustained force to sweep 
 through the whole field of higher education and 
 to give a new aim and method to the schools. 
 The first was the classical renaissance ; the 
 second is the study of natural science. Each has 
 worked in the main upon different materials ; the 
 one upon the texts and monuments of antiquity, 
 the other upon nature closely scrutinised and 
 comprehensively observed. Each accordingly 
 has in turn developed its own method of in- 
 vestigation and its own canons of evidence. 
 Each has favoured that form of early training 
 which, in the field of study concerned, makes the 
 vision clear, the observation accurately alert, and 
 the critical judgment sound. But in spite of all 
 differences between them in regard to the subject- 
 matter of study and the practical application of 
 its results, the two movements have had in their 
 
xvi BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 origin one characteristic resemblance. Both have 
 been efforts to win for men the right to greater 
 liberty of thought. Both have been inspired 
 by a passion for intellectual freedom and by 
 indignation at obsolete restraints upon the mind. 
 And it is this passionate, human element which 
 has given to each movement in turn its zeal for 
 educational reform and the strength needed for 
 a long struggle against the inertia of prejudice 
 and routine. 
 
 What the classical renaissance was to men of 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the scientific 
 movement is to us. It has given a new trend 
 to education. It has changed the outlook of the 
 mind. It has given a new intellectual back- 
 ground to life. It has therefore disturbed the 
 old balance of studies. It has broken down a 
 scholastic monopoly. It has made a new learn- 
 ing indispensable to all professional callings. It 
 demands a new spirit and a new method in 
 teaching. Its claims affect the whole field of 
 education and every grade of school. They 
 involve a revolutionary change. 
 
 But school systems are by nature conservative. 
 They are rooted in old ways, loyal to established 
 traditions, sturdy upholders of tested experience, 
 critics of what is new and untried. A chief part 
 of their work is to train up those who will carry 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 on the business of the nation without any break 
 in the continuity of its historical development. 
 That is their trust. They are among the in- 
 stitutions by means of which the old order seeks 
 to hold its own with the future. Most of those 
 who occupy in them the posts of great responsi- 
 bility are men no longer young. A school 
 system therefore resists a new intellectual move- 
 ment which challenges its accepted precedents, 
 which demands sweeping changes in its settled 
 administration, which urges a redistribution of 
 its endowments, and which involves a fresh point 
 of view in its methods of instruction. The 
 leaders of the classical renaissance had to fight 
 for generations against the hard-set conservatism 
 of the schools. A great political change was 
 necessary before their victory could be complete. 
 And even then the conservatism of the schools 
 was so tenacious that the new studies lost much 
 of their life and purpose under the pressure of 
 obstinately persistent traditions. In the greater 
 number of schools which were founded under 
 the impulse of the Revival of Learning, the 
 intellectual fire died down at last into mere book- 
 ishness and decorous care for literary precedent. 
 How little of the austere grace of mind and 
 person which boys and girls had gained in 
 Vittorino da Feltre's school at Mantua, when 
 b 
 
xviii BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 Love's Labour's Lost came to be written, could 
 survive in the sententious pedantry of the school- 
 master Holofernes. 
 
 The educational claims of the scientific move- 
 ment met with the same resistance. The new 
 thing, because it was in essence revolutionary, 
 was repelled by those schools which were the 
 bulwarks of the old order of thought and of 
 social organisation. Faraday declared in 1855 
 that even the classes which were esteemed to be 
 educated were for the most part not only ignorant 
 of physical science and of its methods of 
 enquiry and judgment, but also ignorant of their 
 ignorance. Five years ago, one who by training 
 and experience is especially qualified to judge 
 in such a matter, said : "It is a fact, and a very 
 strange fact, that although we are living in a 
 scientific age, anything approaching to a know- 
 ledge not of the general principles but of the 
 methods and results of any one department 
 of science is extremely rare among educated 
 men." ^ He was speaking of those whose calling 
 lies outside the strictly scientific professions, and 
 who have been educated in places where the old 
 scholastic tradition is strong. The change during 
 the last fifty years has, it is true, been enormous. 
 
 1 p. N. Waggett, The Scientific Temper in Religion (London : 
 Longmans, 1905), p, 34. 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 But, in England, the spirit of science has not yet 
 permeated the higher schools, at any rate the 
 higher schools for boys. Science has secured 
 a place in their curricula, a firm place and re- 
 spectful recognition,^ but scientific method and 
 the spirit of science have not yet influenced the 
 whole of the intellectual life of the schools, have 
 not yet remoulded the ways of teaching in other 
 than what in the narrower sense of the words 
 are called scientific subjects. There is still in 
 these schools (and in many others affected by 
 their example) a discontinuity, which indeed is 
 in some degree unavoidable, between the subject- 
 matter of the scientific courses and that of the 
 other parts of the curriculum. But worse than 
 this, there is a conflict of presuppositions, a 
 difference in intellectual focus, which could be 
 greatly lessened, and which, even when not con- 
 sciously realised, is injurious to those who learn. 
 
 The situation as regards the teaching of 
 science in English schools has been affected by 
 the course of our educational history to a degree 
 which calls for explanation. We have in fact 
 no administrative unity in our national education. 
 Two great systems of schools exist side by side, 
 
 ' See the Report on Science Teaching in Public Schools 
 represented on the Association of Public School Science Masters, 
 edited by Mr. O. H. Latter for the Board of Education (London : 
 Wymans, 1909). 
 
XX BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 those under State inspection and those which are 
 not so inspected. In the course of the last 
 century, the first of these systems has grown 
 with extraordinary speed, and now, in point of 
 size, is to the other what a giant is to a man. 
 But the smaller group of schools which is not yet 
 under regular inspection by the State (I exclude 
 in this connection that large proportion of private 
 schools which concerns itself with elementary 
 work alone) enjoys social pre-eminence and 
 retains a large measure of political influence. 
 This group is semi-independent of State control. 
 Parliament has subjected it, at two stages, to 
 public enquiry. Its expenditure of old endow- 
 ments, its forms of self-government, and in a 
 rather vague way its courses of instruction, are 
 regulated by statute. But its general position is 
 quasi-public rather than public, in the sense that 
 no Government department keeps its work under 
 inspection and continuous review. There have 
 of course been great advantages in this different 
 treatment of two great groups of schools. But 
 one of the serious drawbacks to it has been the 
 weakness of public pressure upon the higher 
 secondary schools for boys, and upon the pre- 
 paratory schools which do the initial stages of 
 their work, in respect to the place of natural 
 science in the regular curriculum. The old 
 
INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 scholastic tradition has been protected in them 
 by the attitude of non-interference adopted by 
 the State. In all the schools which are periodic- 
 ally inspected by Government and which carry 
 on their work under regulations laid down from 
 year to year by the State, natural science has a 
 place of greater relative importance in the course 
 of study than is yet the case in the large majority 
 of the schools which are exempt from this direct 
 form of pressure. Our English system of State- 
 aided and State-inspected education grew into 
 its full stature during the period in which natural 
 science had already become the most potent 
 intellectual influence of the age. The fact that 
 most of those who in Parliament framed the 
 plan of the new system, and of those who admin- 
 istered it from the public offices, had themselves 
 been trained under a system of education which 
 included but little natural science, delayed for a 
 time the entrance of the new ideas into many of 
 the schools concerned. But the influence of the 
 Science and Art Department (officered almost 
 entirely by men who had received a scientific 
 training), the needs of industry, and the strong 
 trend of public opinion overbore this temporary 
 resistance and neglect. The result is that one 
 of the first aims prescribed by Government for 
 every public elementary school is the " careful 
 
xxii BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 training of the children in habits of observation 
 and clear reasoning, so that they may gain an 
 intelligent acquaintance with some of the facts 
 and laws of nature." And every secondary school, 
 in order to be recognised as efficient by the 
 Board of Education, must submit for the Board's 
 approval "a curriculum (with time-analysis) 
 of the whole school, providing for due continuity 
 of instruction in each of the subjects taken and 
 for an adequate amount of time being given to 
 each of these subjects," while it is farther required 
 that the curriculum must include, among other 
 subjects, science with practical work. 
 
 Step by step the State has advanced towards 
 a comprehensive treatment of national education. 
 At first it confined itself, in the main, to the 
 schools intended for the labouring poor. These 
 schools, once systematically aided out of public 
 funds, rapidly grew in number, in importance, and 
 in range of intellectual effort. Next, evening 
 and other classes for scientific and technical 
 instruction were liberally aided by the 
 State. The beginnings of higher education for 
 the people were thus secured. Government 
 then found itself compelled to encourage a new 
 type of secondary day school as a superstructure 
 to the elementary schools and as a link between 
 them and the technical classes. In 1890 funds 
 
INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 were forthcoming, under the Local Taxation 
 (Customs and Excise) Act, which enabled the 
 Technical Instruction Committees to aid the 
 scientific side of the work of the local secondary 
 schools. Finally, the Education Act of 1902 gave 
 to local authorities in county and county boroughs 
 throughout the country the duty of co-ordinating 
 the schools, elementary and secondary, within 
 their respective areas. The effects of the Act 
 have been momentous. The plan of a national 
 system of education has been, in great measure, 
 administratively realised. A greater impetus has 
 been given to secondary schools than at any time 
 since the Revival of Learning. In form at any 
 rate, if not in substance, the scientific movement 
 has won its victory over almost the whole area of 
 English education. And those of the endowed 
 schools which still remain outside the province 
 of Government inspection are like scattered 
 islands in a great sea. 
 
 But in the very moment of victory some of 
 the best friends of science teaching felt mis- 
 giving and disappointment. Was the science 
 which had thus won its place in school curricula 
 being taught in a way which kindled intellectual 
 interests and prepared those who learnt it for the 
 work of independent thinking ? Had it, in spite of 
 laboratories which gave opportunities for practical 
 
xxiv BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 work, merely taken its place, in most instances, 
 in the ranks of other " subjects " and become but 
 a new branch of the old scholastic routine ? And 
 what was the reason why so many of those who 
 had been trained through natural science failed 
 in the power of self-expression and were con- 
 sequently weak in the accurate presentment of 
 things observed ? At this point Professor Arm- 
 strong and Professor Perry shook us out of a 
 dogmatic slumber. And many strong advocates 
 of the claims of natural science to a predominant 
 place in secondary education admitted the value 
 of the old scholastic tradition, for the reason that, 
 at its best, it cultivates the power of expression 
 by exact linguistic discipline and opens the mind 
 by humanistic studies to a wider view of life. 
 
 Thus the present is a time of reconciliation 
 between two schools of thought which had long 
 been separated and often bitterly opposed. Each 
 has come to a better understanding of the aims 
 of the other. We are passing through a period 
 of truce. Those whose experience has lain in 
 schools of the new type appreciate the value of 
 the humane and literary ideals which are the real 
 distinction of the older tradition in secondary 
 education. Those on the other hand whose ex- 
 perience has lain in the older type of school admire, 
 the intellectual vigour — especially shown in scien- 
 
INTRODUCTION xxv 
 
 tific and practical work — which characterises many 
 of the new. It is felt that what is needed is a 
 combination of the best in the two traditions, a 
 fusion which is more possible now than at any 
 earlier time. 
 
 But such a fusion cannot easily be brought 
 about. The most threatening evil in modern 
 education is multiplicity of studies, imperfectly 
 related to one another and at too frequent intervals 
 changing the focus of the mind. The most 
 hopeful way out of the difficulty caused by this 
 pressure of many subjects upon a necessarily 
 limited time-table lies through the study of 
 methods of teaching, with a view to the closer 
 dovetailing of related branches of knowledge, to 
 the excision of those parts of each subject which 
 can be omitted without destroying the continuity 
 and discipline of the instruction, and to greater 
 precision and economy in the lines of intellectual 
 approach. The rapid growth of interest in the 
 study of methods of teaching is therefore one of 
 the most encouraging, as it is one of the most 
 significant, of recent developments in English 
 education. It has come at the time when it was 
 most needed. It has shown itself in every grade 
 of education. It has been encouraged by nearly 
 all the associations of teachers. The professional 
 journals have furthered it. It is showing itself in 
 
 i 2 
 
xxvi BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 discussion, in the publication of experience, and 
 already, to some degree, in systematic experiment. 
 Towards the study of one aspect of the subject 
 this book is a contribution. 
 
 II 
 
 The writers of the following chapters desire to 
 see the scientific habit of mind and the scientific 
 way of looking at things more carefully fostered 
 in English education, especially in that part of 
 it which still lies under the dominant influence 
 of the old scholastic tradition. They are far from 
 claiming for physical science a preponderant part 
 in the course of general education which should 
 precede any form of specialised study. Language 
 and literature, history, art, and music are in their 
 view indispensable factors in a liberal education. 
 But they hold that on educational grounds the 
 study of nature should also be a necessary part 
 of the school training of every child. They feel 
 moreover that, as Faraday said, everything 
 depends upon the spirit and manner in which 
 scientific instruction is given and honoured. 
 They wish to see school work and the conditions 
 of school life imbued with science. They believe 
 that in the encouragement of the scientific 
 temper and attitude of mind lies one of the best 
 
INTRODUCTION xxvii 
 
 hopes of culture, the surest guarantee of intel- 
 lectual activity and of temperate judgment in 
 the nation, and one necessary means of preparation 
 for the duties of citizenship. They have there- 
 fore brought into common stock their experience 
 of the ways in which the study of science may 
 become, directly and indirectly, a vitalising 
 influence in the work of a school. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that this book, while 
 mainly concerned with the methods of teaching 
 science, addresses itself also to other fundamental 
 questions which are involved in any study of the 
 right relation of the growing mind towards new 
 knowledge, new duties, and new kinds of action. 
 Mr. Badley sets this larger view before us in the 
 first chapter. The true aim, he urges, in the 
 preliminary teaching of science is not to give a 
 mass of facts to be remembered, but to train the 
 pupil to a right habit of investigation and of 
 inference. And he strikes the key-note of the 
 book in his argument that science should not be 
 divorced in the children's minds from the actual 
 happenings of everyday experience in house and 
 garden. This is the synthesis which makes 
 science teaching real. Science (though in part 
 focussed in certain lessons and practical exercises) 
 is not to be treated as a separate compartment of 
 a programme of studies. It is the gaining of a 
 
xxviii BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 habit and attitude of mind, partly through pre- 
 scribed lessons, partly through voluntary occupa 
 tions, partly through the medium of practical 
 duties done (with understanding of the scientific 
 reason for them) by the pupil in the service of 
 the school-community of which he is a member. 
 
 Dr. Hodson points out in one of his contribu- 
 tions to the volume that the teaching of science 
 in pre-university education falls into three stages 
 — one extending from early childhood to the age 
 of twelve or thirteen ; the second covering the 
 period up to about sixteen ; and the third (of 
 varying length according to the duration of the 
 pupil's school-life) comprising the remainder of 
 his course. Following this order of treatment, 
 the book begins, after Mr. Badley's opening 
 chapter, with articles upon the scope and teaching 
 of nature -study by Mr. Edward Thomas and 
 Miss von Wyss. The essays on nature -study, 
 which is largely concerned with the study of 
 living things, lead to Mr. Latter's paper upon 
 the teaching of biology. He shows how cogent 
 are the reasons for regretting the present com- 
 parative neglect of biological studies in secondary 
 schools. Closely akin to Mr. Latter's argument 
 is that put forward in the following essay by 
 Miss Alice Ravenhill upon the teaching of 
 hygiene. She raises, among other matters of 
 
INTRODUCTION xxix 
 
 the highest educational importance, the pressing 
 question how, through the teaching of hygiene, 
 boys and girls may receive instruction as to the 
 right conduct and transmission of life. The 
 following chapters in the book deal with problems 
 of educational method. A deeply interesting 
 question in intellectual ethics which presents 
 itself to many teachers of science in schools is 
 examined by Dr. Percy Nunn in his essay on 
 " The Place of Hypotheses in Science Teaching." 
 Dr. Hodson reviews the often conflicting claims 
 of " research " work and examinations, and, while 
 strongly recommending a judicious but thorough- 
 going use of the heuristic method up to about 
 sixteen, points out the need, when the examina- 
 tion stage is reached, for "a speedier method of 
 accumulating experience " which may be followed 
 up by interesting individual work in free time. 
 He illustrates from the practice in his own labor- 
 atory this method of counteracting the tendency 
 of examinations to put an undue pressure upon 
 receptivity, but frankly admits that " the more 
 coherent, deductive ordering " of a subject, which 
 preparation for an examination requires, is (if not 
 dominant in the school course and if it is post- 
 poned to the later stages of instruction) not 
 unwelcome or without benefit to some of the 
 most active minds. In the following paper, 
 
XXX BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 which also draws freely from the writer's long 
 experience in working out new methods of in- 
 struction, Mr. T. J. Garstang discusses the teach- 
 ing of mathematics in schools, emphasising the 
 great importance of preserving a large place for 
 " the inductive process as a vital factor in promot- 
 ing healthy and vigorous growth of mind during 
 the early years of youth" and showing ways 
 in which the mathematical teaching may be 
 closely correlated with that of physical science. 
 This leads to Mr. Porter's paper on the co-ordina- 
 tion of physics teaching in school and college, 
 which in turn is followed by an essay on the 
 teaching of geography by Mr. Stephenson, who 
 agrees with Mr. Mackinder that " the object of 
 the teacher is to build up a conception of the 
 surface of the earth as a product of interacting 
 forces, in order that that surface may be intelli- 
 gently viewed as the scene of social activities." 
 In the next essay Professor Powicke discusses 
 the place of scientific method in the teaching of 
 history, pointing out how great is the value of 
 story and legend in stimulating the power of 
 imagination, but demurring to any attempt at 
 serious and systematic history teaching being 
 made before the later years of school life. " When 
 the teaching does begin, it should be real. The 
 teacher must know his work through and through. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxxi 
 
 . . . There should be no hurry at school to fix 
 and define the sequence of civilisation, but there 
 should be great care to make the different stages 
 real and living." The larger use, in the teach- 
 Jng of arithmetic, of illustrations drawn from 
 economics, and the best methods of teaching 
 domestic science to girls are discussed by Mr. 
 Kahn and Professor Smithells in the succeeding 
 chapters ; the teaching of the sciences bearing on 
 agriculture and of engineering in those which 
 follow. A very important aspect of the question 
 is then raised by Mr. Sidney Unwin in his paper 
 on "Science Teaching and the Training of the 
 Affections." He shows how much scientific train- 
 ing may be gained through compulsory practical 
 work, including poultry and bee-keeping, farm 
 and garden occupations, as well as through 
 hobbies. He also points out how the conditions 
 and studies of school life may be so organised as 
 "to unfold to our boys the mysteries of birth and 
 growth." His paper, based upon much ex- 
 perience, will impress the reader with a strong 
 sense of the possibilities of co-education, when 
 carried on with close interest and care, as a 
 means of safeguarding a good moral tone. 
 Another step in the cumulative argument of the 
 book is taken by Miss Sanders, who writes about 
 the influence of wise science teaching upon a 
 
xxxii BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 child's philosophy and religious ideas. She 
 pleads for the giving to every child of the best 
 we can of science (including some early teaching 
 of biology) and the fullest instruction in religion, 
 not least in acts of reverent, common worship. 
 Studies of the present position of science teach- 
 ing in the United States and in Germany, sug- 
 gestive as showing the similar trend of ex- 
 perienced opinion in those countries and our own, 
 and practical notes on the planning of science 
 laboratories in schools complete the volume. 
 
 Ill 
 
 In conclusion, a few words should be added as 
 to some of the practical inferences which may be 
 drawn from the book. 
 
 It is right to give very much discretionary 
 freedom to the competent teacher in working out 
 new methods of work for his class, and to allow 
 him much liberty in experimenting in the omis- 
 sion of parts of his subject from the course of 
 instruction. It would be a mistake to hamper 
 the teacher by elaborate syllabuses imposed by 
 an external authority. The willingness of the 
 Board of Education to give freedom to the 
 skilled teacher is wise and fruitful. 
 
 If science is to have a strong intellectual in- 
 
INTRODUCTION xxxiii 
 
 fluence upon the whole body of school-work, it is 
 essential that men and women of the highest 
 ability and competence should be encouraged to 
 devote themselves to service in the secondary 
 schools. This will not be the case unless, through 
 pressure exerted by the State, a great improve- 
 ment is quickly made in the salaries and pro- 
 fessional prospects of the assistant teachers in 
 the large majority of those schools throughout 
 the country. This is one of the most urgent, 
 perhaps the most urgent, question in national 
 education at the present time. We are spending 
 large sums upon the material equipment of 
 secondary education, but relatively too little 
 upon the human factor which is vital to its 
 welfare. 
 
 The more general introduction of biology into 
 school studies should, on educational grounds, be 
 specially encouraged. 
 
 It is important that attention and aid should be 
 given to the development of well-arranged courses 
 in domestic science in the secondary schools for 
 girls (especially as a supplement to the ordinary 
 school course), and to the training of teachers in 
 this subject. 
 
 The argument in favour of the co-education of 
 boys and girls, in boarding schools as well as in 
 day schools, is being strengthened by a growing 
 
xxxiv BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 volume of experience, provided that it is carried 
 on under conditions of wise and very careful 
 oversight, and with due regard to their different 
 needs in point of study and exercise. 
 
 The comparative neglect of preliminary science 
 teaching in the preparatory secondary schools for 
 boys is a grave defect in national education. 
 Mr. Latter points out in his Report on Science 
 Teaching in Public Schools that "It is no un- 
 common occurrence for a boy, clever at classics 
 and mathematics and therefore placed in a re- 
 latively high form on entry to the Public School, 
 to have done no science whatever. Total in- 
 experience of science is more common among 
 these clever boys than among their less favoured 
 brethren. Nor is the reason far to seek. Science 
 finds no place in the examination for the valuable 
 (classical) entrance scholarships awarded by the 
 Public Schools. There is thus a strong financial 
 temptation both to parents and masters of 
 Preparatory Schools to neglect the subject which 
 does not pay." The study of nature should 
 form an indispensable part of the early educa- 
 tion of every child. But in present circumstances 
 the early education of some of the most promising 
 boys in the country is injured by a prematurely 
 specialised curriculum, in which linguistic and 
 mathematical training holds too large a place, 
 
INTRODUCTION xxxv 
 
 with the result that the study of nature and 
 manual training are unduly neglected. The 
 remedy for this evil cannot be found without 
 considerable changes in the present methods of 
 awarding entrance scholarships at the great 
 Public Schools. This may call for action on the 
 part of the State. But administrative reforms, 
 necessary as they are, will not bear full fruit 
 unless there goes with them a change in the 
 point of view of many parents and teachers, 
 such a change as would accompany a wider 
 diffusion of the scientific temper of mind. 
 
 What, then, are the distinctive marks of the 
 scientific temper of mind which it is so neces- 
 sary to encourage in education.'* Among many 
 characteristic signs of it, four seem to be pri- 
 mary and essential — an alert interest in things 
 seen ; patience and exactitude in observing, 
 verifying, and recording them ; a disposition to 
 brood over new facts before reaching a judg- 
 ment as to their meaning and classification ; and 
 an habitual willingness to take great trouble in 
 getting at the truth. These qualities and powers 
 of mind have in a signal way proved their value 
 in the pursuit and application of natural science, 
 but they are not less efficacious in many other 
 branches of study and practice. Experience has 
 shown that one necessary instrument in their 
 
xxxvi BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 training is found in the first-hand study of nature. 
 But the direct contact with nature which is thus 
 necessary to a liberal education must be held to 
 include, as an indispensable influence in its dis- 
 cipline, intimacy with living people through whom 
 the learner gains direct experience of the beliefs 
 and ideals in which men find strength and hope ; 
 under whose authority he learns how to observe 
 and to verify ; and from the working of whose 
 minds he assimilates almost unconsciously the 
 power of rightly using his own. It is a sterile 
 form of scientific training which takes little regard 
 of human relationships, and a narrow kind of 
 humane education which ignores the study of 
 nature, A liberal education draws its energy 
 from many sources, doing its work (as Ruskin 
 said) through " the study of nature, the sight and 
 history of men, and the setting forth of noble 
 objects of action." 
 
 M. E. SADLER. 
 
BROAD LINES 
 IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 I 
 
 THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE 
 SCHOOL CURRICULUM 
 
 By J. H. BADLEY, M.A. 
 
 THE battle for the admission of Science 
 into the school course has been fought 
 and won. No one now disputes that 
 it has a place, even though by some 
 staunch adherents of the old school of classical 
 culture its place may be grudgingly conceded, 
 and kept as small as the clamour of commercially 
 minded parents will allow. This is, perhaps, the 
 less to be wondered at when we remember that 
 the advocates of Science have been as sweeping 
 and one-sided in their claims as its opponents. 
 Herbert Spencer, the high priest of scientific 
 dogmatism, in the most widely known of his 
 writings put the question, "What knowledge is 
 of most worth ? " and after discussing the bearing 
 of knowledge on earning a livelihood, health, 
 citizenship, art and mental discipline, gave on 
 
2 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 every count the answer — "Science." Science, 
 according to his claim, must henceforward form 
 the basis, and occupy the larger and more im- 
 portant part of the school curriculum, and such 
 side- interests as literature and the arts might be 
 allowed to occupy the leisure part of education, as 
 of life. 
 
 Here was a turning of the tables, indeed, upon 
 the classical school ; and in their revolutionary 
 zeal some of the supporters of Science have 
 endeavoured, so far as the deadweight of pre- 
 judice in favour of the humanities and old-estab- 
 lished custom would allow, to realise this ideal. 
 They admit, of course, the need, duly sub- 
 ordinated, of other subjects ; of mathematics, 
 naturally, as a sister science and the most power- 
 ful of instruments in the physical sciences ; of 
 some foreign languages, necessary for keeping 
 abreast of contemporary discovery and thought ; 
 of the use of books, for reference ; perhaps even 
 of some command of the mother-tongue, in 
 order to describe experiments and convey dis- 
 coveries to others ; and of drawing, of a strictly 
 utilitarian kind, to help to record and present 
 them. But anything conducive to literary and 
 artistic enjoyment, as able to amuse only the 
 leisure of the few, they would leave to these 
 to find for themselves, apart from the serious 
 business of life and education. 
 
 The foregoing sketch of a school course, drawn 
 
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOL 3 
 
 Up on the lines of Herbert Spencer's claim for 
 Science, is, happily, a fancy picture, or at most 
 a caricature of the reality. But, after all, it is 
 not so unfair a statement of the demands 
 advanced by some teachers, as well as by many 
 men of business and parents who want quick 
 returns for the cost of education in the shape of 
 knowledge that will pay. And let it be at once 
 admitted that they are fully justified in claiming 
 a place for Science in the school course on this 
 ground. So much of modern industry and busi- 
 ness, and, indeed, of most sides of modern life, is 
 not only based on the discoveries of Science, but 
 depends for efficient performance on a practical 
 knowledge of some or other of its branches, that 
 education without any knowledge of Science is 
 now, whether for boys or girls, well-nigh as un- 
 practical and absurd as it would be without any 
 knowledge of the "three R's." There are other 
 reasons, and weighty ones too, for including it in 
 the school curriculum ; but this reason alone, its 
 utility and direct bearing upon many of the 
 activities of modern life, is real enough to 
 justify the demand for giving it a place, and 
 a large one, in education. But that is a very 
 different thing from making it the sole basis 
 of education, or even for making it the chief 
 means of training for all alike. That would be 
 every bit as narrow and inefficient and — in the 
 widest sense — as unpractical as the old classical 
 
4 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 training. In the first place, we cannot all find our 
 interest and our best training in scientific research 
 any more than in writing Latin verse; nor, for 
 that matter, is it necessary that we should, for in 
 these days of highly specialised knowledge, we 
 must be content to call in the expert in the 
 particular branch of applied Science that we need, 
 just as we call in the doctor. What is necessary 
 is that we should have some modicum of scientific 
 knowledge and training to enable us first to 
 appreciate the value of his advice, and then to 
 follow it intelligently. And, in the second place, 
 whether or not we follow some career for which 
 a scientific training may be specially needed, we 
 are in any case to be human beings and share 
 the joys and sorrows and common interests of 
 humanity ; so that there is still, when we have 
 admitted all that can be urged for the utility of 
 Science, a place left in education for the " humani- 
 ties," the literary, artistic, and social studies whose 
 main purpose is to enrich our lives with higher 
 ideals, nobler motives, and wider sympathies. 
 
 The fact is that both sides in the dispute have 
 been too ready to base the claims of Science 
 solely on its practical utility, and to ignore the 
 real grounds on which the educational value of 
 Science, as of any other subject in the school 
 curriculum, must be determined. These are 
 threefold : the kind of motive it appeals to and 
 arouses, the kind of power that it develops, and 
 
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOL 5 
 
 the kind of discipline that it gives. Tried by 
 these tests, the claims for Science are at once 
 seen to be well founded. Its appeal to the 
 instinct of curiosity, to love of experiment and 
 delight in machinery, is instant, and, one may 
 almost say, universal ; and to some, at least, it 
 offers the fullest satisfaction of the highest motive 
 that can inspire man's work — the service of his 
 fellows. Again, the power over material things 
 and over the instruments of knowledge developed 
 by Science and scientific method is one of the 
 chief wonders, as it is one of the commonplaces, 
 of our time ; while the discipline that the study 
 gives is, in some respects (owing to the nature 
 of the material with which it deals), superior to 
 that given by any other. But in admitting all 
 this on behalf of the educational value of Science, 
 we must not forget that it does not apply to 
 all cases alike. If to some the knowledge of 
 Nature's workings is the one really interesting 
 thing in the world, to others it is only, as it were, 
 the dissection of a living beauty that, in striving 
 to explain, it can only destroy. Granted the 
 power that it gives, power of that kind (for we 
 must not make the old mistake of supposing that 
 the power trained by exercise in one subject is 
 like that trained by another kind of exercise, or 
 that it can be applied at will to other things and 
 exercised in other ways) is, as I have already 
 pointed out, neither needed by all, nor, even if 
 
6 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 desired, always attainable. There are some minds 
 to which it seems as little possible as linguistic 
 and literary skill to others. And, finally, invalu- 
 able as is the particular discipline the study of 
 Science can give, where it is followed with real 
 interest and intelligence, when this is not the case 
 no more can be said for this subject than for Latin 
 or any other that is little liked and little under- 
 stood ; both can give a discipline of a kind — and 
 a necessary kind too — the discipline of doing 
 something that we do not find easy or pleasant; but 
 this kind of discipline, even if good for character, is 
 dearly bought at the cost of the mental stagnation 
 that accompanies it if given in large doses ; and 
 besides, it can be given in other ways less costly, 
 both in money and in teaching power, than the 
 study of Science by those who have not either 
 the wish or the power to carry it far. 
 
 Are we then brought back to some compromise 
 between the opposing claims of Science and the 
 humanities, such as that existing at the moment 
 in the Public Schools, of a classical training, with- 
 out Science, for some, and a modern side, admitting 
 it in varying degrees, for others, and a " pull-devil, 
 pull-baker " tug-of-war between them for the best 
 brains, with tradition and social standing to help 
 the one side, and "a sound commercial training" 
 on the other? I confess that to me this com- 
 promise seems eminently unsatisfactory, and I 
 believe it to be only a temporary phase in the re- 
 
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOL 7 
 
 adjustment, everywhere going on, of education to 
 national needs. I believe that we shall come to 
 see that Science is far too valuable an element 
 of education to be left out in any single case. 
 For some — for the majority I have little doubt — 
 it must not only form part of the general founda- 
 tion course on which any later lines of specialisa- 
 tion must be built, but also, in some of its many 
 branches, furnish the chief means of that later 
 specialisation. But even for those who will turn 
 away from the pursuit of Science at this last 
 stage, and devote themselves to the more literary 
 studies, I hold that a preliminary course of Science 
 is no less valuable and no less necessary. In the 
 first place it is necessary in order to enable the 
 child to discover, or reveal, his natural bent and 
 aptitude — the discovery of which depends so 
 much on opportunity for trial and presence of 
 sufficient stimulus. We must not take for granted 
 that natural aptitude, like murder, always "will 
 out." If strong, of course it will, under any 
 circumstances ; but most children have not got 
 strong aptitudes, and yet have some, though they 
 may not be strong enough to come out under 
 adverse circumstances. Many a boy who goes 
 through the classical course without special in- 
 terest or ability, and finally drifts into one of the 
 "learned" professions, which he only helps to 
 overcrowd, or into office-work, because, though 
 he cannot do that with success, he has learned 
 
8 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 to do nothing else — to say nothing of the still 
 completer failures — might, if he had had a wider 
 range of interests opened to him at school, have 
 discovered aptitudes which, as it was, lay un- 
 touched until they became useless for want of 
 exercise. I need hardly stop to point out that 
 a similar atrophy of powers and motives might 
 take place if we thought to remedy matters by 
 simply substituting Science in the place hitherto 
 held by the dead languages. The general course 
 would still be too narrow. We want in this 
 earlier stage that covers, for most, the chief years 
 of school training — those up to the age of fif- 
 teen or sixteen — as wide a course as is compatible 
 with real work and real progress (and that is more 
 a matter of teaching methods than of the num- 
 ber of hours devoted to it) in each subject taken 
 up, so that no power or interest the child has may 
 be entirely untouched and undetected. In this 
 course Science must have a place, and not for 
 this reason only. Science is a valuable part of 
 education not only from its practical utility and 
 its appeal to so many living interests, but also 
 as an important element in general culture. In 
 an age when scientific discovery is progressing 
 with extraordinary rapidity, when scientific ideas 
 are not only themselves undergoing constant 
 development, but are transforming our ideas on 
 most other subjects as well, when the methods 
 of Science are being applied to all branches of 
 
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOL 9 
 
 enquiry, and its theories form no small part of 
 the intellectual background of our thoughts, one 
 who had no knowledge of the conceptions with 
 which Science deals, its methods of enquiry and 
 the generalisations to which it leads, would be, 
 so far as the intellectual culture of the time is 
 concerned, a pauper and an alien. This I take 
 to be one of the main purposes of that part of 
 education that lies within the school : not only 
 to develop a sound body and sound character, 
 not only to equip for doing some work in the 
 world, but no less to give, or at least to begin 
 to give, some power of obtaining and dealing 
 with new knowledge, and some breadth of interest 
 and mental background to give it perspective 
 and bring it into relation with the rest. And this 
 is the real ground for making Science, in some 
 form, a necessary part of education for all, not 
 only for the future specialist. Quite apart from 
 its practical value in the greater part of the 
 world's work, we cannot do without some training 
 in scientific method, and some background of 
 scientific knowledge, any more than we can do 
 without some knowledge of history and literature, 
 to enable us to enter the world of thought and 
 feeling, and be more than wage-earners or idle 
 pleasure-seekers, but men and women whose eyes 
 are opened to something of the wonder and 
 beauty, and something of the meaning, of the 
 world in which we live. 
 
lo BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 If this point of view is accepted, we are now 
 in a position to answer more definitely the ques- 
 tion how large a place Science should occupy in 
 the School curriculum. It is assumed that it 
 should form a part, and a considerable part, for 
 all, during at least a part of the school course. If 
 together with Science we reckon mathematics — 
 taught, in the earlier stages at least, as an experi- 
 mental science in which nothing is accepted with- 
 out direct evidence, and submitted to the fullest 
 possible verification — and also the various kinds 
 of practical work (gardening, cookery, care of 
 animals, woodwork, measurement of all kinds, 
 and so on), out of which Science should grow, 
 and which should be intimately connected with it 
 throughout the whole course, this group of sub- 
 jects should, it seems to me, in the earlier or 
 general stage of education, up to the age of six- 
 teen or so, occupy as large a place in the school 
 time-table as the other equally important group of 
 studies dealing with language, literature, and the 
 arts. After this age the equal balance of the two 
 groups need no longer be maintained ; it is better 
 then, as the time when ambitions begin to awake 
 and the needs of the future career become more 
 evident, to let the main part of time and effort be 
 given to those studies which bear more directly 
 on these needs — though never to the entire 
 neglect of some belonging to the other group ; in 
 order that, while the real interests and capacities 
 
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOL ii 
 
 may now be developed to the utmost, we should 
 not let any narrow view of practical utility in the 
 form of professional or examination requirements 
 lead teacher or parent or pupil to forget that 
 behind and beyond these lie the requirements of 
 life itself, among which some range of powers, of 
 interests, and of motives is by no means the 
 least. 
 
 But to decide how much time shall be allotted 
 to a subject in the school time-table is, after all, 
 of minor importance ; what matters is the way in 
 which the time is spent. I confess to being one 
 of those in whose view method of teaching is 
 more important than subject-matter. And here 
 again the why must determine not only the what, 
 but the how. In the later stages, where specialisa- 
 tion is not only permissible, but necessary, each 
 branch of Science that is taken must be taught as 
 thoroughly as possible. That is the time when 
 we want the boy to know, if not quite "every- 
 thing about something" (we are not quite so 
 blind or so conceited as that), at least as much as 
 we can teach him, or — to put it better — as much 
 as with our help he can teach himself. But in 
 the earlier stages our aim must be quite different, 
 to teach him something about — well, not our 
 "everything," perhaps, but his "everything" — 
 the external world as it presents itself to him ; 
 not, that is, in the form of " botany " or 
 " mechanics " or " electricity," still less as 
 
12 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 "matter," "force," "gravitation," "evolution," 
 and the other ways in which we cheat ourselves 
 into supposing we know all about a thing by 
 naming it; but rather in the form of interest 
 leading to investigation of all his surroundings, 
 probably viewed at first (as by his ancestors 
 before him) under the guise of the old "four 
 elements," and still more probably realised as 
 living nature, what things do rather than what 
 they are, and especially the way in which plants 
 and animals behave. To the child it is all 
 "nature-study," without division into separate 
 "sciences"; and though the teacher must have 
 some system in the lines of investigation followed, 
 there is no need to make the child conscious of it 
 until the need of some such division presents 
 itself to him. Then the different lines of inves- 
 tigation will gradually narrow themselves down 
 into separate "sciences" — ^probably following the 
 main lines of their historical development, until 
 finally the time comes for conscious choice, in 
 view of their number and growing complexity, of 
 some special group to study more particularly for 
 a time. 
 
 And throughout the whole of this general 
 course of gradually systematised enquiry there 
 are, it seems to me, two main principles of method 
 to keep in mind, arising, as I said just now, from 
 the main purpose that we have in view in admit- 
 ting Science, in any form, into the school course. 
 
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOL 13 
 
 The first principle is that what we want to give is 
 rather a scientific training than a mass of facts to 
 be remembered. In other words, it is the method 
 of investigation that is the main thing, the method 
 of procedure by observation, experiment, and 
 inference, followed by some attempt at verifica- 
 tion, and resulting in some " working hypothesis " 
 or general law, itself to be made the subject of 
 further experiment and verification. I do not, of 
 course, mean that the method is to be explained, 
 or any such nomenclature used about it ; what I 
 mean is that it must from the very first be a 
 method of research, of finding answers to one's 
 own questions, and so of gradually discovering 
 how to set about finding answers to questions, 
 and thus becoming master of a method that can 
 be applied to other subjects and other kinds of 
 enquiry. It does not matter whether we call the 
 method "heuristic" or not. Names are generally 
 the cause of bitter controversies — more often than 
 the facts that they stand for, because to none of 
 the disputants does the name cover or convey 
 quite the same set of facts. Whatever we call it, 
 this is the true scientific method, and to teach 
 that is the chief value of Science in the school. 
 
 The second principle of which I spoke is that 
 Science should not be divorced in our children's 
 minds from the actual happenings of everyday 
 experience : that chemistry, for example, is not 
 something unusual that takes place in test-tubes 
 
14 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 in a laboratory, but the investigation (by such 
 means as these) of things taking place all round 
 us, conditioning visible changes of obvious in- 
 terest to us. For that reason, as I said, the 
 Science in the class-room and practical work must 
 go hand in hand. The garden is the real start- 
 ing-point of one half of Science, as the house is 
 of the other. We want our pupils to realise 
 continually that all their investigations in the 
 class-room or laboratory have a direct bearing 
 upon life and direct applications to every kind of 
 work, and at the same time a remoter bearing on 
 other kinds of knowledge. So that, while on the 
 one hand we want, as one result of our teaching, 
 to bring chemistry into the kitchen, and the 
 scientific habit of mind into all our everyday life, 
 and, as another result, to give some power of 
 appreciating such problems as those that underlie 
 improvement of the aeroplane, the motor vehicle, 
 wireless telegraphy, and other inventions of our 
 time ; on the other hand, we want also to lead to 
 some comprehension of the great generalisations, 
 such as evolution, or the conservation of energy, 
 or the bacteriological nature of disease, that 
 underlie all modern thought. It would, of course, 
 be absurd to suppose that all this can be done 
 with every child, and by the age of sixteen. 
 What is wanted is that these lines of enquiry 
 should be so selected, and so followed, as to 
 make something of this possible, according to the 
 
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOL 15 
 
 capacity of the learner, even to those who will 
 not be, in any sense, scientific specialists ; and so 
 also, let me add in conclusion, that the result of 
 all our Science teaching should be to give, not the 
 conceit of knowledge, but an intellectual humility 
 that recognises that all we can know and do does 
 but open up fresh horizons of the limitless un- 
 known. 
 
II 
 
 THE SCOPE OF NATURE-STUDY 
 
 By EDWARD THOMAS 
 
 WHAT is to come of our nature 
 teaching in schools ? What does it 
 aim at? Whence does it arise? 
 In part, no doubt, it is due to our 
 desire to implant information. It is all very well 
 for the poet to laugh — 
 
 When Science has discovered something more, 
 We shall be happier than we were before ; 
 
 but that is the road we are on at a high rate of 
 speed. If we are fortunate we shall complete 
 our inventory of the contents of heaven and 
 earth by the time when the last man or woman 
 wearing the last pair of spectacles has decided 
 that, after all, it is a very good world, and one 
 which it is quite possible to live in. That, how- 
 ever, is an end which would not in itself be a 
 sufficient inducement to push on towards it ; still 
 less can such a vision have set us upon the road. 
 Three things, perhaps, have more particularly 
 persuaded us to pay our fare and mount for 
 somewhere — three things which are really not 
 
 i6 
 
THE SCOPE OF NATURE-STUDY 17 
 
 to be sharply distinguished, though it is con- 
 venient to consider them separately. First, the 
 literary and philosophic movement imperfectly 
 described as the romantic revival and return to 
 nature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 
 Poets and philosophers need private incomes, 
 state porridge, and what not ; but literature and 
 philosophy is a force, and for a century it has 
 followed a course which was entered in the period 
 of the French Revolution. This literature shows 
 man in something like his true position in an 
 infinite universe, and shows him particularly in 
 his physical environment of sea, sky, mountain, 
 rivers, woods, and the other animals. Second, 
 the enormous, astonishing, perhaps excessive, 
 growth of towns from which the only immediate 
 relief is the pure air and sun of the country, a 
 relief which is sought by the urban multitudes in 
 large but insufficient numbers for too short a 
 time. Third, the triumph of science, of sys- 
 tematised observation. Helped, no doubt, by the 
 force of industrialism — to which it gave help in 
 return — science has had a great triumph. At 
 one time it was supposed to have fatally under- 
 mined Poetry, Romance, Religion, because it 
 had confused the minds of some poets and critics. 
 These three things considered. Nature-study 
 is inevitable. Literature sends us to Nature 
 principally for Joy, joy of the senses, of the 
 whole frame, of the contemplative mind, and of 
 
i8 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 the soul, joy which if it is found complete in 
 these several ways might be called religious. 
 Science sends us to Nature for Knowledge. In- 
 dustrialism and the great towns send us to 
 Nature for Health, that we may go on manu- 
 facturing efficiently, or, if we think right and 
 have the power, that we may escape from them. 
 But it would be absurd to separate Joy, Know- 
 ledge, and Health, except as we separate for 
 convenience those things which have sent us out 
 to seek for them ; and Nature teaching, if it is 
 good, will never overlook one of these three. 
 Joy, through Knowledge, on a foundation of 
 Health, is what we appear to seek. 
 
 There is no longer any nfeed to hesitate in 
 speaking of joy in connection with schools. Yet 
 might we not still complain, as Thomas Traherne 
 did two hundred and fifty years ago : — 
 
 " There was never a tutor that did properly 
 teach Felicity, though that be the mistress of 
 all other sciences. Nor did any of us study 
 these things but as aliena, which we ought to 
 have studied as our enjoyments. We studied 
 to inform our knowledge, but knew not for 
 what end we so studied. And for lack of 
 aiming at a certain end we erred in the 
 manner. " 
 
 If we cannot somehow have a Professor of 
 Felicity we are undone. Perhaps Nature her- 
 self will aid. Her presence will certainly 
 
THE SCOPE OF NATURE-STUDY 19 
 
 make for felicity by enlarging her pupil for 
 a time from the cloistered life which modern 
 towns and their infinite conveniences and servi- 
 tudes encourage. Tolstoy has said that in the 
 open air "new relations are formed between pupil 
 and teacher : freer, simpler, and more truthful " ; 
 and certainly his walk on a winter night with 
 his pupils, chatting and telling tales (see The 
 School at Ydsnaya Polyana, by Leo Tolstoy) 
 leaves an impression of electrical activity and 
 felicity in the young and old minds of the party 
 which is hardly to be surpassed. And how more 
 than by Nature's noble and uncontaminated 
 forms can a sense of beauty be nourished? 
 Then, too, the reading of great poetry might 
 well be associated with the study of Nature, since 
 there is no great poetry which can be dissevered 
 from Nature, while modern poets have all dipped 
 their pens in the sunlight and wind and great 
 waters, and appeal most to those who most re- 
 semble them in their loves. The great religious 
 books, handed down to us by people who lived 
 in closer intercourse with Nature than many of 
 us, cannot be understood by indoor children and 
 adults. Whether connected with this or that 
 form of religion or not, whether taken as " in- 
 timations of immortality" or not, the most pro- 
 found and longest remembered feelings are often 
 those derived from the contact of Nature with 
 the child's mind. 
 
20 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 Of health, though there are exactly as many 
 physicians as patients, it is unnecessary to say 
 anything, except that one of the pieces of know- 
 ledge — I do not speak of information — which 
 science has left to us is that movement and the 
 working of the brain in pure air and sunlight is 
 good for body and soul, especially if joy is aiding. 
 
 Knowledge aids joy by discipline, by in- 
 creasing the sphere of enjoyment, by showing 
 us in animals, in plants, for example, what life 
 is, how our own is related to theirs, showing us 
 in fact our position, responsibilities, and debts, 
 among the other inhabitants of the earth. Pur- 
 sued out of doors, where those creatures, moving 
 and still, have their life and their beauty, know- 
 ledge is real. The senses are invited then to 
 the subtlest and most delightful training, and 
 have before them an immeasurable fresh field, 
 not a field like that of books, full of old opinions, 
 but one with which every eye and brain can have 
 new vital intercourse. It is open to all to make 
 discoveries as to the forms and habits of things, 
 and care should be taken to preserve the child 
 from the most verbose part of modern literature, 
 that which repeats in multiplied ill-chosen words 
 stale descriptions of birds and flowers, etc, 
 coupled with trivial fancies and insincere inven- 
 tions. Let us not take the study, the lamp, and 
 the ink out of doors, as we used to take wild 
 life — ^having killed it and placed it in spirits of 
 
THE SCOPE OF NATURE-STUDY 21 
 
 wine — indoors. Let us also be careful to have 
 knowledge as well as enthusiasm in our masters. 
 Enthusiasm alone is not enthusiasm. There 
 must, at some stage, be some anatomy, classifica- 
 tion, pure brainwork ; the teacher must be the 
 equal in training of the mathematician, and he 
 must be alive, which I never heard was a 
 necessity for mathematicians. But not anatomy 
 for all, perhaps ; for some it may be impossible, 
 and a study of colours, curves, perfumes, voices 
 — a thousand things — might be substituted for it. 
 Yet nature-study is not designed to produce 
 naturalists any more than music is taught in order 
 to make musicians. If you produce nothing but 
 . naturalists you fail, and you will produce very 
 few. The aim of the study is to widen the culture 
 of child and man, to do systematically what Mark 
 Pattison tells us in his dry way he did for him- 
 self, by walking and outdoor sports, then — at 
 the late age of seventeen — by collecting and 
 reading such books as The Natural History of 
 Selbome, and finally by a slow process of transi- 
 tion from natural history into "the more 
 abstract poetic emotion ... a conscious and 
 declared poetical sentiment and a devoted read- 
 ing of the poets." Geology did not come for 
 another ten years " to complete the cycle of 
 thought, and to give that intellectual foundation 
 which is required to make the testimony of the 
 eye, roaming over an undulating surface, fruitful 
 
22 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 and satisfying. When I came in after years to 
 read The Prelude I recognised, as if it were my 
 own history which was being told, the steps by 
 which the love of the country boy for his hills 
 and moors grew into poetical susceptibility for all 
 imaginative presentations of beauty in every direc- 
 tion." The botany, etc., would naturally be 
 related to the neighbourhood of school or home ; 
 for there is no parish or district of which it might 
 not be said, as Jefiferies and Thoreau each said 
 of his own, that it is a microcosm. By this means 
 the natural history may easily be linked to a 
 preliminary study of hill and valley and stream, 
 the positions of houses, mills, and villages, and the 
 reasons for them, and the food supply, and so 
 on, and this in turn leads on to, nay, involves, 
 all that is most real in geography and history. 
 The landscape retains the most permanent marks 
 of the past, and a wise examination of it should 
 evoke the beginnings of the majestic sentiment 
 of our oneness with the future and the past, just 
 as natural history should help to give the child 
 a sense of his oneness with all forms of life. To 
 put it at its lowest, some such cycle of knowledge 
 is needed if a generation that insists more and 
 more on living in the country, or spending many 
 weeks there, is not to be bored or to be com- 
 pelled to entrench itself behind the imported 
 amusements of the town. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY i 
 
 By CLOTILDE VON WYSS 
 
 EVIDENCE is not wanting, that during 
 the mental growth of any individual, 
 there is a revision of the chief tracks 
 and phases in the evolution of any human 
 activity, and that the training which recognises 
 and follows most closely the same broad lines is 
 the most efficient and successful. 
 
 Thus tracing the course of the evolution of 
 the scientific interest backwards, it is clearly dis- 
 cernible, that our academic sciences have had 
 their origin in investigations which are under- 
 taken chiefly for purposes of practical utility, and 
 that this phase of science, in its turn, emerged 
 from the general reaction that the young mind 
 
 ' This paper treats of the work of young children, and is 
 thus not strictly within the scope of a book dealing with secondary 
 education ; but such early work well done makes so much differ- 
 ence to the attitude towards science later on, that no apology is 
 made for including it. For references to similar work at a later 
 stage, cf. Mr. Latter's paper on Biology. — Ed. 
 
 23 
 
24 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 shows to the stimulus of its natural environment. 
 Although nature-study means the study of nature 
 generally, yet in its more restricted and technical 
 sense it must be associated with the early phase 
 in the evolution of the scientific interest, and 
 must concern itself with aims, scope, and methods 
 that are in tune with those particular mental con- 
 ditions. It is therefore essential for any teacher 
 of nature-study that he focus his attention both 
 on the general attitude of the normal child 
 towards his surroundings, and upon any records 
 of the conduct of primitive man to whom the 
 world, too, is "so new and all." 
 
 Interest in the natural environment and ob- 
 jective existence generally is invariably present, 
 and from an attitude of attention and a state of 
 interest there arise the more definite mental 
 states of wonder and curiosity in response to 
 influence of the outer world. This vague state 
 of wonder contains elements of awe, fear, ad- 
 miration, and other emotions all blended together 
 in an "ah!" state, from which any one may 
 become more definitely differentiated and pre- 
 dominant. Similarly in that monkeyish curiosity 
 we see a seed that will give rise to the most 
 varied forms of intellectual activity. Even at an 
 early stage it expresses itself in the tendency 
 to investigate everything and to a general de- 
 structiveness. The investigations are generally 
 spontaneous reactions to the new and strange that 
 
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY 25 
 
 often claims quite involuntary attention. They 
 are fitful and superficial, and any conclusions that 
 may be arrived at tend to be illogical. 
 
 The most characteristic feature of these hasty 
 conclusions and interpretations of the observa- 
 tions made is, that they are the result of reading 
 man and his ways into all natural phenomena. 
 At the time that a child enters upon school life 
 he is still at this animistic stage, and his tendency 
 to personify all processes and objects of nature 
 finds its parallel in the myths and legends of the 
 young human race. 
 
 The characteristics, therefore, that are most 
 prominent in a normal child and that directly 
 concern nature-study are — 
 
 1. Intense interest in the objective world, es- 
 pecially in all living things, and desire to investi- 
 gate and to understand. 
 
 2. Great mental and bodily activity and alert- 
 ness and incapacity for prolonged concentra- 
 tion. 
 
 3. Vivid imagination and strong emotion, which 
 often lead to hasty conclusion and interpretation 
 on the one hand, and creativeness and inventive- 
 ness on the other. 
 
 The foregoing are definite data which must 
 never be lost sight of in determining the selection 
 of our material for study and our method of 
 approach. It must further be borne in mind that 
 the child is changing, passing from a fitful 
 
26 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 and often emotional attitude towards the world 
 of nature to a stage of more purely intellec- 
 tual interest and greater concentration ; and 
 that therefore only a scheme of work which is 
 progressive both as regards subject - matter 
 and method can be considered as vital and 
 organic. 
 
 Since nature-study is essentially a particular 
 attitude of mind, which generates a particular 
 method of approach, it is absolutely unrestricted 
 in its choice of material for study. In fact, as it 
 represents the reaction of a young mind to the 
 direct and immediate influence of an unexplored 
 but a priori interesting environment, the more 
 clearly the latter is shown as a complete whole, 
 untouched by the analysis and generalisation of 
 scientific thought, the more perfectly will the 
 conditions of nature-study be fulfilled both in 
 letter and spirit. 
 
 The practice of choosing for a course of lessons 
 objects of nature which belong to the same class, 
 e.g. rodents, insects, composite flowers, cannot 
 be condemned too strongly. The very fact that 
 we have a class or group shows that analysis 
 and selection within the realm of nature has 
 already been made, and generalisation and 
 classification has followed, leaving the children 
 to ruminate instead of to browse at their liking. 
 We speak so fluently in educational discussions 
 of the need of passing from the particular and 
 
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY 27 
 
 individual to the general and to classification, 
 but again and again we find the ground all suit- 
 ably prepared that should be virgin soil for the 
 children. 
 
 It is, nevertheless, true that the topics in a 
 scheme of study should be connected, but it is 
 not logical connection that is the desirable. Far 
 better results are obtained if the subjects are 
 psychologically connected in experience, that is, 
 if those threads in the web of nature that bear 
 definite relation to one another are presented in 
 close connection, so that by thought association 
 the picture of the whole will remain intact. 
 Thus, lessons on a particular pond, including the 
 study of the conditions that prevail there, as well 
 as of its inhabitants, would make a suitable 
 series, as long as we do not consider the subject 
 under the following headings : (a) Physical 
 conditions, {d) Plant life, (c) Animal life ; this 
 would again imply premature clcissification. 
 Another profitable course can be constructed on 
 an imaginary walk through a lane in autumn, 
 when coloured and falling leaves, ripe hips and 
 haws, deserted nests, gossamer, toadstools, etc., 
 might be studied in detail, as they are met with 
 in actual experience or during an imaginary ex- 
 pedition. No difficulty will be experienced in 
 selecting many courses of lessons arranged on 
 this plan. This is specially true of classes in 
 country districts, where direct experience of the 
 
28 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 region as a whole at any particular time can be 
 supplied or depended upon ; but even in cities 
 abundance of material is available which in its 
 setting does not entirely transcend the children's 
 own experience. 
 
 It stands to reason, that the seasonal aspects 
 of nature will be strongly emphasised throughout, 
 not only because the appearance of things is 
 "just so" because of the particular season, not 
 only because it is easier and cheaper to obtain 
 specimens that are in season, but very specially 
 because our own mental and physical conditions 
 vary with the seasons and we are naturally more 
 sympathetically inclined towards things that 
 sound the same elemental note. 
 
 These, then, seem to be absolutely essential 
 factors in nature-study, viz. that it precedes 
 analysis and specialisation and is unrestricted in 
 its selection of material ; and that it invariably 
 deals with actual material leading to direct sense 
 experience. 
 
 The question may be asked, how can work be 
 made progressive, if we cannot reserve certain 
 material for junior forms and other material for 
 older pupils ? It is on the whole preferable to 
 lead the children every year to " fresh woods and 
 pastures new," yet this is not done because the 
 study of one creature and its ways is necessarily 
 more difficult than another, but simply in order 
 that during their school course their experience 
 
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY 29 
 
 of the world of nature may be as wide as ever 
 possible. Under certain circumstances, however, 
 as for instance in the case of the nature-study in 
 our crowded and poorer city schools, it is often 
 necessary to study some one or more of its 
 subjects during several consecutive years. Since 
 advance in nature-study does not primarily 
 depend on wealth of material, it is incumbent 
 on every teacher to ensure progress in method, 
 and the ideal state of things is reached when the 
 method of teaching is so vital that it gradually 
 changes with the claims of the changing, mental 
 condition of the pupil and opportunities are such 
 that ever fresh concrete material can be pre- 
 sented — then there is at once intensity of study 
 and breadth of outlook. 
 
 A few suggestions indicating roughly how the 
 point of view and consequently method of ap- 
 proach may be changed as the children grow 
 older may be worth considering. They are 
 based chiefly on some fundamental facts of de- 
 veloping childhood, and imply three stages, 
 which are, however, in no way definitely separated 
 from each other : on the contrary, elements of 
 all three stages are noticeable throughout the 
 years of childhood, but at different periods of 
 growth different elements are predominant. 
 
30 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 STAGE I (age 7 AND UNDER). 
 
 This is characterised by a general interest, a 
 great curiosity in the outside world, chiefly in 
 fellow-beings — in animals rather than in plants. 
 The interest is not so much centred upon the 
 appearance as upon the activity of other creatures 
 — especially such activity as has an obvious 
 parallel in the child's own life. This may be 
 called the "making acquaintance stage" — new 
 individual things are received into the circle of 
 experience and are ever afterwards acquaint- 
 ances. The children should therefore have un- 
 limited opportunity of watching creatures under 
 normal conditions — frogs, newts, and all the vast 
 number of pond animals in springtime, chickens, 
 butterflies, bees, ants, rabbits, mice, later cater- 
 pillars, wasps, earwigs, and birds in the autumn, 
 snails, earthworms, and sleeping creatures in the 
 still white time of winter. Besides animals the 
 children should see at different times the running 
 stream, a pond, and the big sea. They might be 
 taken out in a strong wind and might attend to 
 all details of a heavy shower and a thunderstorm, 
 and the effect of both. At all times the weather 
 is interesting, and, at a time when writing means 
 too much conscious effort, very satisfactory 
 nature charts may be constructed by little 
 children representing the "kind of weather" 
 graphically by colours instead of words ; the 
 
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY 3i 
 
 meaning of each colour being definitely fixed by 
 common consent. In a parallel column objects 
 of nature, studied at the particular time, may 
 be represented in mass and in colour. These 
 charts, which may be extended by older pupils 
 making them more complex and more accurate, 
 are for the children a most attractive form of 
 representing the pageant of the seasons, being 
 at once a demonstration and a record of facts 
 and relationships. 
 
 Throughout this elementary work the children 
 simply watch and express their impression in- 
 formally either to the teacher or to each other, 
 if the class is small. Feeding the animals is 
 always an interesting occupation, and children's 
 lessons and animals' meals should coincide in 
 time wherever possible. Similarly preparing 
 homes for animals kept temporarily in captivity 
 is an extremely useful occupation, and quite 
 possible with small classes. The plan of direct- 
 ing the children's observation by a constant shower 
 of questions which would cover the ground system- 
 atically is out of place — the children's way is not 
 our way, and they lead in this work. 
 
 Any expression of judgment and interpreta- 
 tion, any expression of emotion, should be 
 perfectly spontaneous and free, and if a certain 
 amount of definiteness is to be aimed at, brush- 
 work and drawing generally would afford the 
 most suitable opportunity. 
 
3*. BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 STAGE II (age 8 AND 9). 
 
 This stage is characterised by excessive motor 
 energy. It is essentially the age at which the 
 love of the chase burns, when caps are thrown 
 after any and every butterfly, when heads of 
 flowers are knocked off with a stick, when animals 
 are worried and teased, when a system of drain- 
 age is constructed in the garden path after a 
 heavy shower, during which occupation you dig 
 " till you gently perspire." These deeds may 
 refer specially to boys, but the girls' ways 
 are not essentially different, they too clamour 
 for occupation, though it may be in other 
 directions. 
 
 Here every form of study, especially nature- 
 study, should involve much manual work. If a 
 topic of interest presents itself, everything that 
 wants making and doing should be made and 
 done. The following are some illustrative speci- 
 mens of courses satisfying these conditions : — 
 
 The City Child's Garden. 
 
 1. Making a small wooden box or mending up 
 and strengthening an old cigar-box. 
 
 2. Painting the box in some colour selected by 
 each child. 
 
 3. Drawing initials in capital letters and pre- 
 paring a stencil. 
 
 4. Stencilling the initials on front of box. 
 
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY 33 
 
 5. Preparing soil to fill the box — putting out 
 stones, etc. 
 
 6. Setting sweet peas and sowing Virginian 
 stock. 
 
 7. Thinning Virginian stock. 
 
 8. Manuring (Clay's fertiliser, mixed with 
 water, being administered with a teaspoon). 
 
 9. Making trellis-work for peas, fastening this 
 to box with wire, the holes being bored with red- 
 hot knitting-needles. 
 
 10. Binding up the peas with bast. 
 Needless to say, careful observations are made 
 
 on the plants throughout. 
 
 Every Boy's Aquariiun. 
 
 Jam jars (glass) are cleaned, string is tied 
 round the top in a particular way. Sand is 
 washed ; weeds are attached to stones and the 
 aquarium is fitted out. Tadpoles are put in ; 
 implements are made of hair-pins for feeding 
 them ; caddis-worms are supplied, and experi- 
 ments are made with different materials with 
 which they might build their home. This work 
 can be continued throughout the term. 
 
 Similarly breeding-cases can be made for 
 caterpillars and the life history of the latter 
 studied. 
 
34 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 STAGE III (age 10-12). 
 
 Curiosity, which has so far led to mere sense 
 perception, is now passing into a desire to investi- 
 gate in order to interpret and to understand. 
 The work is becoming more intensive. It con- 
 sists of the more detailed investigation of certain 
 more or less isolated topics whose sequence is 
 determined by the march of the seasons. The 
 following are some typical examples : — 
 
 As spring approaches man's thought is turned 
 towards the sowing of seed. This is done accord- 
 ing to tradition, seeds being put into the ground 
 and watered and sheltered ; and seedlings are 
 expected to appear after a certain time. The 
 children wonder what the seeds do in the ground 
 before "they come up," and they are invited to 
 peep into the ground and look. This means dis- 
 turbance — could the seed be put into something 
 else where the whole of it may be seen. This 
 leads to the question whether soil is necessary. 
 Since one element of traditional procedure has 
 thus been critically examined, the remaining ones 
 are certain to be investigated also. Is water 
 necessary for growing seeds ? What about light, . 
 warmth, and air ? What effect has the absence 
 or presence of these factors ? All these questions 
 lead to a long series of simple experiments, in- 
 volving the construction of apparatus, planning 
 out special contrivances in order to test conclu- 
 
THE TEACHING OF NATURE-STUDY 35 
 
 sions, and throughout the children learn to watch 
 patiently, to think independently, and to form 
 conclusions which are truth to them, inasmuch as 
 such conclusions satisfy all the claims which the 
 children will make on them. A similar series of 
 experiences and activities is involved in the pot- 
 ting of a bulb by each child. It is interesting 
 to notice how the significance may here be estab- 
 lished of mathematical work, which is attempted 
 much later. As the shoot appears above ground, 
 it is accurately measured with a strip of paper 
 and the distance between the two dots is marked 
 off vertically on a sheet of drawing-paper, and 
 the drawing of the shoot is made in colour be- 
 tween the two dots. This is repeated at equal 
 periods of time on the same sheet of paper, and 
 it is easy to see how graphs relating to rate of 
 growth can be constructed from this. Thus, too, 
 in the study of the snail when investigations are 
 being made on the manner and rate of crawling, 
 the children can measure the slimy track of a 
 snail made in one or two minutes, by means of 
 a piece of cotton and a ruler, and represent the 
 exact number of inches by an upright line ; the 
 distance crawled over in any subsequent two 
 minutes is similarly represented by vertical lines 
 that are equidistant and drawn from the same 
 horizontal lines. The rate of crawl may thus be 
 graphically represented, and any variations due to 
 fatigue, perception of food, etc., at once detected. 
 
36 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 The whole of this stage is characterised by the 
 pursuit of a definite line of investigation, by 
 more cautious judgment, and by more exact 
 record. 
 
 Space does not permit to deal with the com- 
 ponent elements of any one lesson, but it cannot 
 be emphasised too strongly that the greatest free- 
 dom and absence of all formal instruction, in the 
 case of young children at least, should be allowed 
 wherever school conditions, such as great size of 
 class or overcrowded rooms, do not impose 
 restrictions. 
 
 Gardening and rambles are the most powerful 
 aids for promoting efficient and healthful nature- 
 study, and the time is not far when these pursuits 
 will form an integral and organic part of our 
 school work. 
 
IV 
 BIOLOGY IN SCHOOLS 
 
 By OSWALD LATTER, M.A. 
 
 THE position of biology among the 
 natural sciences which find a place in 
 school curricula is rather peculiar. An 
 enquiry recently made under the aus- 
 pices of the British Association made it clear that 
 in a large number of schools the introduction to 
 science consists of " nature-study," of which a 
 large portion is biological in character ; but it 
 was also evident that very few schools pursue 
 biological study any further ; and in the majority 
 of those that do so the subject is confessedly 
 confined to those pupils who are hoping to enter 
 the medical profession. The sub-committee 
 appointed by the British Association, in their 
 report presented at Dublin, express regret that 
 biology is not more widely taught in the upper 
 forms of schools. There is thus no doubt that 
 the merits of zoology and botany as subjects of 
 general education are not generally recognised ; 
 such higher work as is done in schools is usually 
 but the preliminary course of the future doctor, 
 
 37 
 
38 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 and is therefore " technical training " applied to a 
 few only. 
 
 If we search for the causes of this apparent 
 aversion from, or at any rate avoidance of biology, 
 dearth of teachers seems to be the chief The 
 number of men who take the Final Honour 
 School of Zoology or of Botany at Oxford is 
 very small, and probably because these subjects 
 do not appear to offer any livelihood. The 
 School of Forestry, no doubt, will lead to an 
 increase in the botanical students at Oxford, but 
 these men are already " ear- marked," and of no 
 account in the present question. Similarly at 
 Cambridge, where at least three subjects are 
 demanded for Part I of the Natural Science 
 Tripos, although considerable numbers offer zoo- 
 logy and botany, the majority do so for purposes 
 of medicine. But if schools were to widen the 
 ground of their science teaching and adopt 
 biology as a regular general subject, there would 
 be an inducement to men who are interested in 
 the study of animals and plants to take up zoo- 
 logy and botany for their degrees with the direct 
 intention of teaching and thereby gaining their 
 living. At present we seem to be moving, or 
 more accurately, standing still, in a vicious circle 
 — biology is not taught because there are no 
 teachers ; there are no teachers because biology 
 is not taught. 
 
 With the rival sciences of chemistry and 
 
BIOLOGY IN SCHOOLS 39 
 
 physics it is far different. The £ s. d. value of 
 these subjects is evident, and the openings of 
 careers plentiful ; there is no dearth of excellent 
 and devoted teachers. Lest there be any mis- 
 understanding, it will be prudent at once to admit 
 that for training in experiment, in methods of 
 precision, and in exact reasoning physics and 
 chemistry undoubtedly have the advantage over 
 biology, but they do not equal biology in quicken- 
 ing the powers of observation, and it is, at any 
 rate, open to question whether they are as truly 
 suitable for general education. A great portion 
 of the strength of their present position in educa- 
 tion is derived from the appreciation of their 
 utilitarian value by the British Public. The 
 market price of the study of insects and snails, of 
 fishes and crustaceans, of trees and fungi, is not 
 yet appreciated, but may possibly be realised to 
 some extent by the mention of the tsetse fly and 
 Anopheles gnat (both of imperial importance), 
 the ravages of the liver-fluke among sheep after 
 it has left its intermediate (snail) host, the work 
 of the Marine Biological Association in husband- 
 ing the harvest of the seas, the improvement of 
 cereals and other food plants, thanks to the 
 researches of biologists into the laws of heredity, 
 the life-history of wheat-rust and other harmful 
 fungi — to name only a few of the peculiarly 
 valuable discoveries by which almost every one of 
 us is directly or indirectly benefited. 
 
40 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 It is difficult to understand the reluctance to 
 teach biology in face of the fact that this science 
 is concerned with phenomena and problems which 
 meet us everywhere in our daily life both in the 
 world around us and within our own persons. 
 Moreover, it offers exceptional opportunities for 
 the stimulation of the power of independent 
 inquiry and direct observation on the part of the 
 children themselves ; and that qn occasions other 
 than those of attendance in the classroom or 
 laboratory, viz. in the play-hours and during 
 walks in the country or the town, and abundantly 
 during holidays. To many it may well become 
 an intellectual hobby, something on which the 
 mind will exert itself for the mere love of it. Is 
 any further justification of the place of biology in 
 education necessary ? 
 
 Turning now to the actual practice of teaching, 
 it is natural to enquire at what age biology may 
 be introduced. Every one who has had to do 
 with quite young children, especially those who 
 are fortunate enough to have their homes in the 
 country, must have noticed how great are the 
 attractions of living animals and plants even to 
 mere infants — their pets and their gardens have 
 an absorbing interest and are tended with a care 
 and keenness that is truly refreshing. We need 
 then have no hesitation in making a beginning 
 very early, indeed almost before the days of 
 regular schooling are reached. It will be a step 
 
BIOLOGY IN SCHOOLS 41 
 
 forward to get the children to notice their plants 
 and animals a little more carefully ; to write short 
 descriptions of them and perhaps compare them 
 with one another, and thus gain some conception 
 of the external form and structure of living things. 
 A very useful and instructive bit of work would 
 be found in the descriptions and comparisons one 
 with another of, say, a rabbit, a canary, a tortoise, 
 a toad, and a goldfish ; or again, tulips, geraniums, 
 wallflowers, mustard and cress, or whatever plants 
 were receiving attention in the small garden, 
 might be used in a similar manner. It is cer- 
 tainly important to press home at an early stage 
 the idea that plants are living things, and that 
 all living things which are not plants are animals. 
 It is curious how often one has to eradicate the 
 idea that birds, fishes, insects, etc. etc., are not 
 animals ; there is a widespread misconception 
 which would define "animal" as equivalent to 
 " mammal," and which even then indignantly 
 repudiates the suggestion that Man is an animal. 
 There is a great gain in sympathy if it be realised 
 that our life is very much the same in essence as 
 that of other living things, and that we and 
 they are all knit together in one great and 
 mysterious bond, the riddle of whose forging has 
 tasked and is tasking some of the keenest in- 
 tellects, and is yet unsolved. 
 
 Occasionally one comes across a child to whom 
 such descriptive and comparative work as that 
 
42 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 just suggested is easy and spontaneous ; more 
 commonly guidance is necessary in order to pre- 
 vent discursive- muddle and to initiate orderly 
 method. Such guidance is best given by a series 
 of questions ; for example — " How many limbs 
 has each of these animals ? How do the limbs 
 of the rabbit differ from those of the canary and 
 of the goldfish ? What sort of covering has 
 each of these animals?" and so on. A risk in- 
 volved in this method is that of receiving in 
 writing answers which are permissible vivk voce. 
 A complete sentence should always be insisted 
 on ; the habit thus formed is invaluable. For 
 instance, to the first of the above questions the 
 answer " Four," should be refused, and the com- 
 plete sentence, " The rabbit, the canary, the tor- 
 toise, the toad, and the goldfish each have four 
 limbs," should be required. A little later, and with 
 some practice, we may ask for consecutive and 
 connected sentences descriptive of the objects in 
 hand, and then the value of the insistence on 
 well-composed sentences is quickly appreciated. 
 At an almost equally early age attention may be 
 directed to " phenological " phenomena. The 
 arrival of swallow, martin, cuckoo, and other 
 common spring migrants, the opening of leaves 
 and flowers, the first flights of bees and wasps 
 are eagerly looked for, and the notice of these 
 conspicuous appearances, in addition to adding 
 greatly to the delight and interest in living nature. 
 
BIOLOGY IN SCHOOLS 43 
 
 lays the foundation for life of the seeing eye and 
 hearing ear. 
 
 With pupils of public-school age we may pro- 
 ceed to more serious work and pass on to 
 enquiries into the life, habits, and functions of 
 animals and plants. How does each one get its 
 food ? Of what does its food consist ? How 
 does it breathe, how move (if animal) ? In what 
 sort of place and surroundings does it prefer to 
 live? What kind of home or nest does it (the 
 animal) construct ? How does it find a mate ? 
 In what condition are the young produced ? Do 
 they receive parental attention after birth, and 
 for how long ? Are the adult animals solitary or 
 gregarious or even social, and, if the last, what 
 duties are performed pro bono publico within the 
 society to which they belong ? A host of other 
 questions will readily occur to any teacher, 
 appropriate, mutatis mutandis, to zoological or 
 to botanical research of this kind. Too much 
 stress cannot be laid upon the maxim of not 
 telling anything that the pupil ought to be able 
 to make out for him- or herself; nor should the 
 necessity of insisting on drawing freehand illus- 
 trations from the object under observation be 
 overlooked. Every one can learn to draw suffi- 
 ciently well to find the accomplishment useful, 
 though, of course, artists cannot be made any 
 more than poets. 
 
 In selecting material for work of this kind the 
 
44 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 teacher will be guided more or less by the locality 
 of his school ; but in any case it is the common 
 everyday animal and plant that should receive 
 the closest study. Worms, snails, oysters, or 
 mussels, insects of many kinds, fish, frogs, and 
 toads are not difficult to procure nor to study 
 alive at any inland school ; while at the seaside 
 the fauna of shore-pools and fishermen's nets 
 will afford more than enough for a year's course. 
 Similarly in the plant kingdom, mosses, fungi, 
 lichens, and moulds are of universal occurrence, 
 and can be studied profitably without having 
 recourse to the compound microscope ; nor 
 should there be any obstacle to prevent the 
 dissection of flowers, the study of leaf-form, of 
 stems and their modifications, and of the general 
 characters of plants adapted to special circum- 
 stances. If a school-garden exists, small plots 
 can at comparatively little cost, especially if the 
 pupils are (as they should be) the actual tillers of 
 the soil, be laid out as (i) a pond, (2) a marsh, 
 (3) a salt-swamp, (4) a dry sandy heath ; and 
 here may be studied the peculiarities of hydro- 
 phytes, halophytes, xerophytes, and the rest, but 
 not under these titles except in the mind of the 
 teacher. A really valuable and much-needed bit 
 of work consists in the study of the germination 
 and early stages of common weeds. We are 
 not aware of any book in which the facts relating 
 to these are given. Sets of pupils might be 
 
BIOLOGY IN SCHOOLS 45 
 
 assigned to look after about half a dozen species 
 each, to keep records of their behaviour and 
 make sketches and photographs at frequent in- 
 tervals. Each task may be considered complete 
 when seed has been obtained from the plant 
 which developed from the seed sown. 
 
 Research of much the same character is pos- 
 sible among animals. The life-histories of a 
 large number of our commonest insects are but 
 imperfectly known, and probably any one of 
 them if carefully observed would yield facts new 
 to science. Or, again, the immature stages and 
 plumage of many common birds have as yet 
 received very inadequate treatment. But whether 
 the knowledge obtained is new to science or not 
 matters very little ; it is new to the pupil, and it 
 has been gained by his own efforts and observa- 
 tion. He has learnt that he can learn, and 
 probably that he likes and wishes to learn. 
 
 At about this period it is well to devote some 
 time to function — to introduce a course of ele- 
 mentary physiology, making it as experimental 
 as possible. Human physiology is undoubtedly 
 the best ; children have learnt incidentally that 
 they have muscles and use them to produce 
 movement ; they know that they breathe, and 
 that under certain circumstances they breathe 
 more rapidly, and that certain appearances result 
 if they " hold their breath," or if they constrict 
 a finger with a bit of string so as to impede the 
 
46 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 free circulation of blood; they are aware that 
 they need fresh air, and get headaches if com- 
 pelled to sit in stufify rooms ; they realise the 
 importance of food, but do not always feed 
 wisely, nor allow their digestive organs the rest 
 that health demands. They are thus ready for 
 a general knowledge of the structure and working 
 of the human body and its several organs, and 
 en route, may receive the very necessary informa- 
 tion on personal hygiene that should be possessed 
 by everyone. This course will here and there, 
 e.g. in dealing with the blood, involve the men- 
 tion of cell-structure, and will open the door to 
 the more systematic study of zoology and botany, 
 which can be undertaken at the age of about 
 sixteen or seventeen years. 
 
 By this time, either in the physiological course 
 just suggested, or in the other laboratories, some 
 knowledge of chemistry and of physics will 
 have been acquired ; and the systematic biology 
 may advantageously be run on frankly evolu- 
 tionary lines. The compound microscope is now 
 a necessity ; hitherto the simple lens will have 
 sufficed. Opinions differ as to the advisability 
 of beginning with the unicellular organisms. 
 Huxley was in favour of using the frog as an 
 introductory type, and others whose position and 
 experience render their decision weighty advo- 
 cate the same course to-day. I venture, how- 
 ever, to think that after a short course in the 
 
BIOLOGY IN SCHOOLS 47 
 
 essentials of human physiology pupils are in 
 a position to appreciate the generalised structure 
 and absence of division of labour in the lowest 
 forms of life, and can readily grasp the import- 
 ance of the higher forms as they proceed step 
 by step along the course of life as indicated by 
 existing creatures. The kind of plan which is 
 in view is that admirably exampled in Jeffrey 
 Parker's Elementary Biology, to mention but one 
 of several good books suitable to this stage. In 
 this, the last, portion of a school course, clear 
 ideas must be gained of the chief types of 
 animal and vegetable architecture, principles 
 of classification should become familiar, and 
 some idea of the meaning of the words " genus " 
 and " species " obtained. Excellent studies in 
 specific differences can be found in the social 
 wasps among animals and in the wild poppies 
 among plants. Lectures and reading assume 
 importance at this period, for such subjects as 
 embryology, geographical and geological distribu- 
 tion, heredity and variation, and other problems 
 in biological philosophy are not now beyond the 
 reach of intelligent pupils. Chapters in the 
 Origin of Species, and perhaps the whole of 
 Wallace's Darwinism and of Punnett's Mendelism 
 ought to be read and discussed. 
 
 Space does not permit full treatment of the 
 part to be played by the school museum in 
 the teaching of biology. The collection should 
 
48 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 contain well-displayed and fully-described speci- 
 mens of the chief forms of animal and vegetable 
 life, especial prominence being given to those 
 which are of common occurrence in the neigh- 
 bourhood. No doubt it will be found necessary 
 to purchase some specimens, but the educational 
 value of the collections and the general mterest 
 in them will be greatly enhanced if the majority 
 of the preparations are set up by the pupils 
 themselves. It should be an honour to do a 
 piece of work sufficiently good to merit preserva- 
 tion. The museum, properly handled, should be 
 a means of preventing the production of mere 
 laboratory biologists — a product that is too fre- 
 quent. An examiner for a biological scholarship 
 recently set as a question in the "practical" 
 paper a number of specimens gathered parriy 
 during a walk along the seashore and partly 
 during a stroll round his garden ; the specimens 
 were all of common occurrence, but proved 
 themselves the hardest part of the whole exami- 
 nation to all the candidates. Biology cannot be 
 considered as satisfactorily taught if it fails to 
 excite an interest in the life that meets our eyes 
 in our daily walks. 
 
V 
 THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 
 
 By ALICE RAVENHILL 
 
 A DEFINITION of education which com- 
 /^ mends itself for the purpose of this 
 J ^ paper describes it as "the process 
 which aims at the adjustment of the 
 growing organism to his environment," incidental 
 instruction being directed to the child's equipment 
 with the knowledge necessary to give him con- 
 trol over conditions by understanding them. For 
 this purpose the record of human experience is 
 presented to the pupil in the form of history and 
 geography ; lessons in language and literature 
 illustrate the growth and development of mind 
 and manners ; while, by the aid of elementary 
 science teaching, the law of cause and effect in 
 the realm of nature is practically demonstrated 
 to his inexperience. But, as the result probably 
 of the prolonged and artificial isolation of man 
 from his biological connections and of the con- 
 tempt of the body associated with certain phases 
 of religious and ethical teaching, the obligation 
 to acquire knowledge and to train powers, with 
 E 49 
 
so BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 the direct object, not of intellectual but of physi- 
 cal culture, has but recently suggested itself to 
 the world of educators. Charlemagne, however, 
 seems to have been alive to the fact, for, in his 
 edict on the establishment of schools, he writes 
 that " Though right doing is preferable to right 
 thinking, yet must a knowledge of what is 
 RIGHT PRECEDE RIGHT ACTION." But public Opinion 
 was not ripe for the recognition of this truth, or, 
 at any rate, for its application to the care of the 
 body, so that, after a lapse of eleven hundred 
 years, it is still necessary to point out that em- 
 piricism and ignorance must be banished from 
 this as from other spheres of human activity, and 
 the youth of the country trained to the realisa- 
 tion that in hygiene is found the sum of scientific 
 knowledge directly serviceable for the right con- 
 duct and beautifying of human life. 
 
 That the Board of Education is in sympathy 
 with the importance of cultivating a sense of 
 personal responsibility for the lives we have and 
 the health we might have is suggested by several 
 passages in the Regulations for both Elementary 
 and Secondary Schools, which set out the desira- 
 bility of forging links between lessons and life, by 
 training in accurate use of thought, in practical 
 ability to deal with the affairs of life, and by 
 exercise, physical as well as mental. Certain 
 difficulties arise, however, when considering: (i) 
 the position of the subject in the school pro- 
 
THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 51 
 
 gramme ; (2) the methods by which it should be 
 presented to pupils of different ages ; (3) the 
 preparation of the teacher for this work. 
 
 I. THE POSITION OF HYGIENE IN THE 
 SCHOOL PROGRAMME. 
 
 This will entirely depend upon whether the 
 Direct or Indirect Method of Instruction is 
 adopted. At the present moment a majority of 
 teachers favour reliance upon the general atmo- 
 sphere of hygienic observances, which surrounds 
 the pupils in most schools, as the best means of 
 training in good habits and in the assimila- 
 tion of sanitary precepts ; but this method has 
 the grave objection that any theoretical basis for 
 action is usually incomplete, disjointed, restricted 
 in scope, and often quite perfunctory. Conse- 
 quently, though good personal habits are formed, 
 the power of facile individual adaptation to un- 
 familiar conditions is wanting or weak. 
 
 Exception to the Direct Method of Instruc- 
 tion is usually taken on three counts : ( i ) that it 
 often fails to interest healthy-minded boys and 
 girls and may develop morbidity in the debilitated 
 or introspective ; (2) that demands on time forbid 
 the introduction of any new subject ; (3) that 
 hygiene is deficient in educational value and use- 
 less for examination purposes. 
 
 The first objection is based largely upon what 
 appears to me to be a misconception of the 
 
52 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 methods with which it should be associated ; for 
 instance, so much stress has been hitherto laid on 
 the negative rather than on the positive in human 
 health, upon the abnormal rather than upon the 
 normal in human life. I think too that psycho- 
 logically the child from ten to fourteen or fifteen 
 is not ripe for a detailed study of the principles of 
 hygiene, and consider direct instruction can be 
 advantageously reserved till the last few months of 
 school life. Where the pupil passes on to college, 
 further postponement is permissible. With the 
 second objection I am in full sympathy. In re- 
 spect of the third, the great value of hygiene as 
 a lens by which to focus learning on life has yet 
 to be generally realised. Personally, I would like 
 to see Hygiene an optional subject in School 
 Leaving, Higher Local, Matriculation, and 
 equivalent examinations. 
 
 Reflections on the reason why a study of right 
 living fails to interest lead on to a study of the 
 methods by which it should be presented to pupils. 
 Hitherto, the subject has been too often actually ■ 
 introduced by a study of " dry bones " ; has been 
 restricted to its personal and domestic aspects, in 
 which the boy and girl have little interest ; and 
 has been devitalised by isolation from its relation 
 to almost every event in life and to every subject 
 in the curriculum. It has been conventional to 
 teach hygiene as a compendium of scientific 
 theories or of statistical facts, instead of con- 
 
THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 53 
 
 centrating attention on the significance of the 
 doings of daily life — so familiar as to be usually 
 unconsidered — and by tracing these back to their 
 hygienic origins or onwards to their protective 
 results on the public, utilising them to cultivate a 
 scientific habit of mind and a sense of civic duty. 
 
 The provision for the preparation of teachers 
 for this branch of their work too has been so im- 
 perfect, that they have been placed at a serious dis- 
 advantage when called upon to handle it in schools. 
 
 The words of an old writer on the education 
 of youth aptly embody the guiding principle to 
 be pursued by the teacher who desires to make 
 hygiene at once attractive and productive. " That 
 which is to become a power in the pupils," he 
 writes, "and to be closely welded to his most 
 cherished thoughts and feelings must not pass 
 hurriedly and unconnectedly before his soul like 
 the images of the kaleidoscope ; it must occupy 
 him long and uninterruptedly." Instruction should 
 therefore be continuous ; progressively adapted to 
 phases of growth and interest ; observational and 
 concrete in method ; varied and elastic in applica- 
 tion ; correlated with the humanities, with science 
 and with art ; preferably intensive for a short 
 period on the threshold of emancipation from 
 tutors and governors, to prepare the youth for 
 the responsibilities of manhood and citizenship, 
 the maiden for womanhood and the wise direction 
 or performance of domestic duties. 
 
54 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 II. METHODS OF TEACHING HYGIENE. 
 
 It will be assumed in the following suggestions 
 that advantage has been taken of the little child's 
 imitative, dramatic, and constructive instincts to 
 lay a firm foundation of good habits. The love 
 of doing and of repetition, the impulses to activity 
 and investigation, facilitate the organisation of 
 bands of little doers in nursery, infant school, 
 and kindergarten, whose training in personal 
 niceties and in social consideration will form life- 
 long hygienic habits. It will be further assumed 
 that in preparatory and elementary schools the 
 child's quick observation and keen curiosity have 
 been utilised, as has been so admirably suggested 
 by Miss Hoskyns Abrahall ■} (i) to observe facts 
 in nature ; (2) to draw conclusions from these 
 facts ; (3) to apply these facts to daily life. She 
 has pointed out, for instance, on more than one 
 occasion, the mass of hygienic inferences which 
 may be associated with the careful observation 
 of a green, flowering plant ; its general character- 
 istics and requirements; its dependence on air, sun- 
 light, and food ; the influence of its environment 
 (cold, heat, drought, damp, darkness, soil, etc.); 
 the results of overcrowding ; the presence of para- 
 sites. By this means intelligent interest is de- 
 
 1 " The Correlation of Hygiene with other subjects in the 
 School Curriculum." Transactions Royal Sanitary Institute, 
 Vol. XXV, 1905. 
 
THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 55 
 
 veloped in the various devices of living organisms 
 for the maintenance of life ; the process of circula- 
 tion, for example, or respiration, of assimilation, 
 excretion, growth, and reproduction, the machinery 
 for which becomes more highly differentiated as 
 animals ascend the ladder of life, until man is 
 reached on the topmost rung. To describe this 
 method of inculcating the elements of hygiene 
 as "biological" savours, perhaps, of the high- 
 flown and the superficial ; nevertheless, with 
 certain reservations, it is accurate. 
 
 Thus prepared, the boy or girl is ready to pass 
 on to that method of teaching hygiene, the Corre- 
 lational, which seems more appropriate in the 
 secondary school ; for, while making no increased 
 demands on precious time, it nevertheless vivifies 
 and illuminates every subject in the curriculum, 
 cultivates the dawning powers of reason, develops 
 ability to apply information, and trains at one and 
 the same moment in appreciation that problems 
 exist and of the means adopted for their solution. 
 In geography and history, for instance, the effects 
 on human development of climate, of soil, of 
 food-stuffs, of water supply or of indigenous 
 diseases may be traced. The influences of local 
 conditions on industries, nutrition, customs, civil- 
 isation, social progress and position among the 
 races of mankind will emphasise the fact that 
 civilisation and sanitary science are most in- 
 timately related ; that, according to the character 
 
S6 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 of the artificial climate with which man surrounds 
 himself in clothing and home, according to the 
 attention he gives to the disposal of refuse or to 
 the due supply of wholesome food, according to 
 his restrained and intelligent utilisation of his 
 instincts — personal and racial — will be regulated 
 not merely his own personal efficiency and civic 
 worth, but the position of his people among the 
 great powers of the world. 
 
 In the science laboratory the perception of the 
 fact that all energy dispensed is the result of 
 chemical reactions can be so turned to account as 
 to open young students' eyes to recognise what 
 Professor Sherrington has pointed out, that " the 
 body's material commerce with the world is 
 chemical " ; a new light will thus be thrown upon 
 the chemistry of respiration, of metabolism, of 
 fatigi^e, and of other functional processes. In 
 the course of a study of elementary physics, illus- 
 trations may be drawn from the heart as a force 
 pump ; from the eye as an optical instrument ; 
 from the structure of the ear as an instrument for 
 the process of sound transmission. The employ- 
 ment of the thermometer and barometer for man's 
 guidance and well-being ; the application of the 
 principles of the siphon to domestic and municipal 
 purposes ; the analogy between the liberation of 
 nervous energy and an electric discharge, for 
 instance, may all be turned to profitable and 
 practical account in this correlational method of 
 
THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 57 
 
 teaching hygiene. Again, an insight into the 
 mechanics of the body in relation to posture often 
 awakens a genuine interest in physical culture, 
 and the routine occupations of daily life assume 
 new and more interesting aspects when articles 
 such as milk, soap, lemon-juice, or washing-soda 
 are used to illustrate the characteristics of emul- 
 sions, acids, alkalies, etc., in the chemical labora- 
 tory, or the organic nature of much domestic 
 dust is demonstrated by bacteriological methods. 
 Much incidental instruction in hygiene is given to 
 girls in some of the admirable courses in the 
 Domestic Arts closely correlated with the science 
 work, carried on in a growing number of secon- 
 dary schools ; but as yet they concentrate some- 
 what too closely on the purely personal and 
 domestic aspects of the mother subject. Advan- 
 tage is also generally taken of the physical- 
 training classes in girls' schools to associate the 
 exercises with some of the reasons which render 
 them desirable, and to direct attention to the 
 effects by which exercises are attended — bodily 
 warmth, for instance, hunger, thirst, or fatigue ; 
 the importance of adequate ventilation and of 
 suitable dress being kept carefully in view. 
 In a few boys' schools I believe that similar 
 lines have bpen adopted, but they could well 
 be extended. 
 
 The recent movement in favour of more 
 organised training in social as well as individual 
 
S8 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 morality prepares the ground also not only for an 
 introduction to civic duties in respect of sanita- 
 tion, but for some preliminary initiation into the 
 economics of health, as reflected in the utilisation 
 of time, energy, strength, and money, with a 
 due regard to personal efficiency and racial 
 responsibility. The application of art to sani- 
 tary science can also be suggested, and in 
 some cases considerably elaborated ; though 
 any tendency to supersede the educational 
 by the technical needs careful supervision and 
 maybe repression. 
 
 A second method of teaching hygiene in 
 secondary schools can be most fitly described as 
 Superstructural, because, as has been already 
 suggested, it is most profitably adopted during 
 the last months at school, when it should be 
 presented as one channel of most practical applica- 
 tion to human needs of human knowledge, and 
 should have devoted to it at least two and pre- 
 ferably four hours a week. As a necessary 
 preliminary to what should consist of a short 
 study of human life and its requirements, some 
 general outline must be given of man's place in 
 nature, accompanied by a brief rdsumd of the 
 biological laws which reign in the world of life. 
 Much of this will be already familiar to pupils 
 whose early study of nature has been pursued in the 
 form of elementary botany or zoology ; but at 
 this point more stress than hitherto will be laid 
 
THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 59 
 
 on the relative importance to mankind of inherit- 
 ance or environment, of nutrition or stimulus ; 
 while the meaning of diathesis and the worth of 
 adaptability and of power to control conditions 
 must be explained. The interconnection of 
 growth, nutrition, and stimulus ; the time law in 
 living matter, which makes of such importance 
 the right regulation of physiological rhythms and 
 their cultivation as habits ; the maintenance of in- 
 dividual immunity to disease — chronic and acute; 
 the ethical, industrial, and social aspects of 
 hygiene, all call for review and emphasis, in 
 proportion to the development, special needs, and 
 probable future positions of the young people 
 immediately concerned. 
 
 When human life is thus studied in relation to 
 organic and inorganic nature, it will be observed 
 that its activities resolve themselves into two 
 large groups — one of which is concerned with 
 care for self (food, shelter, environment), the 
 other with care for others (the young, the help- 
 less, neighbours, relatives, and fellow-countrymen), 
 thus covering the whole sphere of human exist- 
 ence. The introductory matter of this course 
 might well be identical for boys and girls, for the 
 outlines of human physiology and of personal 
 hygiene should be common knowledge ; but as 
 the course proceeds, divergence becomes obliga- 
 tory, in view of the varied duties and functions 
 of man and woman. The lines of this diver- 
 
6o BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 gence can be most concisely illustrated in tabular 
 form thus : — 
 
 GIRLS. 
 
 BOYS. 
 
 FOOD. 
 
 Retail cost. 
 
 Domestic care and storage. 
 
 Preparation, cooking, and 
 
 serving. 
 Dietaries for various ages. 
 
 Cost and method — 
 
 of production. 
 
 of distribution. 
 
 of preservation and storage. 
 Legal protection. 
 
 DOMESTIC HYGIENE. 
 
 I 
 
 Details of choice and care of 
 houses and institutions. 
 
 Cleansing methods. 
 
 Furniture. Decoration. 
 
 Household economics (finan- 
 cial and hygienic). 
 
 House planning, construction, 
 
 and repairs. 
 Water supply. 
 Methods of refuse removal. 
 Lighting, warming, etc. 
 
 ECONOMICS OF HEALTH. 
 
 I 
 
 Care and education of infants 
 and children. 
 
 Occupations. Domestic ser- 
 vice. 
 
 Maintenance of personal effi- 
 ciency. 
 
 Racial responsibility. 
 
 ^. . J .. /"Sanitary. 
 Civic duties-! ^ , ■; , 
 
 '■Educational,etc. 
 
 Industrial occupations. 
 Maintenance of personal effi- 
 ciency. 
 Racial responsibility. 
 
THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 6i 
 
 Neither the suggestions for this short course 
 of intensive study of hygiene nor those given at 
 an earlier point in this chapter assume to be more 
 than general indications of methods shown by 
 experience to be reliable and feasible. Within 
 the assigned limits of space it is only possible to 
 indicate in very general terms the means by 
 which this indispensable instruction can be utilised 
 to quicken the sanitary conscience in the adoles- 
 cent ; to broaden the intellectual horizon ; to 
 raise and strengthen ethical ideals ; to awaken a 
 sense of social responsibility ; to become, indeed, 
 for boys and girls alike, a great humanistic study. 
 
 But at no time in the history of our country 
 has it been of greater moment to open the eyes 
 of our young people to the fact that each genera- 
 tion "owes it to itself and to its posterity to 
 protect life, to enrich it, and to transmit it, ele- 
 vated and refined, to succeeding generations." 
 Thus the obligation to fulfil this duty can no 
 longer be ignored by those who have assumed 
 responsibility for the education of youth ; perhaps 
 especially so in the case of those who, in the 
 near future, will exercise much influence in the 
 affairs of men. When hygiene is defined as " a 
 study of the means at our disposal for the right 
 conduct and transmission of life," its educational 
 worth and the strength of its claims on the at- 
 tention of teachers admit surely of no more 
 question, of no more hesitation on the part of 
 
62 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 those who control subjects and curricula in schools ; 
 rather the difficulty lies in the choice of method 
 and in the details of its elaboration. 
 
 III. THE PREPARATION OF THE TEACHER. 
 
 Very brief reference only can be made to this 
 element in the successful teaching of hygiene ; 
 though when the claims made on teachers, by 
 the methods advocated, are considered, its im- 
 portance cannot be overlooked. The provision 
 made at present to meet these demands is quite 
 insufficient for those working in secondary schools, 
 more especially for men teachers. At two or 
 three training-colleges, at Bedford College for 
 Women, in the Women's Department of King's 
 College, courses of varying length are now avail- 
 able, but mostly at the cost of at least one year's 
 post-graduate work, in addition to all the other 
 demands on a teacher's time and purse. The 
 University of Liverpool also offers, I believe, a 
 better opportunity than elsewhere to male students 
 of education for gaining insight into the "bio- 
 logical study of hygiene," but even this course 
 falls far short of the requirements sketched out 
 by Professor Sherrington at the Conference on 
 School Hygiene held in London by the Royal 
 Sanitary Institute in 1905.^ To discuss these 
 
 ' " Training in Hygiene for Teachers," Professor C. Sherring- 
 ton, Transactions Royal Sanitary Institute, Vol. XXV, 1905. 
 
THE TEACHING OF HYGIENE 63 
 
 requirements, and the revision of Degree or 
 Training Courses necessary to comply with them, 
 is outside the terms of my reference. To mention 
 them, as most intimately associated with the 
 education of children in the principles and practice 
 of hygiene, is a duty owed to those boys and 
 girls who look to us to fit them to utilise, as 
 increased opportunities for noble living, the rich 
 resources of twentieth-century civilisation. 
 
VI 
 
 THE PLACE OF HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE 
 TEACHING 
 
 By T. PERCY NUNN, M.A., D.Sc. 
 
 IT is related of Sir William Hamilton (the 
 mathematician) that he was once saluted in 
 the street by a non-scientific friend who 
 had just come from a place where the elect 
 were comparing impressions of his newly published 
 magnum opus. Buttonholing the great man, the 
 friend expressed in warm terms both his con- 
 gratulations and his sense of the happiness of the 
 meeting ; " for," said he, " I happen to have three 
 minutes to spare, and you will no doubt be good 
 enough to tell me what are Quaternions." 
 
 Save that they are not heirs of his own inven- 
 tion that are called in question, the science master 
 is in a position with much the same difficulties as 
 Hamilton's when he is pulled up in class by the 
 Fourth Form boy who wants to know — inci- 
 dentally — "what is electricity?" or "what is 
 ether?" The perplexity of the teacher at such 
 a moment will, in fact, be greater the more he 
 has reflected upon the questions so lightly raised ; 
 
 64 
 
HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 65 
 
 for he will then know that the answers, if they 
 are to be secured at all, must be sought in a 
 " misty mid region " of controversy and specula- 
 tion in which a Fourth Form boy would find him- 
 self helplessly befogged. His enquiries raise, in 
 fact, the interesting but difficult question of the 
 "import" or logical standing of the hypotheses 
 which play so conspicuous a part in the develop- 
 ment of scientific knowledge. In a word, are 
 such entities as ether and electricity (as many 
 think) some of the final, indestructible realities 
 of which the universe is built, or are they (as 
 others maintain) only such stuff as scientists' 
 dreams are made of? To the consideration of 
 this question — a question highly relevant (it will 
 appear) to the daily business of the science 
 teacher — this article is addressed. 
 
 In a well-known popular lecture the late 
 Professor Huxley once illustrated with character- 
 istic brilliance the power of "prospective and 
 retrospective prophecy" which is the proudest 
 possession of Science, and with characteristic 
 lucidity identified it with the patient and confi- 
 dent use of one great principle — namely, that 
 like effects imply like causes.^ In virtue of this 
 principle the astronomer who has shown himself 
 able to predict future celestial occurrences claims 
 that he is able to determine with equal exactness 
 
 ' "On the Method of Zadig," 1880; reprinted in Science and 
 Culture. 
 F 
 
66 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 those that have long been swallowed up in the 
 abysm of time ; the physicist believes that by its 
 aid he can assign an approximate limit to the age 
 of the solid earth ; while the geologist makes an 
 obvious use of it when he interprets a " fossil " 
 as a relic of ancient life. 
 
 Huxley's illustrations are drawn in the main 
 from the sciences of which he was so conspicuous 
 an ornament, but there can be little doubt that 
 he would have included the results of the physical 
 sciences in his catalogue of the intellectual con- 
 quests man has won by the aid of the " method 
 of Zadig." The "ether" which to Lord Kelvin 
 was among the most certain of realities ; the 
 "energy" which, according to Heaviside, is 
 (with the exception of ether) the only thing that 
 exists, all else being "moonshine"; the "mole- 
 cules" the details of whose architecture are dis- 
 cussed in every number of our chemical journals ; 
 the " ions " whose masses and velocities are cata- 
 logued (like populations and death-rates) among 
 our statistical information : all these entities are 
 as inaccessible to direct human observation as 
 the eclipse which Airey retrospectively assigned 
 to the afternoon of May 28, B.C. 585, or the 
 opossum which Cuvier reconstructed from a fossil 
 jawbone ; and our conviction of the reality of 
 each and all of them must be regarded as justified 
 only by the principle that like effects imply like 
 causes. 
 
HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 67 
 
 But while it is probable that Huxley, like most 
 scientists in his day, would have been perfectly 
 willing to make these further applications, it 
 should be remarked that throughout the period 
 of development of modern science there have 
 been thinkers of a more cautious disposition. 
 These would agree that it is the peculiar virtue 
 of the scientific mode of treating experience that 
 it enables us with equal confidence to predict 
 experience yet to come or to "reconstruct" the 
 experience of our ancestors ; but they would 
 make a more or less clear distinction between 
 the observable phenomena which are really the 
 subject of prospective or retrospective prophecy 
 and the machinery of scientific conceptions by 
 which the prophecy is brought about. With 
 regard to the former, it must be admitted that 
 they were once, or some day will be, as " real " 
 as the facts of which at the present moment my 
 senses are making me cognisant ; but with regard 
 to the latter it is possible to recognise their use- 
 fulness as the instruments of scientific prophecy 
 and yet to abstain from formulating any opinion 
 with regard to their objective reality. 
 
 This attitude was given interesting and quaint 
 expression so long ago as 1635 by our country- 
 man Henry Gellibrand, who, while admitting 
 the value of the Copernican hypothesis " for the 
 more easy solving the apparent anomalar motions 
 of the fixed and erratique caelestiall lights, and 
 
68 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 avoiding that supervaconeous furniture of the 
 Ancients,"^ yet regarded it not as an objective 
 truth, but as a consequence of "the imbecillity 
 of Man's apprehension, as not able rightly to 
 conceive of this admirable opifice of God " in all 
 its actual complexity. 
 
 Mach maintains that the great Newton was 
 fully aware that such notions as " central force " 
 are merely apparatus for the intellectual manipu- 
 lation of facts, and there can be no doubt that 
 this was true in the main of the attitude of 
 Joseph Black towards his "caloric," and of 
 some of the chemists of the early nineteenth 
 century (e.g. Wollaston, Davy, Liebig, Faraday) 
 towards the atomic theory. But the astounding 
 success of the Newtonian mechanics in the region 
 of physics and of the atomic theory in chemistry 
 inevitably brought with it a general abandon- 
 ment of this cautious attitude, so that it was in 
 effect the initiation of a new era of scientific 
 thought when Kirchhoff made (in 1850) his 
 famous pronouncement that the business of 
 mechanics is not to explore the "causes" sup- 
 posed to lie at the back of the observed pheno- 
 mena of material movement, but merely to 
 describe completely and in the simplest manner 
 the motions which occur in nature. At a still 
 earlier date Ernst Mach had begun the re- 
 
 ' A Discourse Mathematicall on the Variation of the Magneti- 
 call Needle, p. 30. 
 
HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 69 
 
 searches which led to the publication in 1883 of 
 his Science of Mechanics, a work in which for 
 the first time the history of one of the great 
 bodies of scientific doctrine was subjected to an 
 exhaustive examination which had as its object 
 the determination of the real significance and 
 value of the several conceptions that have 
 emerged in the course of its development. In 
 the later editions of this admirable book Mach 
 has made generous acknowledgment of the help 
 which his cause has gained from the publication 
 in 1892 of Professor Karl Pearson's Grammar of 
 Science. To the appearance of this vigorous and 
 well-known work we may attribute, in fact, most 
 of the attention that is now given in this country 
 to these " critical " enquiries into the functions and 
 mode of development of the sciences. 
 
 Professor Pearson agrees with Mach that the 
 function of science in every field of its activity 
 is simply to give " economical descriptions " of 
 phenomena ; and the whole body of scientific 
 concepts and " laws " is for him merely so much 
 apparatus for " resuming," i.e. summarising briefly 
 and effectively, the routines of the "sense im- 
 presses" which constitute the ultimate data of 
 our experience. Professor Pearson has discerned 
 more clearly and accepted more frankly than any 
 other writer the consequences that follow from 
 this view. How far these consequences carry 
 him from the pre-critical position of Huxley is 
 
70 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 shown by his contention — which may seem para- 
 doxical even to the emancipated — that the value 
 of the theory of organic evolution lies not in the 
 revelation of a previously unknown " history " of 
 forms of life, but in its power to give unity to 
 our present perceptual experiences of those forms 
 — a value which would be retained intact even 
 if we should discover that the universe as we 
 know it came into being only the day before 
 yesterday ! 
 
 Since Professor Pearson's trenchant exposition 
 of the "critical" method awakened English 
 scientists from their "dogmatic slumber," they 
 have, to a constantly increasing extent, been in- 
 fluenced by authors (such as Duhem, Poincar6, 
 Ostwald, Hertz, Ward, Driesch) who have ex- 
 plored the several provinces of science from 
 similar points of view. As a result, our leading 
 scientific writers now constantly admit the ne- 
 cessity of defining their attitude on a question 
 which they find it impossible to ignore. Thus 
 on the one hand we have a President of the 
 Chemical Section of the British Association 
 urging that the atomic theory propounded by 
 Dalton "is not founded upon the metaphysical 
 conception of material discontinuity, and is not 
 explained or illuminated by it " j ^ while on the 
 other hand we have a distinguished physicist ^ re- 
 
 ' Professor Divers, Brit. Assoc. Reports., 1902, p. 558. 
 * Professor Schuster, Theory of Optics, 1904 ; Preface. 
 
HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 71 
 
 garding "with the utmost concern" the growing 
 " evasion school " of scientists who rest content 
 with equations correctly describing the numerical 
 relationship between observable physical phe- 
 nomena without an attempt to exhibit these 
 phenomena as flowing from "the mechanical 
 properties of the ether." 
 
 The science teacher may be pardoned who, 
 seeing how greatly the doctors differ on these 
 difficult questions, seeks to evade the necessity 
 of taking up any attitude towards them. On 
 certain terms he may be allowed to do so. If 
 in imparting instruction in science he is content 
 to regard himself as equipping his pupil with so 
 much intellectual apparatus that will be of direct 
 service in a technical or professional career, then, 
 without doubt, he need not concern himself about 
 the ultimate nature of any particular piece of this 
 apparatus so long as it is convenient and trust- 
 worthy. The prospects of the would-be electrical 
 engineer will not obviously be furthered by curious 
 enquiries as to whether electricity is really the 
 "juice" of the workshop or merely a concept 
 valuable as a means of " economical description " ; 
 the future chemical manufacturer is not clearly 
 better off if he is brought to suspect that graphi- 
 cal formulae are merely devices for " resuming 
 routines of perception." But if the teacher lays 
 stress upon the " educational " aspect of his work; 
 if he claims that its chief value is that it gives 
 
72 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 a " training in scientific method," then he cannot 
 be absolved from the duty of facing and adopting 
 some answer to the questions which scientific 
 criticism raises. He may reject the destructive 
 conclusions which so many recent thinkers have 
 reached, and may reaffirm the older optimistic 
 views which accepted molecules and ether as 
 genuine realities ; but he must wear his optimism 
 with a difference. In the first place, he must not 
 base it on ignorance of the arguments on the 
 other side ; and in the second place, he must not 
 force it upon his pupils. It is falsifying the whole 
 conception of a training in scientific method to 
 lead boys and girls to adopt unverified hypo- 
 theses as established and final results, or to think 
 they have found ultimate realities where there 
 may be only a priori assumptions. Further, it 
 may be claimed that at the proper epoch in the 
 pupil's development a little " scepticism of the 
 instrument " of scientific enquiries (to borrow a 
 phrase from Mr. H. G. Wells) is an excellent 
 thing ; tending to correct false impressions as to 
 the labour with which the main positions of science 
 have been gained and held, and to give true views 
 of the greatness of the achievements which those 
 positions represent. 
 
 The practical application of these principles 
 of intellectual ethics will best be illustrated by 
 discussing a concrete case of considerable import- 
 ance, namely, the question whether in chemistry 
 
 1 ! 
 
HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 73 
 
 we shall teach the objective reality of "molecules" 
 and " atoms." Whatever conclusion we may reach 
 on this matter, it may be assumed that we all 
 start by recognising that atoms and molecules 
 appear in chemical theory as means of interpreta- 
 tion of a certain group of facts concerning the 
 quantitative aspect of chemical change. For this 
 reason almost every teacher would teach his class 
 these facts — the so-called " laws of combination " 
 — before he introduced atoms and molecules by 
 way of "explanation" of them. All will agree, 
 moreover, that the thought of chemical changes 
 as due to the kaleidoscopic combinations of sets 
 of homogeneous atoms has, in addition to its 
 explanatory value, great heuristic value : that is, 
 that it is fertile in the suggestion of new problems 
 for investigation. But agreement will go no 
 further. To some the atoms and molecules will 
 appear to have made out a strong claim for 
 recognition as real existents — even as more real 
 than the gross masses of "compounds" whose 
 behaviour they were invoked to explain. Those 
 infected with the critical virus will, on the other 
 hand, maintain that the sole reality of atoms and 
 molecules lies in their existence as ideas in the 
 mind of the thinker, whose theoretical activities 
 they serve by their power of summarising the 
 results of chemical experiments and of suggesting 
 new lines of investigation. It is in view of the 
 fact that no demonstration of either of these posi- 
 
74 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 tions is obtainable,^ and that men will adopt one 
 or the other less on rational grounds than as the 
 result of the temperamental differences that make 
 some Liberals and others Conservatives, some 
 Platonists and others Aristotelians ; that the ethi- 
 cal problem arises for the teacher. On the one 
 hand, he cannot ask his pupils to accept, upon the 
 basis of a very slight knowledge of phenomena, 
 a view which men whose knowledge covers a 
 vast range reject. On the other hand, he cannot 
 expect the immature mind to adopt with comfort 
 the somewhat Gilbertian attitude of a "perma- 
 nently provisional " acceptance of atoms and 
 molecules ; the pupil will either think real what 
 he makes use of or will not make use of what he 
 does not think real. 
 
 These considerations combine to suggest that 
 the introduction of the ordinary concepts of atoms 
 and molecules should be postponed until the pupil 
 is ripe for the critical attitude and has an acquaint- 
 ance with chemical facts that entitles him to adopt 
 it. As a matter of fact, there is in the earlier 
 stages of an experimental course no difficulty in 
 giving "economical description" of the quantita- 
 tive circumstances of chemical change without 
 invoking the concepts of discrete atoms and 
 molecules ; and there is no need to employ these 
 concepts as a stimulus to further investigation. 
 
 ^ It should be noted that Duhem considers that experiments 
 disprove the existence of molecules. 
 
HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 75 
 
 Thus there is nothing that renders their introduc- 
 tion indispensable, and, if the preceding argument 
 is sound, it should be avoided.^ In the writer's 
 own practice any inconveniences that would result 
 from this avoidance are (he believes) evaded by 
 the early introduction of the terms "atom" and 
 "molecule" in senses which preserve all the 
 implications necessary to make them useful in- 
 struments of description and investigation with- 
 out carrying the further and possibly illegitimate 
 notion of material discontinuity. 
 
 In the earlier stage of this use a " molecule " of 
 a compound substance means simply the "small 
 mass " of it under examination ; an " atom " of an 
 element is the smallest quantity of that element 
 that can be removed from the molecule or added 
 to it so as to produce a homogeneous result. Thus 
 an "atom" of oxygen can be removed from a 
 " molecule " of puce-coloured oxide of lead by 
 heating it, while the yellow oxide thus produced 
 can be made by reduction to yield another 
 "atom." To state that a molecule of the puce- 
 
 ' The introduction has been defended on the grounds : (i) that 
 it helps to " train the scientific imagination," and (2) that in atoms 
 and molecules we have an "explanation" as opposed to a "mere 
 description" of phenomena. The former plea is too obviously 
 connected with what Professor William James would call the 
 " chromo-science " of the popular lecture to call for serious argu- 
 ment. For the relation between description and explanation here 
 the reader may be referred to the author's paper on Causal Ex- 
 planation in the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1907, or 
 to the chapter on Science Teaching in Adamson's Practice of 
 Instruction. 
 
76 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 coloured oxide contains two atoms of oxygen is, 
 then, a brief and effective way of summarising 
 much of its observed behaviour. Moreover, 
 such a use of the terms performs the second 
 function expected of the "conceptual machinery" 
 of science: it suggests further investigation. 
 Are the two "atoms" of the element identical in 
 weight ? The discovery that they are so in this 
 case and in others leads to the attribution of a 
 quantitative significance to the terms atom and 
 molecule. The discovery of the relations known 
 as the "law of reciprocal proportions" makes an 
 important elaboration of this quantitative signifi- 
 cance possible, and leads to the establishment in 
 due course of a series of " atomic weights," with 
 consequent "molecular" weights, constructed on 
 the usual conventional basis, but still without any 
 reference to the hypothesis of discontinuity. 
 
 The third stage is that in which the concepts of 
 atom and molecule are applied — with the same 
 limitations — to the description of the phenomena 
 of combination in which gases are involved. The 
 study of some simple cases has already brought 
 the conviction that the numbers of combining 
 atoms of gaseous substances can be predicted 
 from the relations of their volumes. The first 
 form that this conviction takes is the proposition 
 that under identical conditions of temperature 
 and pressure atoms of all gaseous elements 
 occupy the same volume. Further consideration 
 
HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 77 
 
 of such phenomena as the combination of hydro- 
 gen and oxygen to form steam, of hydrogen and 
 chlorine to form hydrochloric acid, leads to a 
 second proposition : the molecule of a compound 
 gas occupies the volume of two gaseous atoms. 
 These two propositions can be made to yield 
 (and probably in a more direct and simple way) 
 the results that follow from Avogadro's Law — 
 which is, of course, an interpretation of the same 
 original facts in terms of " material discontinuity.'' 
 Thus when carbon is burned in excess of oxygen 
 a molecule of "carbonic acid gas" is formed 
 without change of volume : the combination must 
 therefore have affected two atoms of oxygen. 
 Similarly, a given volume of nitric oxide com- 
 bines with half as much oxygen to yield the 
 original volume of nitric peroxide : the molecule 
 of nitric oxide must be converted into a molecule 
 of the peroxide by the direct addition of an atom 
 of oxygen. 
 
 In this way it is possible to cover all the 
 ground usually included in an elementary course 
 without appeal to the assumption — certainly un- 
 verifiable at this stage — that matter is essentially 
 discontinuous. But the pupil who passes on to 
 the systematic study of carbon compounds can 
 hardly make progress without using the concept 
 of the molecule as a (chemically) ultimate material 
 system both to " resume " the phenomena within 
 his range of observation and to guide his further 
 
78 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 explorations of the field. ^ At this point then 
 this final qualification of the now familiar 
 term should be introduced with an explanation 
 — for which the pupil should now be ready — 
 of the circumstances which make possible a di- 
 vergence of opinion as to the actuality of atoms 
 and molecules. 
 
 The reader will have no difficulty in finding 
 problems similar to the one here briefly discussed. 
 What is the origin of the common tendency to 
 believe that a " compound " such as water actually 
 contains its "elements," and how far should the 
 teacher make use of it, how far check it by 
 criticism ? What is the precise logical status of 
 "heat" and its so-called "laws of transference"? 
 How should the notions of "force" and "mass" 
 be taught so as to bring out clearly their relation 
 to the great group of observable phenomena with 
 which they are concerned ? These and the many 
 similar questions of great importance and interest 
 to the science teacher admit of only one mode of 
 satisfactory answer. The teacher must in each 
 case enquire what are the facts of observation to 
 which the explanatory idea is relevant, and must 
 then determine whether the idea consists merely 
 in a grouping of these facts or whether it pur- 
 ports to represent existences, themselves unveri- 
 
 1 The consideration of ozone, the dissociation phenomena in 
 elements and certain vapour densities may be used as the motive 
 for passing from the earlier position to the later. 
 
HYPOTHESES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 79 
 
 fiable,* deduced from the verifiable data of 
 observation. In the latter case, the general con- 
 siderations set forth in this essay suggest a mode 
 of pedagogic treatment comparable with that 
 exemplified in the case of atoms and molecules. 
 
 Mt is perhaps unnecessary to point out that the study of the 
 emergence of the idea in the history of the science is frequently a 
 most useful clue to its real significance. 
 
VII 
 
 THE CLAIMS OF "RESEARCH" WORK 
 AND EXAMINATIONS 
 
 By the editor 
 
 THE teaching of Science up to Univer- 
 sity standard may be roughly divided 
 into three stages : (i) the Nature- 
 study stage, lasting until the age of 
 twelve or thirteen ; (2) the Preparatory Science 
 stage, from this age until about sixteen — a course 
 in which all members of the school should join ; 
 and (3) the Special Science stage, in which boys, 
 for their profession, or on account of particular 
 interest in the subject, deal more systematically 
 with one or two branches — physics, chemistry, 
 biology, as the case may be. Such a division 
 of the work into three parts has been ably 
 discussed by Dr. Nunn,^ who argues that each 
 part corresponds roughly to a stage of mental 
 development. The cleavage shows itself in the 
 writer's experience ; it will no doubt be less 
 marked in some institutions than others. 
 
 Work in tfi^ first stage varies much from 
 
 ' J. W. Adamson, The Practice of Instruction, 1907. 
 80 
 
THE CLAIMS OF "RESEARCH" WORK 8i 
 
 school to school, both in amount and kind ; for 
 our present purpose its chief value is to send up 
 boys and girls to the higher classes with an 
 interest in observational study, and — as Shen- 
 stone urged — with the feeling that, however 
 much labour and thought must be given to 
 experimental detail, it is still " worth while." 
 
 In the second stage there is a fair uniformity 
 of subject-matter in different schools : ^ topics 
 such as mensuration, mechanics, heat, the chem- 
 istry of air and water, of acids, bases, and salts, 
 are dealt with ; or botany may be chosen — 
 notably in girls' schools — or, perhaps, towards 
 the end of the time, the elements of electricity 
 and magnetism. Mr. Eggar, in Public Schools 
 from Within, gives reasons for choosing heat 
 and elementary chemistry as the most suitable 
 subjects to fill the small time he asks for — time 
 doubtless meant to be a minimum even for the 
 older Public Schools. There is good ground for 
 Mr. Eggar 's view that " not every boy takes 
 kindly to mechanics," and that the apparatus 
 described and exhibited by Mr. C. E. Ash ford is 
 too elaborate for the junior student who is not to 
 be a specialist ; but with a practical class, four- 
 teen or sixteen in number, of average intelligence 
 and some previous cultivation on the observa- 
 tional side, it is possible to get up a very fair 
 interest in machines. Pulleys are full of "life " ; 
 
 ' Cf. Mr. Latter's recent Report, referred to in preface. 
 G 
 
82 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 and the final impact of a truck on some impro- 
 vised buffer, after a successful run on an inclined 
 plane, is sugar enough to coat the pill of tabu- 
 lating and plotting the results. Especially if the 
 apparatus needs to be refitted or adapted to 
 some extent, and calls for filing, hammering, or 
 oiling, the occupation becomes a real pleasure. 
 And in optics, too, quite a gratifying interest 
 can be developed, if the geometrical side is 
 relieved by the actual construction of micro- 
 scopes, investigation of hairs, etc. etc. All 
 this suggests that we have not yet reached 
 the stage where examinations have to be con- 
 sidered, and such is our hope. It ought to be 
 possible, at least in the case of boys who will 
 stay at school until nearly eighteen, to stave off 
 till then external tests which affect their prospects 
 or reputation. 
 
 The elementary science we have been discuss- 
 ing can well be treated in close conformity with 
 heuristic principles. The teacher must give to 
 these boys, of from thirteen to sixteen years, as 
 little direct information and explanation as pos- 
 sible regarding the problem in hand ; encouraging 
 them to form their own working hypotheses and 
 to test them without much help. Help in some 
 measure is nearly always needed ; but since so 
 much of school work tends to take the form of 
 direct instruction with little appeal — by the 
 student's own effort or in any other way — to 
 
THE CLAIMS OF "RESEARCH" WORK 83 
 
 first-hand evidence, it is good that the authority- 
 factor should be reduced in the laboratory to 
 a minimum. This puts a greater strain on 
 interest at the start, but gives a steadier purpose 
 in the end. 
 
 Professor Armstrong's many and vigorous con- 
 tributions to the subject' have already had a 
 large hand in creating new practices and spread- 
 ing conviction in favour of training alertness, 
 thoroughness, self-reliance, rather than of com- 
 municating information alone ; and it may seem 
 to some needless to put down again what has 
 been so often written before. But science 
 teachers still growl here and there at what they 
 regard (perhaps rightly) as excesses of heuristic 
 fanatics, and there is yet room for some defence 
 on the heuristic side. To feel successful in its 
 application the chief conditions are, on the one 
 hand, to give the method a fair chance, i.e. to 
 have a long course and a strong course in physics 
 and chemistry ; and on the other hand, not to be 
 tied by it when it appears to need supplementing 
 by direct teaching. 
 
 Given laboratory work of any sort — and now 
 it is in England an accepted fact — it must be- 
 come in some degree heuristic. We have to 
 reckon with the independent curiosity of boys ; 
 we have to reckon with the complexity of the 
 
 ' The Teaching of Scientific Method. Macmillan, 1903. 
 
84 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 phenomena which we are always trying to 
 simplify for the purposes of study. Die BSsheit 
 der Materie, as a German friend once called it — 
 the " cussedness " of matter — will provide an 
 outlet for original effort. The teacher should 
 exploit and extend this application of free judg- 
 ment on the part of the boys, being always 
 restrained from giving prompt and obvious sug- 
 gestions : so to find a new interest in the growing 
 resourcefulness of his pupils when the subject- 
 matter itself may be losing freshness by dint of 
 repetition. 
 
 It is possible to defend the heuristic position 
 and yet to be alive to its dangers. We cannot 
 rigidly exclude all information which has not been 
 obtained at first hand. If it were possible, the 
 result would probably be a lessening of interest and 
 an eventual barren condition of the mind. Each 
 teacher is no doubt unconsciously — or consciously 
 — judging from day to day which is the particular 
 thing required to help a given individual- or a 
 given division over a difficult place. If we realise 
 that those who are most keen to work and to 
 discover are also keenest to talk and to read, we 
 shall see that there is a certain reciprocity in these 
 things. If information at second hand is con- 
 tinually being applied and tested by a boy who is 
 working out some little problem of his own, he is 
 clearly treating his work at least as critically as 
 does the ordinary scientific man, who depends in a 
 
THE CLAIMS OF "RESEARCH" WORK 85 
 
 hundred ways on information which he accepts 
 from a limited number of chosen accredited 
 authorities. But this is an aspect of the case 
 which generally adjusts itself ; and we must not be 
 led too far from our main contention. 
 
 To repeat then : We defend in the second 
 stage of teaching — between the ages of thirteen 
 and sixteen — an application of the heuristic method 
 as liberal as may be : thorough-going in the sense 
 of acquiring as much first-hand information as 
 possible, and depending as much on independent 
 endeavour as possible (but not in the sense of dis- 
 couraging private reading and discussion on all 
 sorts and conditions of scientific matters). The 
 work so done will not reach, except in very easy 
 experiments, a high degree of accuracy ; but laws 
 will have been arrived at in a rough-and-ready 
 form : approximate : not so well established as to 
 be applied always with confidence by a critical 
 pupil, but well enough for the needs of the average 
 person of the given age. The work regarded as 
 a body of exact information will need to be further 
 supplemented at a later stage. 
 
 Now at the end of our second stage boys begin 
 to think of professional careers, and discover that 
 they need to pass examinations ; and in consider- 
 ing such tests inevitable, and in some degree use- 
 ful and good, the present writer may have to part 
 company with some adherents of the " research " 
 school — probably with Professor Armstrong him- 
 
86 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 self. But supposing we only consider examinations 
 as unavoidable in the present state of affairs, we still 
 have to ask the question : How is the work to 
 develop beyond this point ? In the writer's 
 experience the examinations are the various 
 matriculation tests of the newer Universities, the 
 Army Preliminary, and at a higher level, the 
 examinations for scholarships at Oxford and 
 Cambridge. There is a measure of uniformity 
 about them : they are nearly all modelled on 
 lines in so far modern that boys who have done 
 experiments, or have seen them done, are likely 
 to score marks thereby ; and in examinations of 
 the higher grade there are " practical " papers. 
 
 Questions may be set, for instance, in mechanics 
 or chemistry, referring to experimental work done 
 in early days ; but the early work alone will 
 not be enough : to have it at his fingers' ends 
 the boy will have needed not only to take up 
 new chapters of his subject, but also thoroughly to 
 revise the old. He must read books, repeat ex- 
 periments, work numerical examples. And he 
 will seldom have quite enough time : for the boy 
 of average intelligence only gets through with a 
 struggle. So, though the examinations are based 
 on experimental syllabuses, the standard required 
 and the lack of time will cut down chances of con- 
 tinued heuristic treatment. This is by no means 
 all loss ; for the extra grind involved in close 
 reading and paper work, with the straightforward 
 
THE CLAIMS OF "RESEARCH" WORK 87 
 
 Stimulus of bread-and-butter urgencies, is a fine 
 discipline for an easy-going, not brilliant boy, who 
 may have scraped through the course of a kindly 
 " modern " teacher with too little real wear and 
 tear ; and even those who have worked best are 
 often glad of the change to a more coherent, 
 deductive ordering of the subject. 
 
 Some measure then of working for examina- 
 tion will have its place in the last years of school 
 life ; there seems to be more use in wrestling 
 with such tests than in railing at them. The 
 crucial question is : Does the admission of so 
 much mean the abandonment of the " research " 
 method — until the problematic future when the 
 occasional boy has become "post-graduate"? 
 If the only available time is class-time, then 
 probably such a fate is sealed ; but to a pupil of 
 fair keenness the solving of an experimental 
 problem makes, ere this, a strong appeal ; and if 
 some sort of prize can be offered as an extra 
 stimulus, and if the laboratories can be put, to 
 some extent, at the disposal of boys in their free 
 time, it is possible that good work may still be 
 done. A great number of problems need not be 
 dealt with in the course of the year ; on the con- 
 trary, the fewer the questions studied the better, 
 so long as three or four hours are put in every 
 week. Laboratories are doubtless not equally 
 accessible in all schools, and in the case of a day- 
 school questions of time and distance would arise ; 
 
88 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 but we have heard of boys at such a school 
 carrying out the sort of private investigation we 
 advocate, and lecturing on the material gathered. 
 This matter, the early tackling of really in- 
 dependent work, is especially interesting for 
 teachers devoted to the history of their subject. 
 Is it compatible with keenness for the didactic 
 suggestions we can get from the slow growth — 
 in history — of clear ideas, to encourage a boy at 
 seventeen to plunge into the middle of wireless 
 telegraphy, or the chemistry of the rare earths, 
 or the study of enzymes ? Yes, if he is minded 
 to do such a thing. The history of the science 
 is of chief value to the teacher ; to him it is a 
 pathfinder in thorny places (and an intellectual 
 pleasure at all times) ; but the enthusiastic junior 
 student has found, instinctively, a number of 
 short cuts over relatively open ground, and it 
 would be pedantic to call him back merely to 
 show a path of which he does not feel the need. 
 Just as a small boy who is keen on electricity may 
 construct a voltaic cell and perform certain ex- 
 periments, without a clear idea of the chemical 
 changes taking place, so an older boy may be 
 quite successful in an advanced piece of work, 
 although unable to answer all test-questions which 
 naturally suggest themselves to the teacher. To 
 make progress with a minimum of knowledge is 
 the mark of a most important sort of ability ; 
 which depends in great part on grasping, quickly 
 
THE CLAIMS OF "RESEARCH" WORK 89 
 
 and instinctively, where it is safe to apply the 
 said minimum and where not. 
 
 We, who for teaching purposes must keep up a 
 nodding acquaintance with a range of work such 
 as (when it has grown a stage) is material for three 
 or four University professors, may not realise in 
 ourselves how concentration helps an effort along 
 one line. The accumulation of knowledge is to 
 some extent an obstacle, both for teachers and 
 taught. True, added knowledge is always a 
 stepping-stone to new ranges of possible initiative; 
 and no doubt there are more such ranges calling 
 for attention than ever before ; but the frowning 
 accumulation of stepping-stones is apt to look 
 more essential than it really is. If native in- 
 dependent wit can run its course alongside the 
 more orthodox progress of the receptive intellect, 
 much more vitality goes into the effort. It 
 seems inevitable that examinations of the school- 
 leaving type should put a premium on receptivity ; 
 that holds good even in Germany, the land of 
 research ; all that can be done should be done, to 
 foster the other sort of growth. 
 
 To those who urge that any form of loose, 
 inaccurate knowledge must be bad, it may be 
 answered that the present defence of such "teach- 
 ing" is meant to be limited — strictly — to know- 
 ledge that is to be used in doing something. If 
 there is no pressing interest of an active sort, 
 then there is no excuse for going a little way into 
 
go BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 any chapter and stopping at haziness ; unless, 
 indeed, difficulties are insuperable. And if it is 
 urged that an active interest in new enquiries 
 is too much to be expected of schoolboys, and is 
 really only a pleasant fancy of an unpractical 
 teacher, we reply that some of the famous 
 people, at least, have made an early start. 
 Galilei came upon the matter of the pendulum at 
 the age of seventeen ; Perkin was a research 
 assistant at seventeen ; Kelvin published a paper 
 on Fourier's expansions at the same age ; and 
 though we may not hope for results of this mag- 
 nitude, yet we may hope for some results. There 
 is certainly much native keenness which in early 
 days goes begging for the want of a little guid- 
 ance ; and by the time that an older eye has seen 
 more clearly wherein opportunities consist, bread- 
 and-butter studies, administrative responsibilities, 
 et hoc genus omne, may crowd out pure science 
 altogether. 
 
 The teacher who goes out of his way to en- 
 courage early effort will find, of course, that he is 
 adding greatly to his own work ; but it is a most 
 interesting sort of work, and it repays the teacher 
 in one practical way ; for a few people in a school 
 who have been made really keen on one special 
 question or another raise the standard of interest 
 of the rest ; free-time work may be permitted for 
 conversation when class-work would be barred. 
 This gives renewed interest in points of ordinary 
 
THE CLAIMS OF "RESEARCH" WORK 91 
 
 class-teaching. So-and-so's direct-vision spectro- 
 scope "comes up" spontaneously under prisms; 
 A's model aeroplane or B's vacuum-tube become 
 familiar, and give new points of contact. No 
 doubt commonplace things like cameras, toy- 
 motors, and footballs may be even fuller of sug- 
 gestion, but they lose a little in being common- 
 place. 
 
 A word may be added to explain more in 
 detail the kind of problem that has been recently 
 attacked in the writer's laboratory, with fair suc- 
 cess, in the "free-time" way that has been 
 described : construction of a sliding-coil galvano- 
 meter with determination of resistance and curve 
 showing sensitiveness ; construction of a rather 
 large electro-magnet, with tests of field-strength 
 by ballistic method; construction of "cymometer" 
 and measurement of wave-lengths of transmitters ; 
 "wireless" signalling (Lodge-Muirhead) over half 
 a mile ; ^ construction of reflecting magnetometer 
 and tests of various steels ; separation of cerium, 
 lanthanum, and didymium in cerite, with a study 
 of the absorption spectrum of the last-named ; 
 study of niobium and tantalum in columbite ; 
 study of the hardness of various well and other 
 waters in the district ; working up of weather 
 reports, photographic and electric effects of radio- 
 active substances, etc. etc. 
 
 ' With forty-foot poles this only requires a toy coil giving a 
 quarter-inch spark, — and a simple carbon-contact coherer. 
 
92 BROAD UNES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 It is worth noting that the common practice in 
 junior laboratories of working in pairs can some- 
 times be employed with advantage at this stage 
 too. 
 
 How many boys in a school will find interest, 
 time, and energy to carry out such a piece of 
 experimental work? At a guess it may be 
 hazarded that half the public of available age — 
 sixteen to eighteen — will be interested enough, 
 and half of these will be not too busy. This 
 sounds a small number : only five per cent, per- 
 haps, of the whole school ; but as was said above, 
 it all helps to create an infectious interest in 
 science, and so the total result cannot be so easily 
 estimated. In such a way a number of those who 
 would not attempt a piece of work needing really 
 hard thinking may be, and are, encouraged to 
 attempt simple bits of apparatus-making, which 
 often turn out of great educational value. 
 
 To sum up. The heuristic method, which is 
 commonly practised in dealing with introductory 
 science work, and which must give place, when 
 the examination stage is reached, to a speedier 
 method of accumulating information, may be 
 followed up with work of an attractive sort done 
 in free time, to the advantage, eventually, of 
 the three concerned : subject-matter, teacher, and 
 pupil. 
 
VIII 
 
 SCHOOL MATHEMATICS 
 IN RELATION TO SCHOOL SCIENCE 
 
 By T. JAMES GARSTANG, M.A. 
 
 IN this paper we propose to discuss the 
 possibilities of school mathematics, especi- 
 ally from the point of view of its correlation 
 with school science. Mathematics most 
 suitable for school purposes is neither the same 
 science as that studied in universities, nor as that 
 defined as " pure mathematics," by those dealing 
 with the modern problem of mathematical logic. 
 School mathematics cannot possibly be limited to 
 processes of mere logical deduction and to pro- 
 positions concerning purely abstract objects and 
 relations ; though it ultimately may concern itself 
 with such truths, it has regard also to the 
 immature nature of the child-mind. In accord- 
 ance with this latter necessity school mathematics 
 begins with separate things and facts, and with 
 any questions relating to number, size, and form 
 arising therefrom ; it passes, through processes 
 of comparison and induction, to statements and 
 truths of some though perhaps of very limited 
 
 93 
 
94 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 generality ; and towards its close it approaches 
 with some hesitation the deductive systems of the 
 higher university stage. If a verbal definition 
 of the content is required, then that given by 
 Professor J. W. A. Young' may be adopted for 
 practical use : — 
 
 " 'In all domains of mathematics those parts 
 are to be called elementary which can be 
 understood by a pupil of average ability with- 
 out long continued special study.' Obviously 
 school mathematics implies suitable methods of 
 approach, namely, those which lead immature 
 and growing minds towards an understanding 
 of the parts of the subject matter included in 
 the course." 
 
 Although the definition just given is very use- 
 ful, especially when the trammels of long-estab- 
 lished custom press most severely, yet it hardly 
 emphasises sufficiently those aspects of mathe- 
 matics which seem important, if not essential, to 
 the question under consideration, namely, the 
 possibilities of school mathematics especially in 
 relation to the correlation with school science. 
 The method of correlation which will be de- 
 scribed later has developed from certain views 
 concerning the nature of science and of scientific 
 method ; and although it is beyond the scope of 
 this article to attempt a full description of these 
 
 ^ Professor Young, Bull. Am. Math. Soc, XII, 349, April, 1906. 
 
MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO SCIENCE 95 
 
 questions, yet it seems simplest to refer to several 
 well-known authorities, whose published work 
 has had influence on the solution adopted. The 
 late Professor George Boole, in a lecture on "The 
 Claims of Science in Relation to Human Nature," 
 gave the following description of the general 
 question : — 
 
 " Science, then, we may regard as the joint 
 result of the teachings of experience, and the 
 desires and faculties of the human mind. Its 
 inlets are the senses ; its form and character are 
 the result of comparison, of reflection, of reason, 
 and of whatever powers we possess, whereby to 
 perceive relations, and trace through its succes- 
 sive links the chain of cause and effect. The order 
 of its progress is from particular facts to col- 
 lective statements, and so on to universal laws. 
 In Nature it exhibits to us a system of law 
 enforcing obedience ; in the Mind a system of 
 law claiming obedience. Over the one pre- 
 sides Necessity ; over the other, the unforced 
 obligations of Reason and the Moral Law. 
 Such I conceive to be the true conception of 
 science." 
 
 For a formulation of the particular aspect of 
 science which concerns us now, we may turn to 
 the Grammar of Science, by Professor Karl Pear- 
 son, where we find these passages : — 
 
 " Scientific concepts are, as a rule, limits 
 drawn in conception to processes which can be 
 
96 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 Started but not carried to a conclusion in per- 
 ception. The historical origin of the concepts 
 of geometry and physics can thus be traced. 
 Concepts such as geometrical surface, atom, 
 and ether are not asserted by science to have 
 a real existence in or behind phenomena, but 
 are valid as shorthand methods of describing the 
 correlation and sequence of phenomena. From 
 this standpoint conceptual space and time can 
 be easily appreciated, and the danger avoided 
 of projecting their ideal infinities and eternities 
 into the real world of perceptions".^ 
 
 " The progress of science lies in the con- 
 tinual discovery of more and more comprehen- 
 sive formulae, by aid of which we can classify 
 the relationships and sequences of more and 
 more extensive groups of phenomena. The 
 earlier formulae are not necessarily wrong ; 
 they are replaced by others which in briefer 
 language describe more facts. . . . They are 
 what the mathematician would term ' first ap- 
 proximations.' " 
 
 Further on in his book^ Professor Pearson tells 
 us that the validity of a conceptual mode of 
 classifying and describing perceptual change de- 
 pends " upon the power it gives us of briefly 
 resuming the facts of perception or of economising 
 thought." 
 
 This leads us naturally to the views of Professor 
 
 1 Page 191 (second edition). ' Page 194. 
 
MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO SCIENCE 97 
 
 E. Mach, who considers that " economy of com- 
 munication and apprehension is of the very 
 essence of science";^ and that "mathematics may 
 be defined as the economy of counting." ^ More 
 generally that "it is the object of science to 
 replace, or save, experiences, by the reproduction 
 and anticipation of facts in thought. Memory is 
 handier than experience, and often answers the 
 same purpose. . . . Science is communicated by 
 instruction, in order that one man may profit by 
 the experience of another. Language, the instru- 
 ment of this communication, is itself an economical 
 contrivance." So far, so good. But although 
 Professor Mach goes on to contrast to a certain 
 extent the restricted nature of national languages 
 with the universal and international character of 
 numerals, algebraic signs, chemical symbols, and 
 other written languages of similar kinds, yet in 
 this particular passage he does not emphasise suf- 
 ficiently the special properties of notation. Where 
 national language enables a limited group of 
 people to communicate ideas about all subjects of 
 interest, an adequate notation helps all men to 
 communicate ideas about only one subject of 
 interest. Where national language is of use 
 chiefly in the expression of thought, adequate 
 notation not only has the power of economising 
 thought by brief expression, but fulfils its most 
 remarkable function only as an instrument for the 
 
 ' Mach, Science of Mechanics, p. 6. " Ibid., p. 486. 
 
 H 
 
98 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 discovery and development of thoughts about the 
 subject-matter for which it has been specially 
 devised. 
 
 Undoubtedly Babbage, as Professor Mach sug- 
 gests, was quite familiar with these ideas ; he 
 attempted through his calculating machines to 
 secure by material structures the automatic ac- 
 curacy which is so characteristic of good notation, 
 and to retain, as it were, sufficient power of 
 adaptation to meet any contingencies. Though he 
 failed to complete his machine, he was certainly 
 right in describing notation ^ as a " language of 
 unrivalled power, enabling the mind to carry on 
 processes of deductive reasoning of almost un- 
 limited length," with an automatic power of self- 
 correction. 
 
 Considerations such as the foregoing have led 
 us to adopt certain conclusions in regard to teach- 
 ing mathematics in schools, among which are the 
 following : the necessity of personal experience 
 to awaken thought ; the supreme power of an 
 adequate notation for the expression and develop- 
 ment of thought ; and the gradual advance 
 towards perfection, which implies the repro- 
 duction in some way in the class-room of the 
 kind of racial experience which at various times 
 has stimulated the great original discoveries 
 recorded in the history of science. 
 
 ' C. Babbage, in the Edinburgh Encyclopadia (1813-30), art. 
 Notation. 
 
MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO SCIENCE 99 
 
 Let it be admitted that such conclusions were 
 reached only after much thinking ; and that this 
 thinking was necessitated by a certain failure, 
 experienced during some years of teaching 
 physical science, to find in the text-books and 
 practices in ordinary use twelve years ago either 
 sufficient stimulus to awaken thought or any 
 factor which promised to develop real power of 
 mind in the average pupil. As the result of such 
 experience, and by some readjustment of duties, 
 a very serious attempt was made to reproduce in 
 an elementary way, suited to the capacities of 
 young pupils, the original mathematical work of 
 the times of Fermat and Descartes, which led, 
 through the investigations of Wallis and Barrow, 
 to the great discoveries of Newton, Leibnitz, and 
 their successors in the Differential and Integral 
 Calculus. 
 
 The original basis of these discoveries was 
 the synthesis of algebra and geometry by 
 Descartes and others ; and the possibility of 
 applying such work to elementary teaching 
 seemed to lie in the complete synthesis of arith- 
 metic with algebra and geometry. Fortunately 
 at this time (1898) Professor Chrystal published 
 his Introduction to Algebra, and so introduced 
 into elementary mathematics those graphical 
 methods so necessary to sound mathematical 
 progress. 
 
 After developing the course of algebra for 
 
loo BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 some years on his lines, full confirmation was 
 obtained of his statement^ that 
 
 " By the constant exercise of graph tracing 
 the beginner acquires through his fingers three 
 fundamental notions, viz. the idea of a Con- 
 tinuously Varying Function, the Conception of 
 a Limit, and the method of Successive Approxi- 
 mation." 
 
 Some additional features of the method of teach- 
 ing adopted seem to be worth specific mention : 
 firstly, the Froebelian principle of "learning by 
 doing" yvas, we think, much emphasised by 
 actual practice ; secondly, our method of class- 
 work removed all just grounds in this instance 
 for the complaint made against the teaching of 
 graphical algebra — that tedious and unfruitful 
 calculations are necessarily involved, for each 
 member of the class was required to calculate 
 one or more values of the function for different 
 values of the variable. These values were then 
 written up on the blackboard and were thus 
 available for every one when plotting the graph. 
 In such ways there was much co-operation for 
 the purpose of saving tedious labour ; but that 
 sufficient emulation remained among the indi- 
 vidual members of the class seemed to be 
 proved by frequent little private competitions 
 
 ^ Chrystal, Introduction to Algebra, 1898. Preface, p. x. 
 
MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO SCIENCE loi 
 
 for calculating any extra values required for 
 the graph. 
 
 The first stage of the course was directed 
 towards educating the power of mathematical in- 
 tuition. No formal proofs were attempted. For 
 instance, the correspondence between linear func- 
 tions and straight lines was accepted as obvious. 
 But although it seemed very advisable to base the 
 course on facts sufficiently obvious to be ad- 
 mitted without question (in logic this is equiva- 
 lent to taking theorems as axioms), it seemed 
 also necessary for future progress to introduce 
 technical names as the occasions arise, after the 
 proper notions had been grasped. — In this respect 
 the graphical method has marked superiority. 
 Words like coefficient, constant, index, degree, 
 etc., are difficult to explain with interest sufficent 
 for comprehension, but they have become almost 
 self-explanatory after visual presentation through 
 graphs. — The course worked through commenced 
 with linear functions, varying in coefficients and 
 in constants. Next an advance was made to 
 simple functions of the second and perhaps of 
 the third degree. After this the introduction of 
 fractional functions led to the notion of infinity, 
 and sometimes to discussions on discontinuity. 
 But this side of the work has developed so 
 much recently that perhaps enough has been 
 said about it. 
 
 Here it seems convenient to describe in some 
 
102 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 detail an experiment carried out at Bedales 
 School, in the correlation of school science and 
 mathematics ; an experiment which lasted suffi- 
 ciently long to show interesting results. 
 
 The physical-science classes were organised to 
 supply first-hand experience of a kind suitable for 
 mathematical treatment. The various experi- 
 ments were quantitative in nature ; the results 
 were recorded and then plotted on squared paper. 
 The points thus obtained were connected in the 
 ordinary way by straight lines or curves, according 
 to the experiment attempted, though at times a 
 certain amount of smoothing was required to get 
 a tractable result. From these remarks it is 
 obvious that in general the problems presented 
 for mathematical solution were of an inverse 
 character — given a graph, it was required to find 
 the corresponding algebraical function. 
 
 Pupils in the course of their work met with 
 some or all of the following graphs. These were 
 obtained by plotting the numerical results derived 
 from suitable experiments, which are implied by 
 the brief references under each heading. 
 
 1. Linear : — 
 
 Temperature F — C. 
 
 Force of Friction — Pressure (planes and pulleys). 
 
 2. Parabolic : — 
 
 Path of Projectile. 
 
 Distance — Time (in the case of inclined plane 
 
 and free fall). 
 Time-period of pendulum — Length. 
 
MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO SCIENCE 103 
 
 3. Inverse First Power (or Hyperbolic) : — 
 
 Pressure of gas — Volume (Boyle's Law). 
 Position of image — Position of object (in lenses 
 and mirrors). 
 
 4. Inverse Squares : — 
 
 Light intensity — Distance from source. 
 Magnetic intensity due to a pole — Distance. 
 
 5. Cubic : — 
 
 Depression of a bent beam — Length. 
 
 6. Inverse Cubic : — 
 
 Intensity of field due to short magnet — Distance. 
 
 7. Exponential : — 
 
 Excess temperature of body cooling in vacuo — 
 Time. 
 
 The list just given is not intended to be com- 
 plete, especially on the experimental side ; but 
 rather to indicate the range of work presented for 
 mathematical consideration. And it is perhaps 
 advisable here to state that no sharply defined 
 scheme of correlation was ever drawn up ; but 
 much faith was placed in the mutual help afforded 
 by the work on both sides ; some pupils responded 
 more readily to the experimental work, others to 
 the mathematical discussions ; but all received 
 much benefit from the inevitable alternation of 
 mental attitude. A definite illustration of this 
 point has been frequently provided by work done 
 with two thermometers, one Fahrenheit, the other 
 Centigrade ; pupils who have found the beginning 
 of graphical algebra without much meaning have 
 been encouraged to make further and successful 
 
104 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 attempts to overcome the initial difficulties 
 through plotting the graph from their own data. 
 
 Concurrently with the earlier part of the prac- 
 tical physics the second stage of the graphical 
 course of mathematics was under development- 
 The first step here was to lead up by suitable 
 illustrations to the notion of a limit. The next 
 step taken was to apply the method of limits 
 with suitable notation to the calculation of 
 tangents to the simplest curves. Beyond the 
 notion of a limit, only easy algebra is required for 
 this purpose. Then many of the curves already 
 drawn during the first stage were treated in a 
 similar way, and the old work and note-books put 
 to further valuable use. 
 
 After this introductory course of limits, the 
 third stage was commenced by a recapitulation of 
 the work in the notation of the differential calculus. 
 This notation is more powerful and enables the 
 course of tangent drawing to be extended with 
 comparative ease. The introduction of integration 
 as the operation inverse to differentiation presented 
 little difficulty to classes taught from the algebra 
 of Professor Chrystal ; but the discussion of the 
 relation between integration and the areeis of 
 plane curves was always treated as the occasion 
 for attempting formal proofs applicable to special 
 cases. This part of the course involved a return 
 back to algebra and the method of limits. The 
 final problem of the third stage was the calcu- 
 
MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO SCIENCE 105 
 
 lation of the function of the second degree to a 
 curve determined by a given table of values 
 suitably chosen, an inverse problem presented in 
 the course of practical physics already mentioned. 
 
 The fourth and last stage of our special course 
 introduced the differentiation of the circular 
 functions, both direct and inverse, and ended with 
 the calculation of tt to several decimal places, by 
 means of Gregory's series obtained by suitable 
 integration. The exponential functions were 
 introduced graphically to the class as a whole ; 
 but detailed analysis was reserved until specially 
 required. 
 
 Such work lasting through some five or six 
 years has proved conclusively that the average 
 pupils of school age, both boys and girls, can 
 understand and appreciate the methods of elemen- 
 tary calculus, provided they are working concur- 
 rently at that kind of physical science which 
 presents problems for solution requiring the cal- 
 culus. In more recent years the whole work of 
 the school has undergone development and differ- 
 entiation, which has interfered, temporarily let us 
 hope, with the further progress of our experiment 
 in correlation. But the later results, though 
 apparently adverse, have not been without some 
 value ; it has been found that pupils taking mainly 
 biological science, or perhaps devoting much time 
 and energy to music, cannot appreciate the higher 
 notations of mathematics through methods of 
 
io6 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 teaching quite intelligible to pupils of about the 
 same age who are studying physical science. 
 
 Such experience is a useful reminder that, after 
 all the attempts to arrange the various mathema- 
 tical subjects in a perfect logical order, there is a 
 very human element in teaching which requires 
 more consideration from responsible authorities. 
 The difficulty of teaching pupils in the same class, 
 when some have received good but others 
 indifferent training in early years, is real evidence 
 of the necessity of attending to a wise psychology. 
 Without wishing to question that the deductive is 
 the proper method in pure mathematics for the 
 developed mind, it seems necessary to point out 
 that in school teaching the inductive process of the 
 mind requires the most definite care ; for the 
 inductive process is a vital factor in promoting 
 healthy and vigorous growth of mind and brain 
 during the early years of youth, and in mathe- 
 matics especially this vital process is in constant 
 danger of suffering real and perhaps permanent 
 harm from a system of examinations admitted by 
 many to be too dominant in the regulation of 
 educational affairs. 
 
 We may admit that the mind requires training 
 in order to reason correctly, but we cannot admit 
 that the method of this training in schools must 
 be determined by any system of logical deduc- 
 tion from abstract definitions and axioms, how- 
 ever suitable to university work. It is certainly 
 
MATHEMATICS IN RELATION TO SCIENCE 107 
 
 good psychology not to ask beginners to prove 
 the obvious ; and we may hope that at no 
 far distant future many will be found to agree 
 with Professor Cajori, who has stated that the 
 line of progress is to take much more for granted 
 as evident to the eye than present customs per- 
 mit, but to do this openly with no attempt at 
 deductive proof. Present conditions are not 
 favourable to mutual correlation ; for instance, 
 the basis of map-drawing in geography and in 
 simple surveying is the assumed similarity of 
 equiangular triangles, but in geometry lessons 
 this essential truth may not be assumed and is 
 not attained until after years of work. It is 
 probable that from such contradictions much of 
 the general distaste for mathematics arises, and 
 that in their removal lies the possibility of a 
 general co-ordination of school science and 
 mathematics, which would not only assist an 
 economical distribution of effort, but also go far 
 to promote a habit of scientific thought in the 
 educated public. 
 
IX 
 
 CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING 
 IN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 
 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ELECTRICITY 
 AND MAGNETISM 
 
 By ALFRED W. PORTER, B.Sc. 
 
 TH E living material with which a college 
 lecturer begins his work is the finished 
 product of a school career. This fact 
 alone would justify one whose teaching 
 experience is confined to university work in con- 
 sidering the question of teaching in schools. 
 Besides this, at the present day, there is con- 
 siderable overlapping in the two grades of study. 
 Schools advance in independence of college 
 curricula except in so far as they are regulated 
 by examinational needs. There is no co-ordina- 
 tion between the two ; there is not even 
 uniformity in the schools themselves. 
 
 This system (or lack of system) must be con- 
 trasted with that in Germany, where the schools 
 are governed by the State and a lad's college 
 career is a truer sequence of his school training. 
 We may reasonably hope that the freer system 
 
 io8 
 
CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING 109 
 
 with us will ultimately lead (largely by the 
 method of trial and error) to a much more 
 satisfactory scheme of education than one which 
 was made rigid in the beginning. But while the 
 evolution of the perfect system proceeds, much 
 difficulty is experienced (arising from the lack of 
 uniformity) in connection with the transition from 
 the sphere of school to that of college. The 
 question as to where a school course should end 
 and the college course begin is specially compli- 
 cated in the case of the study of science in con- 
 sequence of the very precarious foothold which 
 science has yet secured in the majority of schools. 
 The ultimate answer to this question will prob- 
 ably be very different from the one which is 
 suited to present conditions. As the scientific 
 equipment of school laboratories increases, and 
 the time which can be devoted there to science 
 is also increased, it may become possible for much 
 of the elementary work to be transferred from 
 college to school. Such a transference would, 
 of course, require a readjustment of the existing 
 higher curricula of college. The only alternative 
 to this is that, as the school teaching becomes 
 more efficient, the average age of leaving school 
 should diminish. This alternative is one which 
 ought not to be lost sight of The trend of de- 
 velopment seems to be against it ; but in certain 
 quarters it would be looked on with favour. For 
 example. Professor Armstrong in his contribution 
 
no BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 to the Reports of the Mosely Educational Com- 
 mission (1903),^ after intimating that the entire 
 system of education seems to require reconstruc- 
 tion from bottom to top, asserts "the greater part 
 of the work which is now done — far too late — at 
 college might then be done at school ; or still 
 better, college might be entered with advantage 
 at sixteen." On the other hand, objections con- 
 nected with the formation of character can no 
 doubt be urged against early school leaving — 
 objections which could be removed only if in the 
 simultaneous reorganisation of the college career 
 the school influences were successfully replaced. 
 The ultimate selection between these alterna- 
 tives must turn upon the decision as to the range 
 of a subject which can best be taught in the 
 atmosphere of school. 
 
 Under existing conditions I am convinced 
 that many schools attempt far more than their 
 exiguous equipment warrants. The mischief 
 done is greatest when the training is merely to 
 enable a man to pass an examination and the 
 subject is one which he will not be required to 
 take to a further stage at college. To give a 
 single example : this remark applies to any 
 school preparing for the First Medical Examina- 
 tion of London University. No physics is re- 
 quired from the embryo " medical " except in 
 preparation for this preliminary examination. Is 
 
 ' Page 20. 
 
CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING iii 
 
 it right that this training should be allowed to be 
 given under the meagre and restricted conditions 
 which are possible in a school ? There never 
 was a time when a knowledge of physics was so 
 necessary to a medical man as it is to-day ; and 
 it should be imparted under the most generous 
 conditions. Unfortunately the successes which 
 can be obtained at examinations are tending to 
 encourage the opinion that the school training in 
 physics is quite sufificient. The lads will only 
 realise later the insufficiency of their training for 
 the career that is before them. 
 
 When a man takes the subject to a further 
 stage at college the wrong done by an extended 
 though narrow school course is not so serious 
 because, to some extent, it is capable of subse- 
 quent rectification. But many men have their 
 careers spoilt merely owing to insufficient ground- 
 ing. I say without hesitation that such men 
 would have done better if they had left school 
 earlier. 
 
 These considerations apply to fairly specialised 
 teaching such as till recently has been almost 
 exclusively given at college. I will now pass on 
 to the consideration of the more elementary work ; 
 and in order to keep within the space allotted to 
 me, I will restrict the question to the teaching of 
 elementary electricity and magnetism. 
 
 Judging from the results which come under 
 our observation many of us are doubtful whether 
 
112 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 electricity is a subject suitable to be taught for- 
 mally in a pre-collegiate period under existing 
 conditions. By the adverb "formally" I am 
 distinguishing between what aims at being a 
 complete course up to a definite standard and 
 the more informal introduction to the subject to 
 which I shall refer later. 
 
 One source of difficulty is that which we feel 
 even when teaching it in the university ; the 
 difficulty which arises from the gross ignorance 
 exhibited by the average boy of the necessary 
 mathematics — simple though it is. Contrast the 
 ideal boy of Professor Perry (whom he describes 
 in the perfect tense) ^ — the boy of the age of 
 fourteen " who has learnt trigonometry," who can 
 also "differentiate and integrate sf'" — with the 
 real boy of sixteen or seventeen who has not 
 done so and who does not know what differentia- 
 tion means. 
 
 Until this state of things is remedied the ways 
 of science will indeed be hard. Cannot mathe- 
 maticians, however, see their way to develop 
 their subject along lines more suitable to its 
 applications without sacrificing the logical order 
 which is necessarily so dear to them ?^ Unless 
 this can be done a twofold development must 
 
 1 Discussion at Johannesburg on the Teaching of Elementary 
 Mechanics, 1905, p. 5. Macmillan and Co., 1906. 
 
 2 This question is more fully considered in Mr. Garstang's 
 paper. — Ed. 
 
CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING 113 
 
 eventually replace the existing one. Alongside the 
 logical and abstract treatment in the mathematical 
 department — a treatment so necessary for all who 
 have the mathematical faculty and who will 
 ultimately become professed mathematicians, so 
 educational also for those who will not — will pro- 
 ceed a practical treatment on lines suitable for 
 immediate application. Both may be given by 
 the same teacher if he possess the necessary 
 qualifications ; but in the majority of cases the 
 latter will be much better given by the teacher of 
 physics because he is more alive to the possible 
 applications. Both courses should be taken by 
 both kinds of pupil. We are decidedly against 
 restricting a boy to the practical side because 
 he is going to be an engineer ; and we think the 
 mathematician is only half educated who has not 
 come into direct contact with it. There is much 
 to commend this twofold system in preference to 
 a half-hearted acquiescence of the mathematician 
 in the demand for a practical treatment. Of 
 course, much can be done, and indeed is often 
 done already, by the physics lecturer in an in- 
 formal way towards this end ; but it is a great 
 deal better to have the system officially recog- 
 nised, and not to render oneself liable to a charge 
 of muddying the waters of pure thought supplied 
 by another department. 
 
 If the difficulty in respect to a pure mathe- 
 matical equipment is removed, there remains the 
 
114 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 difficulty in respect to the insufficiency of a know- 
 ledge of mechanics. No formal course on elec- 
 tricity should ever be given prior to an intro- 
 ductory course in mechanics ; yet this is often 
 done. The subject of electricity and magnetism 
 involves almost at the beginning the notion of 
 force, for we measure a charge of electricity 
 by means of the force exerted. How can the 
 teaching of this part of the subject be anything 
 but cram unless accurate mechanical conceptions 
 have been previously imparted ? It is in vain to 
 reply that use may be made of the pupil's per- 
 sonal experience in exerting force, and that this 
 knowledge will be temporarily sufficient. It is 
 mischievous to teach that force is measured 
 mechanically in terms of our sensations. Let 
 any one who doubts this statement turn over in 
 his own mind exactly what would be meant by 
 asserting that the sensation in lifting one hundred 
 pounds is double that in lifting fifty ; and par- 
 ticularly let him ask himself further whether or 
 not the assertion is true. 
 
 So, if this be admitted, care should be taken 
 to ground a boy first in mechanics. If he has 
 done none, the formal electrical course should be 
 postponed. To ensure the possibility of arrang- 
 ing the courses accordingly, the mechanics should 
 be taken by the physics lecturer. Indeed, it 
 should be recognised that it is nothing more than 
 the most fundamental of all the different branches 
 
CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING 115 
 
 of physics. It should be taught as such with 
 proper experimental illustrations and suitable 
 laboratory work. Unless this is done there will 
 always be a sense of detachment between it and 
 the other branches of physics. 
 
 It may appear as though I am tending to dis- 
 courage the formal teaching of electricity. My 
 aim, however, is the contrary ; it is to prevent it 
 being badly taught. With adequate tuition in 
 mathematics and mechanics as a preliminary, the 
 greater part of the difficulty is removed. It is 
 in making use of terms (such as force, work, etc.) 
 which are only half, if at all, understood that 
 disaster arises. As soon as this preliminary 
 knowledge is acquired the way is open for per- 
 fectly sound elementary courses on electrostatics, 
 magnetism, and current electricity. They should 
 be taken in this, the old-fashioned, order. It is 
 of course well known that there has been a ten- 
 dency to discount electrostatics ; this has been 
 especially the case in technical schools. It seems 
 to me that this plan has been bad policy ; for 
 this opinion the following reasons may be adduced, 
 though the statement of these reasons for remain- 
 ing old-fashioned makes a rather long digression. 
 It is useful to make the statement because doing 
 so brings out incidentally the main character- 
 istic of the recent development in electrical 
 theory. Besides the fact that electrostatic phe- 
 nomena have, in recent years, taken a much 
 
ii6 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 more prominent place in technics owing to the 
 use of high-tension currents, we have the fact, 
 much more important from the philosophical 
 standpoint, that modern views of electricity are 
 based upon conceptions first met with in electro- 
 statics. 
 
 In order to indicate the nature of the change 
 it must be mentioned that the trend of Maxwell's 
 teaching, and more particularly of the experiments 
 of Hertz on electromagnetic waves, was to re- 
 move the necessity of thinking about electricity 
 as a separate entity. The whole attention was 
 concentrated upon stresses in the intervening 
 medium instead of on forces between electric 
 charges acting according to the inverse square 
 law. It seemed unnecessary to postulate an 
 electric fluid, and scorn was showered upon the 
 newspaper writer who alone failed to realise his 
 archaisms in describing the phenomenon of thun- 
 derstorms. But a reaction has come, and it is 
 again fashionable to speak of an electric fluid. 
 Not that we are back in the pre-Faradaic period ; 
 the fluid has properties which were undreamed of 
 then. It is divided like matter into atoms, a 
 fact of which the laws of electrolysis may be 
 taken as the most elementary indication. In- 
 deed, the proportionality of electro-chemical to 
 chemical equivalents led Maxwell himself, a long 
 time ago, to speak of a "molecule of electricity"; 
 but then he used this phrase simply to indicate 
 
CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING 117 
 
 a "provisional hypothesis," to be discarded as 
 knowledge increased. We cannot go into details 
 here ; the point is that the electric charge is once 
 more a fundamental conception : highest philoso- 
 phy and rudimentary teaching are brought into 
 closer harmony than before, for it is as easy to talk 
 about particles of electricity as about particles of 
 matter ; and there is everything in favour of 
 beginning with electrostatics, the branch in which 
 the most simple properties of charges are 
 studied. 
 
 There is no room here to outline what a satis- 
 factory course should consist of; the place for 
 that is a textbook and not a page in an essay. 
 Examination syllabuses must unfortunately be 
 taken, in many cases, as the main guide. These, 
 let it be admitted, are usually loaded with 
 ancient material which some day must be dis- 
 carded to give place to new. But in any school 
 which undertakes the formal course (which we 
 would prefer to be given at college, as we have 
 said) new matter must be introduced, whether it 
 is in a university syllabus or not. Hertzian 
 waves, electrons. X-rays, radioactivity : these sub- 
 jects must certainly not be ignored. 
 
 Such a course will not be given to every boy 
 even in the ideal school of the future. But there 
 is a kind of tuition in physics which every one 
 should have, and which I alluded to above as an 
 "informal introduction." Others have written 
 
ii8 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 about allowing boys to play with magnets and 
 cells. Let them " make glass-rubbed electric 
 machines and Leyden jars out of bottles bought 
 cheaply from grocers." Never mind whether or 
 not you can reduce these things to mathematics ; 
 perhaps do not even try to do so at this early 
 stage. The interest that can be aroused by this 
 scientific play, the familiarity with things that is 
 gained, are all to the good in connection with 
 later teaching. 
 
 The work should not be really desultory. 
 Professor Perry encourages the imitation of 
 Mr. Barlow in Sandford and Merton, " who 
 keeps the boys on any one subject just as 
 long as they are interested." My ideal teacher 
 of this stage of work is a somewhat different 
 man ; he is one who keeps a boy interested 
 in a subject as long as he keeps him at it. 
 Moreover, he must keep the boy at it past 
 the moment when effort is needed on the part 
 of the boy ; otherwise, though a fact may be 
 learned, training has not begun. Some things the 
 pupil may be put to find out for himself, but 
 heuristics is a method too tardy in results to be 
 exclusively employed. Carry it to its logical ex- 
 treme (which, of course, no one does), and the 
 development of the boy would become as slow as 
 the development of the race. Do not, on the 
 other hand, put him off with a mere dogmatic 
 statement ; explain how a thing comes to be 
 
CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING 119 
 
 known, and let him test it whenever possible. 
 The dragon which the " heuristikos " assails is 
 the dragon of the old days, when no experi- 
 mental work at all was taught ; he is mistaken in 
 thinking that his enemy necessarily may be found 
 lurking wherever direct instruction is given. A 
 child must be told far more than he could pos- 
 sibly find out for himself; but the spirit of anti- 
 dogmatism should pervade the telling from the 
 beginning to the end. 
 
 These considerations lead naturally to the 
 question of the education of the exceptional case. 
 In some schools there is a type of scholar who 
 takes easily to working some one line ; he is a 
 born investigator who goes to enormous pains 
 and shows great ability in pursuing work which 
 is of research type, even though the things dis- 
 covered may be really old : experiments In electric 
 waves, concentration of the radioactive elements 
 in a uranium ore, and the like. This work takes 
 time, and can be done only to the exclusion of 
 other work. What shall be said of school work 
 of this kind which specialises to an extreme in 
 one direction to the detriment of others ? The 
 first thing to say is that there are some youths 
 who are best left alone with their teacher ; 
 ordinary rules that are laid down for general 
 guidance do not apply to them. They are not 
 the majority ; both they and also probably their 
 teachers are exceptional. It is difficult to draw 
 
120 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 inferences from the development of these men 
 as to the success of the mode in which they are 
 taught, because they are the sort that succeed in 
 spite of circumstances. That some work of the 
 above kind should be encouraged is one of my 
 articles of faith ; but the greatest care should be 
 taken that it does not exclude the vastly important 
 general grounding without which the boy, and 
 afterwards the man, will be continually hampered. 
 By all means let arrangements be sufficiently 
 elastic that the union between a particular teacher 
 and pupil may be extended beyond the usual 
 period. It is better that this should be rather 
 than the pupil should be transferred to what may 
 prove to be the more uncongenial elementary 
 classes of a university college. But observation 
 of many who have been thus taught has impressed 
 me with the belief that the instances are ex- 
 ceedingly rare in which this mode of teaching 
 can profitably replace one which is preceded by 
 teaching of a more formal and general character. 
 Specialisation, even in the university, is being 
 encouraged at too early a stage. With the "one 
 subject " honours in London University our physi- 
 cal students are learning no chemistry or else no 
 mathematics ; they are not even compelled to 
 take applied mathematics ; our chemists need not 
 even take physics. The loss of power that this 
 implies can only be gauged when it is recalled 
 that there is no hard and fast line drawn in nature 
 
CO-ORDINATION OF PHYSICS TEACHING 121 
 
 corresponding to our artificial distinctions ; a full 
 knowledge of one phenomenon implies a know- 
 ledge of all. 
 
 If this objection can be validly urged against 
 too early specialisation at college, much more can 
 it be urged against the same fault at school. 
 There is no identity between encouraging re- 
 search habits of thought and experimentation and 
 narrowing a boy down into a single groove. 
 
X 
 
 GEOGRAPHY 
 
 By J. H. N. STEPHENSON, M.A. 
 
 " Step by step the conviction dawns upon the learner that, to 
 • attain to even an elementary conception of what goes on in his 
 parish, he must know something about the universe." 
 
 T. H. Huxley. 
 
 IT is in some respects a misfortune that the 
 geography of our childhood was practically 
 dead before that general overhauling of our 
 educational system began which has been 
 so marked a feature of the past decade. But 
 the lists of capes and bays, the marshalled 
 array of chief towns and their populations, how- 
 ever useful in themselves, had long been felt to 
 be sterile and uneducational, in that no one 
 group of facts bore any relation to another, and 
 no mental faculty other than memory was brought 
 into play ; nor were even the bare facts them- 
 selves impressed at all in proportion to their 
 intrinsic importance. Hence, in secondary schools 
 at least, the subject has long been thrust into the 
 background, if not entirely abandoned. The re- 
 former has therefore not merely — as in the case 
 
GEOGRAPHY 123 
 
 of Other subjects — to point out better methods 
 and win acceptance for them ; he is obliged first 
 to convince that the subject is worth considering 
 at all. 
 
 It is not the main purpose of this article to 
 examine or vindicate the importance of geo- 
 graphy as a subject of study, but since this ques- 
 tion vitally affects its relation to science teaching, 
 it may not be amiss to point out that the claims 
 being now more and more strongly urged on its 
 behalf are not altogether new. Arnold saw in 
 it the meeting - point of history and natural 
 science, and J. R. Green spoke of it as a study 
 "which must occupy a foremost place in any 
 rational system of primary education," and again 
 as "the natural starting-point for all subjects of 
 later training."^ 
 
 I would call special attention to the last quota- 
 tion, because it is as the starting-point of at 
 any rate most subjects of later training that I 
 believe Geography must be accepted, if at all.^ 
 The ever-widening circle of human knowledge 
 makes it increasingly difficult to reach the cir- 
 cumference at any one point, to do so at more 
 than one, well-nigh impossible ; and in order to 
 
 ' I am indebted for these quotations to the Rev. F. R. Burrows, 
 Geographical Gleanings. 
 
 ^ In the preparatory-school stage ; later, when teaching is 
 carried on by a larger staff, there may be a continuation of 
 geography teaching for its own sake side by side with other 
 branches of science. 
 
124 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 adapt itself to the changed conditions, our educa- 
 tion must aim less and less at pursuing a number 
 of arbitrarily chosen subjects and more and more 
 at establishing a thorough grasp of fundamental 
 principles, and forming a habit of mind capable 
 of applying these principles in any direction that 
 the needs of special work subsequently may 
 demand. The same tendency is observable 
 in the modern treatment of mathematics and 
 also of history. Paradoxical as it may seem, 
 increased specialisation in later life means greater 
 concentration in early education ; to illustrate by 
 a metaphor, if fresh storeys are added to the 
 building, the foundations must be strengthened. 
 And silrely no subject is better fitted for supply- 
 ing this foundation than geography rationally 
 studied, training, as it should, the observation 
 and reasoning power as well as the faculties of 
 memory and imagination ; lying at the root of all 
 natural science, and touching so closely the social 
 sciences also. As Miss Busk says : " The magni- 
 tude of its educative value will be realised when 
 teachers understand that it is a subject which 
 develops the child's ability in many different 
 directions rather than along any one special line, 
 and renders the mind more receptive of new 
 ideas in very varied fields of knowledge." 
 
 How then, it may be asked, can the teaching 
 of geography be carried out so as in fact to do 
 what has been claimed for it? Let us take the 
 
GEOGRAPHY 125 
 
 case of a boy entering a school at the age of 
 nine or ten, and we will assume that he has 
 learned nothing of geography, though it will be 
 fortunate if he has escaped being burdened with 
 names that conveyed nothing to him and a few 
 tags of information that he could not understand. 
 Mr. H, J. Mackinder has admirably expressed 
 the aim to be kept in view : " The object of the 
 teacher is to build up a conception of the surface 
 of the earth as a product of interacting physical 
 forces, in order that that surface may be in- 
 telligently viewed as the scene of social activities"; 
 and to carry out the aim the first step will 
 naturally be to learn something of the inter- 
 action of physical forces on the surface of the 
 earth, or in other words, something of physio- 
 graphy. 
 
 It is unnecessary to give details of this course, 
 since there is a substantial agreement among the 
 available textbooks as to the general subject- 
 matter and order of arrangement, but the follow- 
 ing points may be worth noting. First, those 
 fundamental facts must be specially emphasised 
 which are capable of the widest application, as, 
 for example, the laws of gravitation, of heat and 
 energy, of chemical combination, etc., and it need 
 hardly be said that this should be done with the 
 fullest possible observation of, and illustration from, 
 familiar objects and occurrences. That is to say, 
 the elementary science should at first either be 
 
126 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 taught by the geography teacher as geography, 
 or if it is done by another teacher under another 
 title it should be so closely woven in with 
 geography that it might still almost be called 
 by the same name. Thus a very elementary 
 experimental course can be worked out on "salt," 
 or "frost," or " water- vapour," called physics by 
 the physicist, but having the central idea really 
 geographical. Attention should be fixed on the 
 main factors determining the surface conditions 
 of the globe rather than those which have little 
 bearing on them ; erosion due to wind, water, 
 and frost, for instance ; and in such matters help 
 may be found in observational work near home. 
 Such phenomena as eclipses, stalactites, geysers, 
 and typhoons are apt to have a quite dispro- 
 portionate importance given to them. I am con- 
 tinually being corrected by small boys for saying 
 that the earth is round like a ball, and am 
 almost invariably told by the same pupils that 
 it is hotter in summer because the earth is nearer 
 the sun. 
 
 Having thus gained an insight into the physical 
 forces in their action on the globe, a map will call 
 up in the boy's mind, with the aid of his reasoning 
 powers and some exercise of imagination, a living 
 impression of the main features of its surface. 
 But far more, even than this, what he has learnt 
 will make him unconsciously realise the oneness 
 of nature and the close interdependence of all 
 
GEOGRAPHY 127 
 
 those organised branches of knowledge which are 
 called by various names and grouped together as 
 natural science, and as Huxley — the pioneer of a 
 rational study of physiography — claims, "will 
 facilitate his subsequent entry into their portals." 
 Against all this it is sometimes urged that 
 physiography deals with so many sciences that 
 these ought to be undertaken first or there will be 
 a danger of "smattering." Now it is true that 
 the facts on which our knowledge of the earth is 
 based have been drawn from many sciences, but 
 a grasp of these facts in their relation to one 
 another is surely the best starting-point for em- 
 barking on the special study of each group. 
 Some regret may be felt by the expert, where 
 the first beginnings of his special study are put 
 into the hands of an amateur ; but the loss, 
 which may be a very real one, is, I am con- 
 vinced, far more than made up for by the unity 
 of conception established ; and if geography were 
 made to wait till the astronomer, the chemist, 
 and all the other specialists had first had their 
 say, not only would it suffer by the delay, but 
 natural science, which has too long been ham- 
 pered by watertight compartments, would be the 
 loser also. 
 
 And before we go further it may be well to 
 consider another objection which will be almost 
 certainly raised against this scheme from the 
 start : that it begins " at the wrong end." There 
 
128 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 is a growing tendency to urge that geography, 
 Hke charity, should begin at home, and children 
 taught first to observe and understand what lies 
 around them and gradually feel their way out- 
 ward to the universe. This idea is in some 
 degree natural and reasonable, and certainly 
 marks a healthy reaction against the older dog- 
 matic methods ; nevertheless I venture to believe 
 it is not always safe in practice. The attempt to 
 base everything on first-hand observation ignores 
 the fact that normal children only observe what 
 interests them, and they are keenly interested in 
 knowing why a thing happens ; if this can be in 
 any way explained they will readily observe other 
 instances of the same nature, whereas the process 
 of inductive reasoning from the facts observed is 
 often quite beyond them as a rule ; thus it is far 
 easier for a quite young child to get a tolerable 
 idea of the solar system than to draw any 
 induction from the varying length of a shadow 
 at the meridian. The scientific explanation is 
 therefore a stimulus to, rather than a natural 
 result of, observation, and the reversed 
 order often fails. Again, the idea that it is 
 simpler to draw scientific conclusions from one's 
 immediate surroundings does not take into 
 account the exceedingly complex factors which 
 go to produce these surroundings. It is in fact 
 far simpler to account for the trade winds or 
 monsoons than to explain the meteorological 
 
GEOGRAPHY 129 
 
 conditions on an average English day ; or to 
 grasp the main geological formations of the 
 British Isles, and their origin, than to follow the 
 surface evidence of them in a particular locality. 
 The early training in observation is good, but 
 the conclusions drawn from the observations 
 may be confused, inadequate, or misleading. 
 Putting aside for a moment these objections to 
 the method, there remain grave practical difificulties 
 in the way of its accomplishment. A system 
 which imperatively demands specially gifted and 
 highly trained teachers, as this emphatically does, 
 cannot, under present conditions at all events, 
 hope for general acceptance in our secondary 
 schools ; while differences of locality must almost 
 inevitably be reflected in the relative importance 
 which the pupil attaches to different types of 
 phenomena. 
 
 It should be clearly understood that there is no 
 desire or intention to detract from the value of 
 nature-study. It has its own place, and an im- 
 portant one, in education, and from the point of view 
 of geography it has the greatest use as an accom- 
 paniment to arid a preparation for the scientific 
 study of the subject ; but to base the teaching of 
 geography on first-hand observation alone is to 
 set both pupil and teacher a well-nigh impossible 
 task. 
 
 Assuming, then, that our boy has mastered the 
 rudiments of physiography, their result must 
 
I30 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 next be studied on the life of the globe. It is at 
 this point that physiography too often breaks 
 down, and if it refuses to go further we, at least, 
 must go on, for the elements of plant and animal 
 physiology are as necessary to a real com- 
 prehension of geography as are those of as- 
 tronomy, geology, and the like. They are the 
 links that bind them to the study of mankind in 
 its relation to nature, by turning the knowledge 
 of soil and climate which physiography has given 
 us to practical account, and enabling us to under- 
 stand the great belts of vegetation, and their 
 consequences, economic and political (as, for ex- 
 ample, why we import wheat from Canada and 
 wool from Australia). It is safe to say that with- 
 out some knowledge of the conditions of plant 
 and animal life the political map of Africa is 
 altogether meaningless. The general study of 
 man will naturally follow, and it is perhaps hardly 
 necessary to plead that a more scientific account 
 should be given of his place in the economy of 
 the world. The teachings of anthropology are 
 another indispensable link in our chain, enabling 
 us to understand something of the varying forms 
 and degrees of civilisation, and I would lay far 
 more stress on this than on the sister science of 
 ethnology, as being the parent of history. 
 Finally, an acquaintance with the broad principles 
 of economics will complete the equipment of our 
 pupil for entering on the study of regional 
 
GEOGRAPHY 131 
 
 geography in all its aspects. This I would regard 
 as, in the first instance, little more than a series 
 of exercises in applying with the help of maps the 
 principles already learnt to special areas. The 
 close dependence of regional or applied geo- 
 graphy on what, for lack of a better name, may 
 be called general geography — the term physical 
 geography is too narrow — is often lost sight of, 
 while regional geography is made to include 
 almost anything which appears to the teacher or 
 writer as interesting or instructive. Here, more 
 than ever, some unifying principle is needed, in 
 other words a recognised nucleus, so to speak, 
 round which all subsequent information from what- 
 ever source may find a fitting place, and from 
 which more specialised study may be developed. 
 Such a nucleus may, I think, be found in a care- 
 ful application of the conclusions arrived at in 
 general geography to the region under con- 
 sideration, interpreted so far as need be in the 
 light of history. 
 
 A true understanding of the really difficult 
 problems can, of course, only come at a later 
 stage, when with a broadened outlook and a 
 greater knowledge of other sciences, a pupil can 
 enter into local detail without the danger of dis- 
 tortion. Here comes in the importance of con- 
 tinuing geography in the later stages of school 
 work, since much of its teaching can only be 
 realised by older pupils, and because the fruit 
 
132 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 of the earlier work is largely lost if the subject is 
 cut off before it has been fully shown that it is 
 the common ground where all other sciences may 
 meet and overlap. 
 
 As has been already shown, this earlier work 
 is mainly concerned with the nature of the geo- 
 graphical features and conditions of the earth's 
 surface, and though all along their influence on 
 man is kept in view, it is especially in the later 
 stages of secondary education that the teacher 
 can set to work to classify and rearrange the 
 knowledge previously gained. Facts learned 
 before can now be revised and added to, and 
 grouped in such a way as to bring out clearly 
 and in greater detail how geographical features, 
 forces, and conditions have affected and do affect 
 man in his " social activities," to establish geo- 
 graphy as " the meeting-point of history and the 
 natural sciences." 
 
 For example, one can trace the growth of 
 towns along what at one time were the open 
 lines of communication, or one can compare and 
 contrast the history of all those countries with 
 a mountain-wall for frontier. Also prominence 
 must now be given to those surface features which 
 are the work of man, and not of nature only : 
 artificial harbours, railways, bridges, canals, and 
 all those means which are helping on a greater 
 unity, understanding, and sympathy between the 
 nations of the world. In the consideration of the 
 
GEOGRAPHY 133 
 
 effects of geography on history and vice versa, 
 such features are acquiring vast importance ; for, 
 whereas the development of man has hitherto 
 mainly been controlled by the forces of nature, 
 his struggle with these forces has been so far 
 successful that he is now in part controlling 
 them. 
 
 The following are some of the considerations 
 for older pupils to enquire into : how food may 
 be found for our millions at home, how water is 
 brought to the desert, how ice-bound roads are 
 opened, and how the breaking down of barriers 
 the finding of means of communication, and of 
 fields for work, etc., is going to affect the pro- 
 gress of mankind. 
 
 Methods of study in these later stages (as in all) 
 will largely depend upon the ingenuity and per- 
 sonal power of the teacher. The writing of essays 
 on such subjects as above indicated is a good 
 way, helping the power of accurate thought and 
 expression. 
 
 It is stimulating, too, for the pupils to be set 
 economic problems to which they must search for 
 the answers from any available sources, books, 
 newspapers, magazines, and the like. 
 
 Regional geography so studied is valuable too 
 (this has been mentioned before) as a means of 
 gathering a good deal of useful " general know- 
 ledge " which does not seem to fall under other 
 headings ; and just as method is dependent upon 
 
134 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 the teacher, so also out of the many possible 
 lines along which geography can be studied — 
 physical, political, commercial, military, historical, 
 etc. — the one followed in any given school will be 
 decided by the qualifications of the teacher, the 
 local conditions of the school, and most of all 
 the requirements of the pupil. But however 
 various such requirements may be, and whatever 
 the special studies that each individual may at- 
 tempt, we shall expect to find him, as he goes on, 
 more and more conscious of the essential unity 
 of all phenomena, and echoing Huxley's dictum 
 that "to attain to even an elementary conception 
 of what goes on in his own parish he must know 
 something about the universe." 
 
XI 
 
 SCIENCE IN THE TEACHING OF 
 HISTORY 
 
 By F. M. POWICKE, M.A, 
 
 IF there is a methodical way of presenting 
 scientific truths in nature to the growing 
 mind, it is natural to suppose that there 
 must be some similar way of presenting 
 historical truth — an orthodoxy in historical teach- 
 ing. Now, I take it for granted, on authority, 
 that there is an orthodoxy in scientific teaching. 
 The argument, presumably, runs something like 
 this : " The subject-matter of my study, physics, 
 chemistry, biology, or what not, is a series of 
 laws, which form a coherent code. In teaching, 
 I desire to give not only a knowledge of this 
 code, but also a sense of its unity, its complexity, 
 its fascinating inexorableness, its problems. There 
 must be a right way and a wrong way of doing 
 this. Here is the right way." The difficulty, if 
 there is any difficulty, is not to prove that the 
 laws of a science are laws, but to show what the 
 laws mean and how they involve other laws, and 
 
 135 
 
136 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 are intelligible, so far as anything can be in- 
 telligible. 
 
 It is at this point that I am asked to begin : 
 "Take history, the story of men and their deeds 
 on this earth, and say how one man or woman is 
 to explain the story, so as to reveal the laws of 
 human action, and the manner in which one deed 
 follows from another, the change in society, and 
 all the other things which form the subject-matter 
 of your science." And this is just what most 
 people who like history will refuse to do. 
 
 At first we (for all must share the responsibility) 
 begin to wriggle. We say : " There is a very 
 beautiful science which teaches how to get at the 
 truth." This sounds promising. " This science is 
 called by many names. You can by its means 
 discover whether a document is forged or genuine ; 
 if it is genuine, you can find out whether some 
 detail which it narrates, the date of a battle, the 
 name of an official, etc., is likely to be true or 
 not, and if likely to be true, to what extent." 
 But by this time we are interrupted and informed 
 that textual criticism or palaeography are not 
 usually taught in schools, and have nothing to do 
 with the teaching of history there. That is not 
 quite true, as we shall see ; but let it pass. 
 
 The next objection is more subtle and really 
 very hard to answer. We say boldly : " There 
 are no laws in history. It is not a science at all. 
 And, if it is not a science at all, there cannot be 
 
SCIENCE IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 137 
 
 a scientific way of teaching it ; so there is an end 
 of the matter." Now, ceasing to play the advo- 
 cate, let us see if this is the end of the matter. 
 
 It is, of course, true that no amount of historical 
 study can bring us to the discovery of a necessary 
 framework upon which the story of man is woven 
 in a fixed pattern. Many people believe that this 
 is the case, but the reasons for their belief are 
 theological reasons. Nor can any one be abso- 
 lutely sure, apart from similar religious or moral 
 influences in his conviction, that history reveals a 
 steady progress towards a good society of good 
 men. Yet our feelings upon this point are 
 generally due in great part to historical study ; 
 we may not be quite certain, but simply as students 
 of history, we may reasonably feel that there is a 
 slow and steady advance towards what we call 
 good. No teacher who has reverence for the 
 mind of a boy or girl would force an " interpreta- 
 tion of history " upon his pupils ; but he would 
 none the less be eager to show them how one 
 fact led on to another, simply because he would 
 desire to encourage a process of thought : and if 
 a boy begins to think a piece of history out, 
 he cannot help regarding history itself as a process 
 of thought. It will be many years before he 
 is distracted by the philosophy which tells him to 
 consider himself as the creator, to say : " These 
 facts are meaningless, till I regard them." Now 
 it is just here that scientific method may be said 
 
138 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 to begin. There is no difficulty in making a boy 
 feel that history is a chart of cause and effect ; 
 but there is great difficulty in showing him what 
 the causes and effects really are. The difficulty 
 is, I suppose, the opposite of the difficulty in 
 natural science. There the facts to be explained 
 are obvious. So far as they are present to the 
 senses, they are as obvious to the child as 
 to the teacher. The laws are hidden. The 
 teacher of history, on the other hand, can express 
 the relation of cause and effect at once. For 
 example, very little intelligence is required to 
 understand that the Papacy rested upon the laws 
 and institutions of the Roman Empire, or that 
 there is some connection between Henry Ill's 
 Parliaments and those of to-day. I think we are 
 tempted to waste a great deal of time in labouring 
 these connections. The difficulty before the scien- 
 tific teacher of history is in the description of the 
 change, not in its explanation. Any one who has 
 examined history papers knows this. They are 
 full of the philosophy of history, or of picturesque 
 nonsense, and the truth of the former is as un- 
 intelligent as is the falsity of the latter. When 
 the boy or girl grows up and begins to read 
 books like Maine's Ancient Law, or Guizot's 
 European Civilisation (to name two favourite 
 Oxford books), the effect is the well-known 
 eighteenth-century essay, well written, in a way 
 intelligent, true — and yet not historical. This is 
 
SCIENCE IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 139 
 
 why, in spite of his great learning, Professor 
 Freeman never succeeded in making the English- 
 men before the Norman Conquest real. He 
 revelled in cause and effect and analogies, as a 
 mathematician revels in a puzzle. 
 
 It may be urged at this point : " You are not 
 speaking of scientific method after all, but of the 
 need of some imaginative faculty." Certainly 
 imagination is the everyday quality of the his- 
 torian, just as a quick hand and ready eye are 
 essential to the experimentalist in a laboratory. 
 The historical imagination is more than boldness 
 of thought. It is, as has been well said, an 
 impulse stronger than prudence. " Our eyes 
 are wakeful only for a little space ; let us win for 
 them a sight of the unpeopled world, South of the 
 Sun ? " ^ We are beginning to be satisfied again 
 with the fairy tale of the nursery and the legends 
 taught in the junior forms of schools, because they 
 awaken this precious faculty. But I contend 
 that a strict scientific method must control this 
 faculty when history begins to be studied seriously 
 in schools. In the first place, that process of 
 thought to which I have referred must be en- 
 couraged as a presupposition of historical know- 
 ledge, providing easily understood processes of 
 fact. In the second place, the terms of this 
 process must be examined and presented to the 
 
 ' See W. P. Ker, The Philosophy of History (Maclehose, is.), 
 p. 14, where this is quoted. 
 
140 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 mind, so that the process is controlled and cor- 
 rected and given real meaning. This needs work, 
 and scientific work. 
 
 A boy, let us say, is told that the Parliament 
 of 1295 was a model Parliament. He appreciates 
 without difficulty that it consisted of barons, 
 clergy, knights, burgesses, selected or elected 
 in somewhat different ways ; he appreciates also 
 the cause of their assembly, and their importance 
 as the forerunner of the English Houses of 
 Parliament. But he knows nothing about the 
 Parliaments of Edward I if he knows only this. If 
 his teacher can convey no impression to him of 
 the position and nature of the several estates, the 
 informality of the royal court, the procedure of 
 petitioning, the composition of a shire court at 
 the end of the thirteenth century, the wealth and 
 influence of the Church, the meaning of a 
 statute and of the Common Law, the theory of 
 kingship, and so on — if, instead of the truth, he 
 gives modern meanings to mediaeval things, his 
 general rule is unintelligible to him, and the 
 history of the next three centuries will increase 
 his confusion. If, on the other hand, the boy — 
 well fed on romances and acquainted with castles, 
 abbeys, weapons, or pictures of them — has been 
 placed in the right attitude, the wonderful vision 
 of the growth of Parliament will gradually break 
 upon him, as naturally as the sight of Hereward 
 or Drake in his earlier years. 
 
SCIENCE IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 141 
 
 This is a trite illustration. It is dull and 
 obvious. I give it, because it shows that, with- 
 out serious work on the part of the teacher, even 
 the dull and obvious parts of English history 
 cannot be taught. Maitland's introduction to 
 the records of the Parliament held in 1307 must 
 have been a revelation to many who had trodden 
 the hard fog-bound track for years. But, of 
 course, the value of scientific method in teaching 
 history may be seen by more picturesque illustra- 
 tions. A great deal of archaeology is now taught in 
 schools. I believe that there is a science of 
 teaching young children how to make models and 
 so on to show the transition from the flint to the 
 lance and suit of mail, from the log cabin to 
 White House. This is amusing, and I should 
 fancy really useful if the teacher enters into the 
 game. It would be very tedious to talk about it 
 — ^the fun lies in doing it, and in leaving off when 
 we are tired. Every teacher soon finds out how 
 far he is fitted to teach in this way, or has a 
 capacity for lecturing with the aid of a magic- 
 lantern. The results of archaeological research, 
 however, may be made to have a deeper meaning 
 for the schoolboy. They stir wonder, and wonder 
 brings reflection, which, if well guided, may 
 suggest some law, or rather custom, of develop- 
 ment. 
 
 The value of history, for the child as for the 
 man, is just that it provides illustration of truths 
 
142 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 which become meaningless if they are left alone, 
 as a god dies if it has no victims. We should 
 start from the theory or the law — regarding it 
 definitely as a thing of human contrivance, dis- 
 covered or suggested by the same effort as any 
 theory or law of natural science, but the begin- 
 ning, rather than the goal, of enquiry. It is 
 said that fifty years ago the vicar of Bradford-on- 
 Avon, looking down from the top row of that 
 hilly little town, noticed that the roofs of some 
 cottages near the church concealed the form of 
 some ecclesiastical building — and so he discovered 
 the most perfect Saxon church in England. 
 This is the crude beginning of scientific discovery, 
 but is like any other in this — that we must start 
 from the law. This fascinates a boy, just as he 
 is fascinated by the knowledge that a zoologist 
 can construct an extinct animal by studying a 
 single bone. If he is taken to a ruin, and knows 
 how a Cistercian abbey was built, he will specu- 
 late eagerly and intelligently about the meaning 
 of the tumbled stones. This is better than essays 
 about the place of monasticism in history (a sub- 
 ject upon which he is unable to form an opinion), 
 and very much better than sentimental reconstruc- 
 tions of the monastic life ; for the end is gained 
 indirectly. The boy will speculate afterwards, if 
 he is interested. 
 
 The teacher of natural science increases 
 knowledge, the teacher of history shows the full- 
 
SCIENCE IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 143 
 
 ness of life. Both increase wonder, and both 
 need the scientific method. Otherwise we know 
 what happens. 
 
 The dignities of plain occurrence then 
 
 Were tasteless, and truth's golden mean, a point 
 
 Where no sufficient pleasure could be found. 
 
 Hence men, like boys, seek vain explana- 
 tions. Thus, for example, they treated Apollo 
 as the personification of the sun ; but more 
 patient scholars, who came later, took Apollo 
 as they found him before the days of the theolo- 
 gians ; they treated him scientifically and seriously 
 as a fact. They cannot trace his origin, but 
 they see what he was in the great days of Greece, 
 and the story of his influence illustrates one 
 of the two great truths of life — the dependence 
 of man — so that we know better what the old- 
 fashioned Greek thought of the family, and the 
 State, and nature. And this is history, and the 
 only way to teach history is to know how it is 
 discovered. No teacher of history can afford to 
 be a dilettante, or to despise those sciences of 
 which I spoke earlier, though of course there is 
 no need for him to be an expert. 
 
 In order to show something of the impressive- 
 ness of history, some such method as the following 
 might be adopted. Just as boys and girls are 
 encouraged to read and hear stories when they 
 are very young, so they ought to be encouraged 
 
144 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 to read history as they grow older. But they 
 should read it for themselves as a pastime — those 
 who will not read it will seldom be really interested 
 in historical teaching. Up to the last year or 
 two of school life, I think that there should be no 
 history teaching proper. Some dates and lists 
 might be learned — the alphabet of the study — 
 and children should be encouraged to talk and 
 question and elaborate theories of their own. 
 They ought to be made to feel that a great and 
 important study lay in front of them — but nothing 
 serious ought to be attempted. It is surely better 
 that a boy should have read some Macaulay or 
 Gibbon and have known nothing of what scien- 
 tific historical study is before the age of sixteen 
 or seventeen. I have listened to innumerable 
 papers on how to teach history to young children, 
 and they all seemed to me to be words. Then 
 when the teaching does begin, it should be real. 
 The teacher must know his work through and 
 through. He should shirk nothing in the way 
 of law and idea which arises out of his subject, 
 because he has to test everything and train the 
 mind of his pupils to be patient, interested in 
 life rather than in drawing deductions from life, 
 eager to get at the truth after trouble, like getting 
 a fine view after a dull walk. There should be 
 no hurry at school to fix and define the sequence 
 of civilisation, but there should be great care to 
 make the different stages real and living. The 
 
SCIENCE IN THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 145 
 
 test of success is that the boys and girls are keen 
 on what happened — for they are in the stage of 
 romance — before they are keen on why it hap- 
 pened. For then, after the inevitable period in 
 which the intelligence deserts history for philo- 
 sophy, it will return. This period generally 
 comes in the first year or so of university life. 
 It is inevitable, but only for the awakened 
 intelligence. 
 
 There is one last anxious query, "What 
 should we teach ? " Here I am very bold. So 
 long as it has some connection with what is 
 known or interesting or compelling — whether it 
 be the blue Mediterranean or the British Empire 
 — let it be anything. For, if the first obvious 
 law of cause and effect — the starting-point — be 
 the guide, the subject is sure to be a big subject ; 
 and, if so, it will lead on and on. The teacher 
 must know where it is leading, and ever keep it 
 from getting too wild, and should prepare ac- 
 cordingly. But there is no hard and fast rule of 
 companionship in history any more than there is 
 in our present life. 
 
XII 
 
 ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN SECONDARY 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 By AUGUSTUS KAHN, M.A. 
 
 THE writer desires at once to disclaim 
 any intention of advocating the addi- 
 tion of a new subject to the general 
 curriculum. " Economics " is already 
 in the curriculum, not indeed as a "science," but 
 as " sums " to be done. By universal consent, 
 "Interest," "Discount," "Stocks and Shares," 
 "Profit and Loss," "Partnership," and "Ex- 
 change " are included in the arithmetic syllabus. 
 The fact that we cling to these topics seems to 
 indicate a sense of the incompleteness of a course 
 of general education which would take no account 
 of man's economic environment. Our pupils will 
 later on in life have to earn and to spend ; they 
 will have to pay rates and taxes ; they may wish 
 to save and invest, and insure their lives. One 
 might, indeed, go further and point out that the 
 obligations of citizenship involve an intelligent 
 grasp not only of municipal and national finance, 
 
 146 
 
ECONOMICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 147 
 
 but also of the larger economic questions that 
 enter into the sphere of practical politics. As 
 a matter of experience, however, our pupils do 
 not carry from their arithmetic lessons any very 
 definite notions of stocks and shares. We ought 
 not to expect it — we should not expect physics 
 to be taught from arithmetical exercises. 
 
 Now if a subject with a new label is not to be 
 entertained, it may, at any rate, be urged that the 
 lessons in applied arithmetic should assume the 
 character primarily of lessons in the economics 
 of everyday life. Arithmetical applications in 
 their proper place will both strengthen the eco- 
 nomics and the arithmetic. There is no objection, 
 of course, to the teacher of arithmetic continuing 
 to give the lessons, provided only that he have 
 the requisite knowledge of economics. 
 
 A sketch of a suggested course of lessons 
 may, it is hoped, serve the main purpose of this 
 article : — 
 
 I. Interest, {a) The productive nature of 
 capital led up to by concrete cases, e.g. — A 
 hawker invests 2s. in toys and sells them for 3s. 
 His profit is is. This profit is due partly to his 
 labour and partly to his capital — the part due to 
 his capital is the interest on his capital. Again, 
 a hawker of baked chestnuts buys 2s. worth of 
 raw chestnuts, possesses an oven worth 5s. and 
 coke worth 6d. He sells his chestnuts in the 
 course of the day for 4s. He replaces the sold 
 
148 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 chestnuts and 3d. worth of coke consumed, so 
 as to put him into the position in which he started. 
 In addition to his initial wealth he has is. gd., 
 which is the result of his labour and his capital. 
 If IS. is regarded as the remuneration of his labour, 
 then 9d. is the interest on his capital of 7s. 6d. 
 for one day. 
 
 (6) The term " interest " is used also in another 
 sense. If A has a c/azm on B for ;^50 payable 
 in three months' time, and transfers the claim to C 
 for an immediate payment of £/^g los., then los. 
 is the difference between the amount of the claim 
 and its present value. This los. is called the 
 interest on the present value for three months. 
 Or suppose A lends B ;^ioo for six months. B 
 might, of course, use the ;^ioo productively, but 
 he might also " consume " the money. The pur- 
 pose of the ;^ioo is not enquired into by the 
 lender. He gives up a present possession of 
 ;^ioo in return for a c/aim of ;^ioo+.a; realisable 
 after six months. The £x is the interest on 
 ;^ioo for six months. 
 
 II. Money. We give up things for gold, because 
 with the gold we can procure other things. Gold 
 is thus a medium of exchange. For the sake of 
 convenience, the Mint makes pieces of gold of 
 definite weight and of definite fineness. In fact, 
 out of 40 lbs. troy of standard gold (i.e. gold of 
 ^ fineness), the Mint coins 1869 sovereigns. 
 Arithmetical applications : — Out of i oz. troy of 
 
ECONOMICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 149 
 
 Standard gold are made 3*89375 sovereigns 
 ( = ;^3 17s. lo^^d.). The weight of a sovereign 
 is 1 23*27447 grains, or 7'988o5 grammes. 
 
 The Mint coins gold free of charge ; so that 
 an ounce of uncoined gold would be the equiva- 
 lent of an ounce of coined gold, were it not for the 
 time (about two or three weeks) which it takes 
 to coin the gold. It is found preferable, indeed, 
 to sell bullion to the Bank of England at the 
 minimum rate of £$ 17s. gd. per oz. of standard 
 gold. An arithmetical application would com- 
 pare the loss of interest entailed by utilising 
 the Mint with the minimum loss of i^d. occasioned 
 by selling bullion to the Bank of England. 
 
 A melted shilling is by no means worth the 
 twentieth part of a sovereign, as will easily appear 
 from the quoted price of silver and the weight 
 of the shilling. Yet twenty shillings exchange 
 readily for a sovereign, because public confidence 
 in their exchangeability is maintained by limiting 
 the coinage of silver to the amount demanded 
 for the purpose of small transactions. The ex- 
 changeability of bronze coins is similarly main- 
 tained. 
 
 A sovereign performs also the function of 
 measuring the value of wealth ; and by virtue 
 of this function we dispense to an enormous 
 extent with the use of gold as a medium of 
 exchange. 
 
 III. The banking system enables payments to 
 
I50 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 be made by transference of "credit." If A has 
 a current account with a bank, he may pay B by 
 giving him a cheque (not exceeding the amount 
 of his account) on his bank. Suppose firstly that 
 B has a current account with the same bank. If 
 he pays in this cheque to his account, the bank 
 debits A with the amount and credits B with the 
 amount. Suppose next that B has his current 
 account with another bank. Then B may still 
 pay in the cheque to his account, and if both 
 banks are represented at the Clearing House, 
 and have balances with the Bank of England, 
 the Clearing House to which the cheque is sent 
 will arrange for a transference of the amount of 
 the cheque from the balance of A's bank with the 
 Bank of England to the balance of B's bank. 
 A's bank will debit A, and B's bank will credit B 
 with the amount. Banks that are not repre- 
 sented at the Clearing House make use of banks 
 which are so represented. 
 
 The use of the bank-note as a substitute for 
 coin and the conditions of note issue will com- 
 plete this topic. 
 
 IV. ;^iooo of bank-notes represent to the 
 holder ;^iooo of wealth, although the notes 
 constitute merely claims. A large portion of 
 people's possessions are indeed made up of 
 claims. Among such claims are stocks and 
 shares. What is Government stock? An ex- 
 planation of the issue of stock will lead up to 
 
ECONOMICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 151 
 
 the meaning of Government stock as being a 
 claim upon the Government to receive payments 
 of definite amounts at definite periods, either per- 
 petually, or, if for a certain number of years, with 
 the additional claim to receive at the expiration 
 of those years a definite principal sum. The 
 periodic payments are regarded as interest on a 
 nominal sum. If you buy ;^ioo five per cent 
 irredeemable stock of a particular State for jCg^, 
 you are giving up jCgS for the c/aim upon the 
 state for a perpetual annuity of £5. 
 
 This claim is marketable just like wheat, and 
 just as the price of wheat is continually changing, 
 so the price of this claim is continually changing. 
 [Here a digression on prices (with copious illus- 
 trations) as determined by the forces of supply 
 and demand will be appropriate.] The price of 
 the claim will, for instance, be influenced by 
 additional borrowing (increasing the supply of 
 " claims ") and by saving (increasing the demand 
 for " claims "). 
 
 V. Shnres. — In the first place, it would be 
 desirable to consider the association of two or 
 more persons as partners, and the sharing of 
 profits (including interest on capital and re- 
 muneration for work done by the partners) in 
 accordance with the partnership agreement. 
 Profits, by the way, are not necessarily divided 
 in proportion to the partners' contributions of 
 capital, as they invariably are in arithmetical 
 
152 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 textbooks. Next, the nature of a corporate 
 body would be explained, and the Limited 
 Liability Company as a particular form of a 
 corporate body would receive full treatment. 
 The order of topics would be : the formation of 
 a limited liability company (in which the liability 
 is limited by shares), the Memorandum of 
 Association, the Articles of Association, the dis- 
 tinction between authorised or nominal capital, 
 subscribed capital, and paid-up capital, the 
 division of the " capital " into shares of various 
 categories, the division of profits amongst the 
 shareholders, the issue of debentures, the transfer- 
 ability and the marketableness of shares and de- 
 bentures, and the variations of their prices. 
 
 Such a course of lessons with arithmetical 
 applications may easily occupy two years (say 
 from fifteen to seventeen years of age). The 
 sketch is necessarily very brief, and deals only 
 with the m,atter of instruction. Space does not 
 permit of a discussion of method ; but it will be 
 apparent that the " method of discovery " (under 
 the direction of the teacher) coupled with the 
 " method of exposition " is applicable and ap- 
 propriate. 
 
 A further question now arises, whether, in a 
 curriculum specially adapted for boys preparing for 
 commercial life, a more complete course of 
 economic science should hold a prominent place. 
 The " political economy " which is current in this 
 
ECONOMICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 153 
 
 country does not indeed appear to bear very closely 
 upon the problems of business life. The large 
 majority of successful business men have never 
 heard of Ricardo's Theory of Rent, and they have 
 never troubled about the philosophical niceties 
 surrounding the meaning of wealth and capital. 
 They have, however, had economic problems to 
 solve. But there are also the many failures, there 
 is an army of commercial assistants who perform 
 their work mechanically, unintelligently, and with- 
 out interest, for whom " experience " is unfruitful 
 because they have not been taught to observe and 
 to think. A preparation then at school — if it can 
 be given — which shall help the pupil later on to 
 realise the nature of his work, to observe the 
 problems which lie before him, and to place him- 
 self in the right attitude towards his environment 
 must assuredly be justified. Commerce, it is true, 
 embraces a large variety of occupations, but they 
 fall into a few groups ; and even retail trading 
 (based largely on psychology) has economic 
 problems in common with other branches of 
 trade. It is moreover the business of scientific 
 preparation rather to widen than to narrow the 
 outlook. 
 
 Now the actual proof of the suitability and the 
 value of a course of economic science must be 
 furnished by experiment ; and in order to make 
 out a prima facie case for experiment, the writer 
 will attempt to indicate the treatment of one or two 
 
IS4 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 economic questions in the class-room of boys of, 
 say, seventeen years of age. Let us take the quite 
 ordinary commercial question of the relation of 
 turnover to profits. A synopsis of the lessons 
 would be as follows : — 
 
 What are the profits of a trader who buys goods 
 for £x and sells them for £y? What is the 
 actual addition to his wealth in consequence of 
 this operation? Gross profits and net profits. 
 Net profits = (selling price)— (cost price)— (work- 
 ing expenses). 
 
 If he sells n articles in a year at s per article, 
 and if the cost price is c per article, then net profits = 
 n{s — c) — (working expenses). Let working ex- 
 penses be firstly proportional, and secondly less 
 than proportional to the number of articles sold ; 
 how do net profits vary with the number of articles 
 sold ? If selling price is reduced to s', what must 
 be the increase in the number of articles sold, in 
 order that the net profits may not be diminished, 
 assuming no change in the working expenses ? 
 Applications : Suitability of position with due 
 regard to rent, the value of goodwill, multiple 
 shops, department stores, tendency to retail dis- 
 tribution on a large scale. 
 
 As a further example, let us take a lesson on 
 the effect of various operations on the balance 
 sheets of the Issue Department and the Banking 
 Department of the Bank of England : — 
 
ECONOMICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 155 
 
 Issue Department. 
 
 
 Liabilities. 
 
 £ 
 
 Notes issued 
 
 Assets. 
 
 Government Debt 
 and other Securi- 
 ties . 
 
 Coin and Bullion 
 
 £ 
 
 18,450,000 
 
 Banking Department. 
 
 
 Liabilities. 
 
 £ 
 
 Proprietors' 
 
 Capital . . 14,553,000 
 
 Assets. 
 
 Government 
 Securities 
 
 £ 
 
 Rest 
 
 Other Securities 
 
 
 Public Deposits 
 Other Deposits . 
 
 ^— {S^. 
 
 
 Seven Day, etc.. 
 Bills 
 
 
 
 {a) The effect of discounting a bill of exchange : 
 Bills of exchange are included in "Other Securities." 
 These therefore increase. Suppose that the Bank 
 pays by cheque: "Other Deposits" increase. 
 The " Reserve " is unchanged. The ratio of 
 " Reserve " to " Deposits " is therefore diminished. 
 
 {b) The effect of selling Consols — "Govern- 
 ment Securities " are decreased ; if payment is 
 made by cheque, " Other Deposits " are decreased ; 
 therefore ratio of " Reserve " to " Deposits " is 
 increased. 
 
 [c) The effect of the withdrawal of cash by 
 depositors : " Reserve " is decreased and " De- 
 
iS6 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 posits" are decreased by the same amount. 
 How is the ratio " Reserve " and " Deposits " 
 affected ? 
 
 These notes of lessons are intended to indi- 
 cate both content and method. We must offer 
 our pupils not abstract theory or speculation, but 
 matter that is concrete and definite ; and we must 
 present not chapters of a textbook to be "got 
 up," but a series of problems to be solved. 
 
 The syllabus of such a course of economic 
 science would be on the following lines : — 
 
 1. Classification of Occupations. — Industry, 
 
 commerce, transport, the performance of 
 direct services. Subdivisions. 
 
 2. Labour and its remuneration. Capital and 
 
 its remuneration. 
 
 3. The Organisation and Administration of 
 
 Business Enterprise. — Partnership, limited 
 liability companies. 
 
 4. Money and the Banking System,. — The 
 
 English system of currency, the Bank of 
 England and its relation to the banks, 
 " credit " as a substitute for coins, the 
 money market, some foreign systems of 
 currency, parity of exchange, the bill 
 of exchange, methods of payment, rates 
 of exchange. 
 
 5. The Retail Trade. — Fluctuation of prices, 
 
 turnover and profits, tendency towards 
 retail distribution on a large scale. 
 
ECONOMICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 157 
 
 6. The Wholesale Home Trade. — The com- 
 
 mercial aspect of industry, the inter- 
 mediary between the manufacturer and 
 the retailer, fluctuation of prices. 
 
 7. Foreign Trade audits Machinery. — Marine 
 
 insurance, documents of title to goods, 
 fluctuations of prices of {a) raw produce, 
 {b) manufactured goods ; the settling of 
 international indebtedness. 
 
 8. The Stock Exchange. 
 
 9. The Principles of Taxation. — Loans and 
 
 their amortisation. 
 
XIII 
 DOMESTIC SCIENCE 
 
 By ARTHUR SMITHELLS, F.R.S. 
 
 yA MONG the many new movements in the 
 / ^ educational world there are signs of 
 y %^ an increasing disposition to give to 
 girls of all classes some systematic 
 teaching and training in matters relating to the 
 management of a home. Instruction in the 
 household arts, such as cooking, laundry work, 
 and sewing, has for a considerable time past been 
 given in the public elementary schools. The 
 provision of such instruction in secondary schools 
 is of more recent origin. It usually follows the 
 ordinary school course, and is regarded as a 
 supplementary training for girls whose taste, 
 capacity, or means do not lead to their passing to 
 a place of higher education. In a few schools 
 the courses are part of the ordinary curriculum 
 and constitute a sort of modern side. 
 
 The term domestic science has been used 
 rather loosely, and is often applied to subjects 
 and to a kind of teaching which have nothing in 
 them to which the word science or scientific 
 
 IS8 
 
DOMESTIC SCIENCE 159 
 
 would ordinarily be applied. It will be con- 
 venient to make a distinction between domestic 
 arts and domestic science, not with a view of 
 exalting one above the other, but for the sake 
 of clearness. 
 
 It is not the object of this article to discuss 
 the teaching of the domestic arts, but a few 
 words may be devoted to the subject. The 
 notion still generally prevails that housewifery, 
 which may be regarded as a collective term for 
 the domestic arts, is, and should be, learned by 
 the time-honoured system of apprenticeship, that 
 is to say, a girl should in the ordinary course 
 of things learn it in her own home. There is, 
 however, abundant evidence to show that this 
 apprenticeship is often of a very haphazard 
 character and very ineffective, and that there is 
 room for courses of systematic instruction to be 
 conducted by teachers who have made them- 
 selves specially competent for the work. No 
 one will doubt the utility to a girl of the practical 
 proficiency which results from such teaching, but 
 many will doubt whether there is much purely 
 educational value in it. Here, as in all other 
 teaching, the educational effect depends on the 
 teacher rather than the subject. There is little 
 doubt that a woman with cultivated intelligence, 
 the gift of teaching, and the all-important ele- 
 ment of personality can obtain excellent educa- 
 tional effect from teaching the domestic arts. 
 
i6o BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 even if she have little or no knowledge of 
 science. The inculcation of neat and cleanly 
 manipulation, of systematic habits of work, of 
 resourcefulness, of the adjustment of means to 
 ends, of thrift, — this is surely of eminent educa- 
 tional value in the broad and vital sense of the 
 term. The habits of attention and thoughtful- 
 ness, it is found, may often be induced by means 
 of this teaching to such a degree that girls will 
 return with a greatly improved attitude of mind 
 to more abstract studies which have previously 
 failed to gain any hold upon them. 
 
 It is, however, the case that the whole business 
 of housewifery is involved with science and the 
 application of scientific principles, and there does 
 indeed exist a very large section of knowledge 
 which may be called domestic science. This is 
 not self-contained, but includes the application of 
 physics, chemistry, and biology, and perhaps other 
 sciences. 
 
 There is a great tendency throughout education 
 for the maintenance of an academic convention, in 
 accordance with which subjects are taught in a 
 formal, abstract, and isolated manner as so many 
 chapters of knowledge. The possessor, it is sup- 
 posed, will learn to make the application which 
 may be necessary in his or her particular calling. 
 Experience shows that this kind of knowledge is, 
 as a matter of fact, apt to remain permanently 
 detached, for the simple reason that it is not at all 
 
DOMESTIC SCIENCE i6i 
 
 easy to make the application, and that there lies 
 between general principles and the ordinary things 
 and pursuits of life a great body of intermediate 
 knowledge which needs careful disclosing and 
 expounding. 
 
 These remarks certainly apply to the science 
 teaching which has long been customary in 
 schools. It may have been given in such a way 
 as to have conveyed a good knowledge of 
 principles and facts and to have induced the 
 scientific habit of mind, yet it may have left no 
 obvious links for its attachment to practical affairs. 
 To give a simple example, — a man may have 
 learnt a great deal about heat and chemistry and 
 be quite baffled when asked to explain why a 
 plumber uses rosin in soldering and how it is 
 that solder remains pasty while he wipes a joint 
 with it. The household abounds in examples of 
 this kind. Questions relating to the quality and 
 uses of fuel, the construction of burners, lamps, 
 grates, the nature of detergents and the explana- 
 tion of their action, paints, lacquers, sizes, polish- 
 ing agents, and a hundred other things — on these, 
 pupils who have "done " a good deal of science, 
 and too often their teachers also, may be in a 
 state of profound ignorance and quite unable to 
 help themselves to knowledge. It is not easy 
 for any one who has not given a good deal of 
 thought to the subject and has not been ques- 
 tioned by classes of eager housewifery teachers 
 
1 62 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 to form an idea of the number, variety, and diffi- 
 culty of the scientific questions that arise in the 
 commonest household matters. 
 
 The practical value of a knowledge of the 
 science connected with the household is undeni- 
 able. In relation to hygiene it is particularly ob- 
 vious, for here the method of learning by making 
 mistakes is perilous. A knowledge of the scien- 
 tific basis of hygiene, involving a revelation of the 
 connection between cause and effect, is infinitely 
 more persuasive to hygienic practice than any 
 amount of precept or admonition. When people 
 can say "I see I must do this and must not do 
 that," they are in a totally different attitude from 
 those who say " I am told." In this and other 
 household matters let any one observe how fre- 
 quently practice is determined by the vague sanc- 
 tion of " they say." In no other sphere of human 
 activity is individual knowledge and judgment so 
 complacently resigned in favodr of drifting tradi- 
 tion and nebulous authority. 
 
 Those who declare that women will become 
 more fit for their work by learning science meet 
 with a good deal of banter, and facetious remarks 
 are often made about scientific cookery. Let us 
 admit at once that a good chef is not a product of 
 science and perhaps cannot be equalled in his art. 
 At the same time any one who has taken the 
 trouble to look into the matter will see what a 
 vast amount of trouble and error may be saved 
 
DOMESTIC SCIENCE 163 
 
 even in cookery by the application of scientific 
 knowledge and by the scientific attitude of mind. 
 The fact is that the household abounds with the 
 operations of applied science and it is therefore 
 prima facie probable that a knowledge of this 
 science will lead to greater efficiency. Apart, 
 however, from all this, a good end will be achieved 
 if the work of the household is made more inter- 
 esting to those who pursue or control it. There 
 are some people — perhaps many — who are per- 
 fectly content to work away at a daily routine and 
 ask no more than that their service shall be 
 directed to some good end. But there are many 
 others — especially those who have a sharper 
 mental appetite — who crave for intellectual light 
 to illuminate their activity and cheer them on 
 their way. It is surely incumbent upon us to 
 provide what we can of intellectual interest to 
 accompany the exacting work of the household, 
 and for this reason, if for no other, we may bring 
 as much scientific knowledge as we can into the 
 domain of the housewife. 
 
 Science teaching can be of no real value if it 
 does not impart the scientific habit of mind and 
 give the pupil a knowledge of scientific principles, 
 and it cannot do this unless it is experimental. 
 In many past attempts to teach a domestic science 
 these primary facts have been neglected. There 
 has been, for example, a good deal of hygiene 
 teaching which has consisted in making pupils 
 
i64 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 remember an assortment of scientific facts dictated 
 to them by the teacher, sometimes without any 
 kind of experimental illustration. The outcome 
 of this kind of teaching of hygiene and of the 
 science of cookery or laundry work has been 
 worse than valueless. It is, however, a great 
 mistake to suppose that the teaching of facts 
 relating to hygiene and other household matters 
 is inconsistent with the inculcation of sound 
 science, and it is the chief object of this article to 
 plead for a via media between purely academic 
 science and the medley of bald information which 
 sometimes passes by the name of household 
 science. 
 
 It is possible to teach the principles of physics 
 and chemistry from many points of view. We 
 teach them in their relation to facts and pheno- 
 mena, but the facts and phenomena that illustrate 
 these principles and can be made the basis of 
 experimental teaching are so numerous that we 
 must make a selection. Inasmuch as interest is 
 the first thing to be secured from our pupils, we 
 shall do wisely to go as far as we can to choose 
 our ground where the interests of our pupils lie, 
 and in the case of girls the realm of housewifery 
 gives us what we want. There is hardly a pupil 
 who has learnt anything about heat who has 
 not had his attention drawn to the circulation of 
 water during the freezing of a lake, yet it is only 
 quite recently that girls have ever been given a 
 
DOMESTIC SCIENCE 165 
 
 notion of the circulation of water between the 
 cistern, boiler, and cylinder in an ordinary hot- 
 water system. It is very easy to make a working 
 model of such a system out of ordinary laboratory 
 apparatus, and so to provide an excellent experi- 
 mental appliance for studying many of the funda- 
 mental principles and facts relating to heat. 
 Experiments with thick and thin, deep and shal- 
 low pans, pans made of different metals, pans 
 containing liquids of different viscidity and boil- 
 ing-point ; experiments on evaporation, steaming, 
 and freezing — these can all be made perfectly 
 scientific, and yet abounding in useful information 
 from the kitchen standpoint. In chemistry too 
 it is not difficult to bring the teaching into close 
 relation with things and phenomena of the house- 
 hold. The subject of combustion, which is so 
 centra] and fundamental, may be made to involve 
 the action of heat on metals, the study of coal 
 and coal gas, and the appliances connected there- 
 with. 
 
 It is quite true that there are a great many 
 household things on which elementary science 
 will tell very little. The chemistry of food and 
 cookery is a very abstruse subject, and it is use- 
 less from every point of view to burden pupils 
 with lore about albumens, globulins, caseinogens, 
 and the other terms which oftener serve to con- 
 ceal ignorance than to display real knowledge. 
 Yet such changes as fermentation by yeast can 
 
i66 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 be made an excellent basis of experiment, and 
 in this particular case will serve to give some 
 real apprehension of the facts of bacteriology. 
 The story of Pasteur's life and work, accompanied 
 by a few simple experiments, including a census 
 of the germs in the air of the schoolroom, makes 
 as impressive and valuable a lesson in scientific 
 method and gives knowledge of as vital import- 
 ance as anything within the realm of science. 
 
 Enough, perhaps, has been said to give an 
 idea of the trend of what might be fairly called 
 domestic science. An admirable syllabus of such 
 a course drawn up by Mr. Heller will be found 
 appended to a report presented last year to the 
 Education Section of the British Association, 
 and from this teachers who are disposed to turn 
 their attention to the subject will get the best 
 idea of the way in which they may set to work. 
 In this, as in all other educational innovations, 
 tradition, codes, examinations, and the desire of 
 overworked or half-hearted teachers for ready- 
 made schemes are the chief obstacle to success. 
 As already stated, a considerable number of girls' 
 schools have already entered upon the work and, 
 so far as can be judged, the result has been to 
 give a greatly increased interest and value to 
 their science teaching. 
 
XIV 
 
 THE TEACHING OF CHEMISTRY IN 
 TECHNICAL SCHOOLS^ 
 
 By henry GARRETT, B.Sc, Ph.D. 
 
 CHEMISTRY is at present taught at 
 the university, the secondary school, 
 and the technical school, but it does 
 not follow that the aim of the instruc- 
 tion in all three institutions is the same, or that 
 the methods of teaching should be alike. 
 
 In the university the object is to give students 
 a somewhat detailed survey of the facts in so far 
 as they are known and of the theories by which 
 they are linked together and explained. The 
 university student acquires knowledge for its own 
 sake and investigates truth without special regard 
 to practical applications. All knowledge is, no 
 doubt, useful, potentially at least, but all know- 
 ledge is not equally useful, and one of the chief 
 functions of the teacher of technical classes is to 
 discriminate between the useful and the academic, 
 
 ' In this and the following two papers on technical aspects of 
 science teaching it has seemed convenient to deal with work partly 
 outside the sphere of ordinary secondary education, but concerned 
 with students mainly of secondary-school age. — Ed. 
 
 167 
 
1 68 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 In the secondary school the object is not so 
 much to teach chemistry as to use the subject for 
 the cultivation of observation, reasoning power, 
 and systematic habits. Thus the aim is distinct 
 from that of the university and the method em- 
 ployed different. 
 
 It remains to show how the object of the 
 technical school differs from either of the above 
 and what means may best be taken to secure that 
 object. In order to arrive at a satisfactory con- 
 clusion, several factors must be taken into ac- 
 count. It is necessary to consider who the 
 students are, why they attend, and what time 
 they may reasonably be expected to devote to 
 the subject. 
 
 With regard to the first point, it will generally 
 be found that the students may be roughly 
 divided into three groups : — 
 
 (a) Industrial Students : viz. those en- 
 gaged in industries of a distinctly chemical 
 nature, such as analysts, pharmaceutical chem- 
 ists, gas workers, bleachers, dyers, distillers, 
 mineral-water manufacturers, vitriol manu- 
 facturers, artificial - manure workers, soap 
 manufacturers, and employees in chemical and 
 electro-chemical works. 
 
 {d) Teachers of primary or secondary 
 schools and university students, 
 
 (c) Artisan Students : viz. those engaged 
 in occupations not distinctly chemical in nature. 
 
CHEMISTRY IN TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 169 
 
 but in which some knowledge of chemistry is 
 desirable, such as builders, plumbers, and deco- 
 rators. 
 
 It will be readily granted that these three 
 groups of students have different objects in view. 
 They have, however, this much in common, that 
 they all attend in order to fit themselves better 
 for the work in which they are engaged. Atten- 
 dance being entirely voluntary, it would be vain 
 to expect continued attendance from a student 
 who felt that he was not obtaining what he came 
 for, or was being led to the desired goal by an 
 unnecessarily roundabout path. It cannot be too 
 strongly emphasised that examination certificates, 
 while of considerable value for intending teachers, 
 are of little or no value to the industrial or artisan 
 student. Moreover, the attempt to prepare for 
 examinations often leads to the neglect of what is 
 most useful for the student, and to the considera- 
 tion of unessential matter necessary for the ex- 
 amination. The evening technical school is by 
 no means the best training-ground for teachers, and 
 it would be a fatal mistake to arrange the course 
 of work to suit the needs of teachers when such 
 a course is unsuited to the needs of industrial 
 students. In so far, however, as the teachers can 
 derive benefit by attending classes arranged for 
 industrial students there can be little objection to 
 their doing so, but when their numbers are suffi- 
 cient they are best catered for by special classes. 
 
170 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 The main point to be borne in mind is that the 
 interests of the more properly technical students 
 should not be sacrificed to those of the teachers, 
 who can be much better provided for otherwise. 
 
 To the second question — why students take 
 chemistry — the answer will be different for the 
 three types of student mentioned. The industrial 
 student requires a wider and deeper knowledge 
 of the application of chemistry to industry. The 
 teacher desires further knowledge and additional 
 qualifications for his professional work. The 
 artisan student needs a course of a limited and 
 special character to enable him to deal intelligently 
 with the materials he uses. The industrial and 
 artisan groups require separate treatment if for no 
 other reason than that the time which they can 
 give to the study differs widely. With the one 
 chemistry, in its various branches, is a special 
 course of study, with the other it is a subsidiary 
 subject and should be treated as such. 
 
 The third factor in the problem is the time at 
 the disposal of the student. The special course 
 for chemical industries usually extends over four 
 years, and this time will seldom be exceeded. It 
 is thus necessary that the industrial student should 
 have a course drawn up for him on the assump- 
 tion that he can attend from four to five hours per 
 week for four years. In other words, this course 
 must provide for his wants in a period of about 
 500 hours' instruction. It will be evident that 
 
CHEMISTRY IN TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 171 
 
 such students cannot afford much time for the 
 consideration of facts or theories which have little 
 practical bearing, nor can they follow a purely 
 educational course of the secondary-school type. 
 A suitable course will aim not only at giving the 
 student a sound knowledge of the chief facts and 
 principles of chemistry in so far as they are of 
 practical utility and a special knowledge of the 
 chemistry bearing directly upon his industry, but 
 will also teach him how to solve by experiment 
 difficulties arising in the course of his daily work. 
 The syllabuses usually followed at present are 
 arranged on the assumption that a student can 
 give at least one evening per week for five years 
 to inorganic chemistry alone. Since also a stu- 
 dent could not profitably begin organic chemistry 
 in his first year of specialisation, he is required to 
 devote a second evening per week to this subject 
 in the last four of these five years. There are 
 two strong objections to this arrangement. The 
 first is that the course not only uses up all the 
 time presupposed above, but makes a further 
 demand of a fifth session, and this without allow- 
 ing any time for attendance at special classes 
 dealing with those branches of the subject in 
 which the student is more particularly interested. 
 A second and even weightier reason against the 
 present arrangement is that the syllabuses fol- 
 lowed are of an academic character. Applied 
 chemistry occupies an altogether subordinate 
 
172 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 position, manufacturing processes are generally 
 not reached until the third year, and a very large 
 portion of the available time is spent upon test- 
 tubing and analysis. Qualitative analysis may 
 or may not form part of the requisite course for 
 an industrial student, but for the majority a 
 limited amount should suffice. A special class 
 dealing exclusively with the subject will, however, 
 be found necessary in large institutions to provide 
 for analysts and those whose work bears in that 
 direction. 
 
 These remarks tend to show that the present 
 courses are too ambitious in the direction of 
 theoretical and analytical chemistry, and ex- 
 perience demonstrates that if industrial students are 
 to be really catered for considerable modifications 
 in our present system are necessary. These must 
 go in the direction of reducing the time devoted 
 to inorganic and organic chemistry so that this 
 portion of the work may be covered in one even- 
 ing of two and a half to three hours per week for 
 four years. Further, the treatment of the subject 
 must be modified and an effort made to study it 
 in connection with its practical applications. 
 
 It may possibly be urged that applied chemistry 
 cannot be studied with advantage until the 
 student has a fairly comprehensive knowledge of 
 pure chemistry. If we apply the same reasoning 
 to other subjects, such as mathematics, its absurdity 
 will be at once evident. The student of practical 
 
CHEMISTRY IN TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 173 
 
 mathematics would be in sad case if he were un- 
 able to take up his special work until he had 
 completed the study of pure mathematics. There 
 is no adequate reason why chemistry should not 
 be studied from the very beginning in connection 
 with its industrial applications. Nor should it be 
 forgotten that the student under consideration is 
 more familiar with certain applications, at least, 
 than with underlying principles. Educationally, 
 therefore, the procedure advocated, viz. from the 
 familiar to the unfamiliar, is sound. 
 
 An attempt will now be made to indicate an 
 arrangement of subjects for industrial students 
 which it is considered will be likely to lead to 
 good results. These courses are intended for 
 earnest students who are willing and able to 
 devote two evenings per week to the requisite 
 study spread over a period of four years. 
 
 In the first year, students would be well 
 advised to take physics or mathematics in 
 addition to chemistry. 
 
 In the second year of specialisation they 
 should continue inorganic chemistry and take 
 in addition a special class suitable to their 
 occupation, such as technical analysis, chemical 
 engineering, bleaching and dyeing, gas manu- 
 facture, or acid and alkali manufacture. 
 
 In the third year they should take organic 
 chemistry and one of the special classes already 
 mentioned, or certain new classes suited to the 
 
174 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 needs of the district, such as the chemistry of 
 foods, paper manufacture, electro-chemistry, etc., 
 or a second stage of such larger subjects as 
 bleaching and dyeing and technical analysis. 
 
 In the fourth year a treatment of the benzene 
 derivatives should be undertaken and the other 
 elements of a course made up from the subjects 
 already mentioned. 
 
 Needless to say, the organisation here outlined 
 is only possible in a large institution, but even 
 where the staff is limited, sound and useful work 
 may be done by not attempting more than two 
 or three years of the course and sending on 
 advanced students to a larger institution. The 
 underlying idea is that a chemistry class should 
 be taken in each year, together with one or more 
 classes of a special character. 
 
 In the central chemistry class the treatment of 
 the subject should involve at every point a 
 consideration of the application of laboratory 
 methods to industrial practice. Such a course 
 might naturally begin with a description of the 
 mechanical processes used in chemistry — filtra- 
 tion, distillation, decantation, evaporation, crys- 
 tallisation, etc. These descriptions should show 
 not only the methods used in the laboratory, but 
 also the principal modifications of those used in 
 chemical engineering. The lectures should be 
 illustrated by experiments and by slides showing 
 the plant used for industrial purposes, while the 
 
CHEMISTRY IN TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 175 
 
 laboratory work would take the form of practical 
 exercises illustrating the processes dealt with. 
 Following upon this work might come a con- 
 sideration of oxidation and combustion. This 
 part of the subject would be illustrated by 
 numerous exercises on the rusting of iron, the 
 oxidation of metals, phosphorus, carbon, etc., on 
 heating, leading to an examination of the Bunsen 
 burner with its many applications — incandescent 
 mantles, blowpipe, oxyhydrogen blowpipe, and 
 oxyacetylene blowpipe. The importance of the 
 subject of high temperatures is so great from an 
 industrial point of view that it will be well at 
 this stage to consider as fully as possible the 
 chemical means at our disposal of obtaining high 
 temperatures. Incidentally, the chief constituents 
 of the atmosphere will receive consideration and 
 a study of oxygen be undertaken. To complete 
 this branch of the work electrical methods of 
 heating will require attention. The converse 
 process of reduction of oxides by hydrogen or 
 coal gas will provide much useful information, 
 while the use of carbon for the same purpose in 
 metallurgical processes, such as the extraction of 
 zinc and iron from their ores, as well as the 
 numerous reductions in the electric oven, will 
 open a wide field for investigation. 
 
 Next in importance to heat as an agent in 
 producing chemical change come probably the 
 common acids. Their physical and chemical 
 
176 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 properties should be carefully studied, as well as 
 their methods of manufacture. It might be well 
 at this point to introduce a description of some 
 of the more important contact actions, such as 
 the platinum method of manufacturing sulphuric 
 acid, as these actions are rapidly becoming highly 
 useful commercially. Following upon such work 
 will naturally come the large class of double 
 decompositions, which take place when certain 
 substances are heated together, or when solutions 
 are mixed together. The way is also open for an 
 examination of the alkalis and their reactions, in 
 particular their power of neutralising acids. 
 
 It is not proposed to carry such a course 
 further here. Sufficient has been said to indi- 
 cate the general line which it may take. It 
 may be urged that a thorough knowledge of 
 chemistry cannot be had without close attention 
 to chemical hypotheses, but while certain theo- 
 retical considerations are necessary for a clear 
 understanding of the process studied, many 
 others are of purely academic interest and may 
 well be omitted. 
 
 The practical work of the classes should keep 
 closely in touch with that done in the lecture- 
 room, and the exercises should be designed to 
 amplify and intensify the impressions there made. 
 
 Artisan students may be catered for in two 
 ways, A short series of lessons on the chemistry 
 of the materials which the artisan makes use of 
 
CHEMISTRY IN TECHNICAL SCHOOLS 177 
 
 may be incorporated into his course of building 
 construction, plumbing, or painter's work, as the 
 case may be. These lessons should be largely 
 demonstrational and should deal with the chemi- 
 cal properties and reactions of building materials 
 or of common metals, but they may also with 
 advantage involve simple practical exercises. 
 
 Such a series of lessons need not extend over 
 more than half a session, the other half being 
 devoted to the necessary physics. Where 
 separate teachers are engaged for chemistry 
 and physics it should not be difficult to arrange 
 for simultaneous courses for builders and plumbers 
 or painters, the teachers interchanging classes at 
 half-term. 
 
 An alternative method would be possible in 
 cases where the entries for a preparatory course 
 are sufficiently large to admit of the segregation 
 of members of particular trades into separate 
 classes. In such cases the science teaching of 
 the preparatory course should take the form 
 above outlined. 
 
 The greatest difficulty will be experienced by 
 small schools where chemistry classes are com- 
 posed of students of a mixed type ; but, by 
 limiting the course to the elementary stages, and 
 by studying the needs of the class, teachers can 
 do much to rescue the subject from its present 
 marked theoretical and academic rut and to make 
 it full of interest and usefulness. 
 
XV 
 
 HOW THE SCHOOL MAY HELP 
 AGRICULTURE 
 
 By E. W. read, M.A. 
 
 PRACTICE with Science" is the motto 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society of 
 England, and gallant have been the 
 attempts of this and the sister society 
 of Scotland to bring home to the agriculturist 
 the importance of science to him, while in Ireland 
 the Department of Agriculture and Technical 
 Instruction has been working miracles in recent 
 years. 
 
 The splendid work of the agricultural colleges, 
 often done under great difficulties, and in the 
 face of opposition, has made its influence felt all 
 over the country, and it is confidently expected 
 that the next generation will see the great in- 
 dustry of agriculture established on a scientific 
 basis. There are, however, many whose occupa- 
 tions are directly connected with agriculture who 
 are doubtful of the value of science, though a 
 very slight examination into the methods adopted 
 by a successful farmer suffices to show that he 
 
 178 
 
HOW THE SCHOOL MAY HELP AGRICULTURE 179 
 
 is in the true sense a man of science. No doubt 
 he will tell you that an ounce of practice is worth 
 a pound (or a ton) of theory, meaning that the 
 results of his own and his forbears' experiences as 
 to the best seasons for sowing and reaping and 
 the rules to be observed in breeding and feeding 
 stock are more likely to give him a balance at 
 the bank than any amount of lectures or reading. 
 
 In other words, keen observation and many 
 failures have taught him what not to do — how to 
 get at the truth. This is science. The student 
 of pure science, however, wishes to get at the 
 truth, and does not mind the cost in time and 
 money, whereas the farmer must make most of 
 his experiments pay. One would think that the 
 farmer would be very grateful to the scientist 
 who is willing to assist in reducing the chances 
 of failure, but it must be admitted that in Britain 
 we have not yet found the true relationship be- 
 tween agricultural practice and science. It will 
 only be found when education of the right kind 
 is provided for the coming generation of farmers. 
 
 The recognition of the value of science by 
 the farmer has been delayed through the action 
 of people who, having a slight knowledge of 
 chemistry, biology, or geology, or having visited 
 other lands and seen one side of the methods 
 adopted there, essay to teach him how to double 
 his income. The weather, the district, labour, 
 freights, taxes are nothing to these people, and 
 
i8o BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 the farmer blames science generally, instead of 
 ike want of practice. 
 
 Again, the reputation of education has suffered, 
 and in the eyes of the farmer the child is being 
 spoiled. The fact is that the education given in 
 country schools in Britain at the present time is 
 not calculated to increase the child's respect for 
 rural life. Too much is made of the academic 
 side, and by the time the age of fourteen is 
 reached, the boy is out of touch with all kinds 
 of manual work, and the girl, though she may 
 find it necessary to go into service, Jias no ambition 
 to make herself a good housekeeper. If the 
 advantages of town life to the people themselves 
 and to the nation were beyond dispute, nothing 
 need be said ; but it seems unwise to encourage 
 young folks to go to towns, where they will 
 jostle for a pittance, and then to suggest that 
 those out of work should go back to the land. 
 
 Educational authorities are partly responsible, 
 as until quite recently they allowed, and perhaps 
 indirectly encouraged, country schools to follow 
 the lead of the town schools, and thus it has 
 come about that the term " lad of parts " can 
 only be applied to the boy who is "good at his 
 books." 
 
 This paper is to deal with the education of the 
 future small farmer and the agricultural labourer, 
 leaving the large farmer to take care of himself. 
 Many attempts have been made in Great Britain 
 
HOW THE SCHOOL MAY HELP AGRICULTURE i8i 
 
 and Ireland to provide in special schools a form 
 of education which would assist the farmer to 
 cope with changing conditions, but they have 
 only affected a fraction of those concerned in 
 agriculture. Farmers themselves are to a great 
 extent to blame for this, as they have certainly 
 received obviously genuine efforts with coldness, 
 and even experimental farms have met with 
 active opposition. To argue that they know 
 what they want and should be left alone to work 
 out their own salvation might be well enough if 
 it concerned farmers themselves only ; but it is, 
 in fact, a national affair, and we must not allow 
 other countries to outdistance us in the matter of 
 agricultural education. 
 
 It is not suggested that the qualities which go 
 to make a successful farmer can be got in the 
 class-room, or in the laboratory, or by reading. 
 He must be a man of character ; possessing 
 initiative ; able to manage workmen ; be a good 
 judge of stock — know the right kind of store 
 animals for his district, know when they are 
 doing well and how to change pastures when they 
 are not ; he must be a good marketer, and know 
 the true value of his fat stock and grain as well 
 as does the dealer ; and he must be a business 
 man. Education cannot save the farmer if he 
 does not possess these qualities, but it can help 
 the boy, by widening his outlook, by encouraging 
 him to take a pride in his occupation and a 
 
1 82 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 pleasure in manual work, by developing initiative 
 and observational powers, and by calling his 
 attention to the necessity for cultivating to the 
 highest extent the qualities mentioned above. 
 
 The spirit of the farm must be retained in the 
 child, and afterwards he must have scope for his 
 abilities. The labourer must be encouraged to 
 take an interest in the work of the farm, and he 
 will do so if he knows that he may one day have 
 a small holding, and has confidence that he will 
 be able to manage it. 
 
 Having indicated the results to be aimed at, 
 the next thing is to show how they might be 
 attained. We cannot look for assistance to the 
 ordinary agricultural schools or to the agricul- 
 tural sides of certain secondary schools. They 
 do good work in the preliminary education of the 
 larger farmer, the agricultural lecturer, and those 
 concerned in estate management, but we want to 
 get lower down and to influence a much greater 
 number. 
 
 Can, then, the elementary schools or the 
 higher grade departments of the public schools 
 in Scotland help ? Certainly they might do so ; 
 but they have become so imbued with the 
 academic spirit that the spirit of the farm is 
 neutralised and the pupil of fourteen has de- 
 veloped into a young scholar instead of being 
 a young farmer at heart. In recent years these 
 schools have certainly tried to meet the require- 
 
HOW THE SCHOOL MAY HELP AGRICULTURE 183 
 
 ments of the country boy by giving some atten- 
 tion to nature-study, and in some counties by 
 making the arithmetic of a more practical nature ; 
 but they must go much further than this or we 
 must have special schools. In all probability it 
 will be found necessary to provide such special 
 schools for boys of twelve, at which they could 
 follow a two or three years' course, the object of 
 which should be to benefit directly the small 
 farmer and the labourer. The country boy, it 
 must be remembered, should have special treat- 
 ment : he needs a form of education entirely 
 different from that given to the town boy. 
 
 The teachers in these schools must be trained 
 specially for the work, and they must be in entire 
 sympathy with their surroundings. They must 
 be as much farmers as teachers. They need not 
 be university men ; in fact, it would be better if 
 they were not, unless they had worked on a farm 
 for two or three years after attending at an 
 agricultural college for two years. Eventually 
 agricultural teachers' training colleges would 
 have to be instituted, and these might be in 
 connection with the agricultural college experi- 
 mental farms. 
 
 The teachers would aim at producing good 
 farmers, foresters, or gardeners rather than ex- 
 amination-passing machines. The farm-schools 
 would not necessarily cost a great deal for up- 
 keep, as the pupils would do much of the work 
 
1 84 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 in connection with them. The question of cost, 
 however, would have to be faced ; and as it 
 has been faced in other countries, there is surely 
 no good reason why we should find it an in- 
 superable difficulty. It seems as if these other 
 countries are building up a business and spare no 
 pains to push their wares, while Great Britain 
 rests content with the idea that she runs (or did 
 run) a paying concern, and will not believe that 
 it is necessary to go to any expense to hold her 
 own in the competition. 
 
 Now as to the curriculum of our farm -school. 
 English, with history and geography, would 
 occupy a very important position, as would 
 mathematics and elementary science ; and a con- 
 siderable amount of time should be given to 
 manual instruction and natural history. 
 
 Under the term natural history would be in- 
 cluded botany, zoology, and geology as applied 
 to farming, gardening, and forestry ; work in the 
 gardens and on the farm ; the care of horses, 
 cattle, sheep, pigs, fowls, bees, etc. ; expeditions 
 in the woods or on the hills ; visits to larger 
 farms or to experimental farms ; the study of 
 agricultural experiments, and meteorological ob- 
 servations. 
 
 The object of the work on the farm would be 
 not so much to teach opera,tions as to keep the 
 boys in touch with farm ways and to provide 
 subjects for discussion in the class-room. The 
 
HOW THE SCHOOL MAY HELP AGRICULTURE 185 
 
 farm need not be large, but there should be a 
 large garden, which, of course, the boys could 
 lay out in the first place. 
 
 The elementary science should be correlated 
 with the natural history, the substances used for 
 experiments being, as far as possible, those which 
 are of special interest to the farmer. 
 
 The manual instruction would primarily be 
 educational, but in the third year the boy might 
 learn to make modern fowl-houses and bee-hives, 
 troughs, etc., put up and repair fences, and study 
 farm machinery. This is not the place to enter 
 into details with regard to English and mathe- 
 matics, but so far from their being neglected they 
 would receive more attention than they get in 
 many secondary schools. It will be seen that in 
 such a school the future forester and the future 
 gardener might well receive part of their educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Next, what happens to the boy when he leaves ? 
 He is, say, fifteen years of age, is not afraid of 
 manual work, is trustworthy and possesses initia- 
 tive, is ambitious to excel in some occupation 
 connected with the country, and is anxious to 
 learn more about his future work. If his father 
 is a farmer he might go home ; he might take 
 up forestry or gardening ; or he might be appren- 
 ticed to a farmer. How this is to be brought 
 about is beyond the scope of this paper, but it 
 is the opinion of the writer that with the co- 
 
1 86 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 operation of farmers it is quite possible, and that 
 the farmer himself would find one or two appren- 
 tices of this type a great acquisition in these 
 days when conscientious workmen are compara- 
 tively scarce. Of course at this stage the boy 
 would attend evening classes where possible, and 
 hie would still be under the eye of the authority 
 which managed the school. In Scotland the 
 authority would probably be a School Board 
 (under the Scotch Education Department work- 
 ing in conjunction with an agricultural college), 
 which would under ordinary circumstances in- 
 terest itself in the boy's career until he is seven- 
 teen. In England conditions are somewhat 
 different, and perhaps the County Councils would 
 co-operate with the Board of Agriculture and 
 work out schemes suitable to the needs of the 
 various districts. Whatever the authority may 
 be, it is hoped that it will study the special needs 
 of the different districts and see that State aid is 
 given without tying down all the schools to a 
 particular curriculum. There must be an agree- 
 ment between the authorities and the agricul- 
 turist as to the ideal to be aimed at, and they 
 must take care that the school is run for the sake 
 of the boy as a future farmer and a valuable asset 
 of the State, and that it is not neglected because 
 its value cannot be appraised by means of ex- 
 amination results. 
 
 Nothing has been said in this article about 
 
HOW THE SCHOOL MAY HELP AGRICULTURE 187 
 
 the education of the country girl — not because 
 its importance is overlooked, but because it is so 
 important that it deserves a paper to itself. The 
 chances of success of the small farm are doubled 
 if the mistress is a good manager and takes an 
 active interest in dairying, poultry-keeping, and 
 gardening. 
 
XVI 
 
 ENGINEERING 
 
 By AN ASSOCIATE OF THE INSTITUTION OF 
 CIVIL ENGINEERS 
 
 IN attempting to deal with the sort of educa- 
 tion that should be given to future engineers 
 during their time at school, one feels at once 
 the need of subdividing into classes. At one 
 extreme we have the boy who will go to the 
 public school and university, and finally take 
 a position among what we may call the "directing 
 classes " of the country ; at the other extreme there 
 is the boy who spends the years between thirteen 
 and sixteen — when he enters works as apprentice 
 — as a wage-earner. 
 
 The following division into classes will serve 
 our purpose : — 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 Those taking 
 a full Secondary 
 School Course 
 and (probably) 
 University 
 Course in addi- 
 tion. 
 
 Those not taking a University Course, 
 including — 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 Those who, after 
 attending an ele- 
 mentary school, 
 receive some 
 secondary edu- 
 cation up to about 
 sixteen years. 
 
 Those who leave 
 the elementary 
 school at thir- 
 teen or fourteen, 
 and do not at- 
 tend a secondary 
 school. 
 
 1 88 
 
ENGINEERING 189 
 
 We shall take Group II first. The would-be 
 engineers who fall under Group II are somewhat 
 difficult to deal with. The type of boy who is 
 intended for an engineer varies so much in different 
 parts of the country. The parents of such boys are 
 generally artisans or are employed in commercial 
 offices ; and the five or six shillings a week which 
 such a boy may earn in some temporary position 
 is in some cases an important item in the weekly 
 house-budget ; and in other cases, although the 
 sum earned is not necessary, yet the parents 
 prefer to consider slight additional comforts rather 
 than the prospects of the boy. Group 1 1 may thus 
 be divided into two sub-groups : — 
 
 II a. Those who are given the opportunity of 
 staying at school until they are old enough 
 to enter the shops. 
 
 lid. Those who are sent to earn money as 
 messengers, errand-boys, etc., from thirteen 
 or fourteen to sixteen years of age. 
 
 With regard to 116 : The boy at the age of 
 thirteen, recently freed from the sometimes dull 
 monotony of an elementary school, and with a 
 sense of importance in that he is earning an in- 
 come, is not inclined to continue his studies in 
 the evenings (probably the only time available). 
 Again, should he be working in a factory — 
 making cardboard boxes, or occupied in one of 
 the other hundred ways in which cheap labour 
 
I90 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 can be utilised — he may be at any time called 
 upon to work late ; and so, should he put down 
 his name for classes, his attendance is likely to 
 be irregular, in which case his interest in the 
 matter will naturally dwindle. There can be 
 little doubt among those who have dealt with 
 apprentices and young workmen engaged in the 
 shops, that those who belong to this section make 
 a bad start ; and that the three important years 
 between thirteen and sixteen should not be spent 
 in casual employment but in continuing the boy's 
 education. 
 
 This naturally leads us to consider the section 
 II a, and to enquire what courses lie open to 
 boys when the elementary school has been passed 
 through. Putting aside the secondary school, 
 which we shall consider under I, the choice lies 
 between higher elementary schools and pre- 
 apprentice schools. 
 
 Should the boy enter a school of the former sort, 
 he will attend a course of which the syllabus 
 covers not more than three years — a course prob- 
 ably of a general character, without bias towards 
 engineering. It is, indeed, stated somewhere 
 that the course may be especially directed to 
 train students for a local industry ; but the 
 atmosphere of the elementary school is often 
 present, and the teachers unsuited to give such 
 particular instruction. 
 
 The other course is to enter a pre-apprentice 
 
ENGINEERING igi 
 
 school — a school sometimes called by other names, 
 such as " Trade School," " Preparatory Trade 
 School," " Junior Technical School." This type 
 has only in the last few years taken a recognised 
 place among our educational institutions ; and 
 papers of much interest on this subject will be 
 found in a recent work edited by Prof Sadler.^ 
 
 We shall discuss, in some detail, the curricula 
 of such schools for engineers'" — feeling as we do 
 that such schools are not so well known as are 
 those of higher elementary or secondary type. 
 
 Perhaps the most important subject in the 
 curriculum is English — the standard of English 
 among the boys we are considering is notoriously 
 low. Mathematics must have much attention ; 
 drawing — freehand, geometrical, and scale — claims 
 an undoubted place. Practical work, both in wood 
 or metal, is desirable, as is also experimental 
 mechanics. At first sight, perhaps, too "practical " 
 a course of work ; and the educationist may 
 denounce it as utilitarian ; but the writer ventures 
 to think such a curriculum may have very great 
 value, both educational and utilitarian. 
 
 The English lessons would include history 
 and geography ; the geography would natur- 
 
 ' Continuation Schools in England and Elsewhere. Manchester 
 University Press, 1907. 
 
 ^ Although the present article has reference only to the training 
 of engineers, it may be mentioned that schools of this type are 
 equally suited to students who intend to enter other trades or pro- 
 fessions where certain technical training is desirable. 
 
192 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 ally have a commercial bent, a form in which 
 it may still have distinct educational as well as 
 practical value. Composition must be taught, 
 and can be well correlated with the other English 
 subjects or with mechanics. Composition is of 
 much greater importance to the young engineer 
 than he is inclined to think ; and very great 
 care and trouble is required, especially in the 
 first year or two of such a course, to ensure 
 that students shall learn to express themselves 
 intelligibly. 
 
 Mathematics, as taught in the schools, con- 
 sidered, should be of a very practical type, and 
 closely related both to the drawing and the 
 mechanic's work. It may be found possible in 
 the third year to give some knowledge of the 
 elements of the calculus. 
 
 The drawing should be connected with both 
 the wood and metal work, as well as with the 
 mathematics ; and it will crop up as curve-plotting 
 in other places as well. 
 
 No mention has been made in the above 
 curriculum of any language but English ; for it 
 must be remembered that the course extends at 
 most over three years, and that the type of 
 student for whom it is intended is often so defi- 
 cient in English that all available time must be 
 given to the mother tongue. Those engineering 
 employers and works-managers who think of the 
 mechanic as something more than a mere machine 
 
ENGINEERING 193 
 
 will acknowledge that his average power of 
 description calls for much improvement. 
 
 Practical wood and metal work, aiming at hand 
 and eye training, should be begun, but should not 
 take up a large part of the time ; later, in the shops, 
 a boy may learn more of turning and fitting in two 
 months than in a year at school. That employers 
 are sometimes glad to get a partly trained ap- 
 prentice must not weigh with us too much ; 
 employers are not mainly concerned with the 
 needs of the individual worker. 
 
 Subjects not here mentioned may no doubt be 
 found a place in the course of the pre-apprentice 
 school ; the main object must always be to give 
 the best general education possible — education 
 with an engineering bias, but not intended to 
 replace the apprentice-time. Some such school 
 will, we hope, commend itself, both to engineers 
 and teachers, as best for those who leave the 
 primary school at thirteen and at sixteen enter 
 works. 
 
 We may now say a word about those in Group 
 I of the table, who, after attending an elementary 
 school, leave at thirteen, or perhaps twelve, and 
 attend a secondary-school course for three or four 
 years. This procedure is much more common 
 than formerly, on account of the rapid growth 
 in the number of secondary schools through- 
 out England ; and the very low fees charged 
 have removed one of the great obstacles which 
 
194 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 prevented lads of certain social grades from 
 attending such schools. Indeed, with the help 
 of scholarships, municipal or otherwise, and "free 
 places," a boy of average ability from an elemen- 
 tary school should seldom be debarred admittance 
 to a secondary school — of a certain type. When 
 the would-be engineer enters a secondary school, 
 he is placed with his feet on the lower steps of 
 an educational course extending over at least 
 four years — in many cases to eighteen years of 
 age ; but should the boy have come from an 
 elementary school at thirteen, he can probably stay 
 only some three years at the secondary school, 
 and he will so profit much less than by following 
 the whole course. He will learn history and 
 geography, mathematics of an elementary type, 
 some French, perhaps Latin, and a second 
 modern language. Chemistry and physics he 
 may have ; and " organised games " will take 
 away part of his time. Yet, with all these sub- 
 jects, each one perhaps so admirable in itself, it 
 must not be forgotten that at sixteen the workshop 
 will claim him ; and many of the branches which 
 he has begun to study will be neglected and for- 
 gotten. The shorter the time available, the less 
 likely is a secondary-school course to be profit- 
 able, and the more we look towards special schools 
 of the pre-apprentice type to solve the problems. 
 
 At all events it is good to decide one way or 
 the other. The writer has heard of lads leaving 
 
ENGINEERING 195 
 
 the elementary school at twelve years of age, 
 attending the secondary school until fourteen, 
 and then taking a course of work at a technical 
 institution until sixteen. The evils of this con- 
 tinual uprooting and replanting are too obvious 
 to need discussion. 
 
 We turn now to the training of those who 
 can spare the time for a full secondary-school 
 course, and perhaps go to a university, and who 
 may some day hope to fill responsible positions 
 in the engineering world. No doubt the most 
 authoritative statement recently made in Eng- 
 land in regard to this question is the report 
 of Sir William White's Committee to the Insti- 
 tution of Civil Engineers,^ which should be 
 read by all interested in the question. The 
 Committee is of opinion that the average 
 boy who is destined to be an engineer should 
 leave the public school at seventeen, or eighteen 
 at the latest, and that he should then take one 
 year of workshop practice before proceed- 
 ing to a university or technical college. The 
 subjects specified for his school course are : 
 Advanced History and Geography, Essay and 
 Prdcis Writing, Introduction to English Litera- 
 ture, Elementary Latin (but not Greek), French 
 and German — a reading and conversational 
 knowledge ; Mathematics — the geometrical side, 
 logarithms, elements of trigonometry, practical 
 
 ' Clowes and Sons, 1906. 
 
196 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 arithmetic ; Elementary Physics and Chemistry ; 
 Drawing. Carpentry or turning, or field-survey- 
 ing, may be encouraged as a recreation, but 
 should not be required as a school exercise. 
 
 As regards the preparatory training, then, of 
 such engineers, the emphasis is very much on 
 general education, as distinct from technical 
 training ; and thus the Committee's report will 
 recommend itself to all those educationists who 
 are interested in the laying of a firm foundation. 
 One condition that is yet required to make the 
 suggestions of full effect is that all would-be 
 engineers , of this class should look forward to 
 the full subsequent course proposed, one year's 
 workshop practice, three years at a technological 
 school or university, and then two to three years 
 more of workshop practice. As it is at present, 
 there are a number of boys attending first grade 
 secondary schools who are anxious to be qualified 
 to work before the age of twenty-four. The con- 
 sequence is that the technical-school course is 
 cut down or eliminated, and the public school 
 supplements the special education in the way 
 described by Stephenson^ in Public Schools from 
 Within. There it is said that in the last year of 
 a boy's school life he may be devoting eighteen 
 hours a week to mathematics and science, and 
 coming in contact with a very varied engineering 
 
 1 Public Schools from Within, IX, "Engineering," by Rev. 
 F. Stephenson. 
 
ENGINEERING i97 
 
 plant, including " lathes, drilling, planing, shaping 
 and milling machines, a power hack-saw and tool 
 grinders, and a blacksmith's forge." Such a boy's 
 object is to be able to profit by taking all his 
 workshop practice directly after he leaves school, 
 and so to take some post at about twenty-one. 
 
 We may suppose there will always be some 
 who will be forced by reasons of economy so to 
 curtail the course which the Committee regards 
 as ideal. No doubt the tendency will be for 
 more students to lengthen the course on such 
 weighty authority, and in any case everything 
 possible must be done at the public school by 
 making use of leisure time for wood and metal 
 work, and by urging the desirability of some 
 technical course — if short — at a later date, to 
 find room for the literary and general programme 
 put forward by the Committee. When this is 
 made certain, there can be nothing but approval 
 for any opportunity which may come to a boy 
 at school, in workshop or field, to cultivate an 
 interest — at a time of life when this sort of in- 
 terest is very strong — in the metal work or 
 surveying which has the extra charm of being 
 bound up with a future career. 
 
 In a paper of the present length it is only 
 possible to indicate briefly how the requirements 
 of the school stage in the education of engineers 
 are being or should be met. The question 
 touches individuals of widely different aims ; 
 
igS BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 and we have shown how long and how far, in 
 different grades of work, the general educa- 
 tional interest may and can survive in competi- 
 tion with the special and professional. In the 
 pre-apprentice school the future foreman or 
 manager is already beginning to feel at thirteen 
 the professional bias in his work, while the future 
 "captain of industry," or consulting specialist, 
 is being told at Oxford^ that he must not there 
 expect too much professional bias, that a univer- 
 sity course must in the main teach principles, and 
 leave the detailed considerations of practice for 
 instructors elsewhere. 
 
 ' Inaugural address by Professor C. F. Jenkin. Cf. The Times, 
 October 21, 1908. 
 
XVII 
 
 SCIENCE TEACHING AND 
 THE TRAINING OF THE AFFECTIONS 
 
 By SIDNEY UNWIN, B.Sc. 
 
 IF parents would but do their duty the school- 
 master's task would be an easy one. Un- 
 fortunately it is only the exceptional parent 
 who takes the trouble to explain to his child 
 the mystery of birth and the right use of all the 
 different parts of its body. The majority allow 
 their children to grow up in so-called " inno- 
 cence," and leave them to find out for them- 
 selves. And when they have found out, as find 
 out they will, who is there to tell them if they 
 have found the truth ? Incredible as it may 
 seem, the average parent bequeaths to his child 
 that most delicate of all instruments — a human 
 body — without any guidance as to its rightful use. 
 What wonder, then, that there is so much self- 
 abuse among our children, so much sin and 
 suffering in our big cities. 
 
 If mothers would answer a child's questions 
 naturally and simply, the little one would not be 
 driven to doubtful and tainted sources for its 
 
 199 
 
200 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 information. If, instead of ascribing the advent 
 of a baby brother to the doctor, the mother were 
 to tell the child the simple truth, the earliest 
 associations with these wonderful facts would 
 then be bound up with the sweetest of all affec- 
 tion — the love of a child for its mother ; and for 
 ever after these subjects would be hallowed by 
 the mother's love. Satisfy the natural curiosity 
 when it arises, however young the child may be, 
 and much danger and often much suffering will 
 be avoided. When a mother finds her child talk- 
 ing about these problems she must not say, "If 
 you will come and ask me any time I will tell 
 you all about it," for the child will probably be 
 too shy to broach the subject. She must herself 
 take the initiative and overcome the natural shy- 
 ness and reticence all children feel when speak- 
 ing of these subjects to older people. Not only 
 must every mother unfold to her child the mys- 
 tery of its birth, but she must prepare it for the 
 changes that are to take place at puberty, and at 
 this point the father must step in and speak to 
 his boy. It is his duty, and he must not shirk it. 
 But all this is a counsel of perfection. I know 
 from experience that at least fifty per cent of 
 parents never say a word to their children, and 
 therefore the schoolmaster must take the matter 
 in hand. Unfortunately he is at a grave dis- 
 advantage, for there is no natural affectionate 
 relationship between him and his boy, as there is 
 
THE TRAINING OF THE AFFECTIONS 201 
 
 between parent and child ; and before he can 
 help the boy in these matters he must win his 
 confidence. 
 
 The first thing he must try to banish is all 
 sense of fear. He must be his boy's comrade 
 and friend, and must establish an easy and 
 cordial relationship with him. Some boys will 
 be very shy and suspicious, but this must not 
 daunt him. If he remembers that the only way 
 to win affection is to give affection, and if he 
 concerns himself with the giving alone, the time 
 will come when the boy will respond, and he will 
 then be able to be of real service to him. I 
 place this personal relationship first, for without 
 it no curriculum, lecture, or talks can have their 
 full value. The more the school can resemble 
 the home the easier will be the schoolmaster's 
 task ; and the more he can become the foster- 
 parent the greater will be the service he can 
 render his boys. 
 
 How, then, shall we organise our school so that 
 we may best be able to unfold to our boys the 
 mysteries of birth and growth, and guide them in 
 the right use of their affections — in other words, 
 how can we best train them to live and to love ? 
 We will consider first the environment, secondly 
 the curriculum, including the compulsory and 
 voluntary activities, and thirdly the social life of 
 the school. 
 
 Firstly, the school should be situated amidst 
 
202 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 beautiful scenery, surrounded by its own estate. 
 This school-state should include a farmyard, a 
 garden, orchard, playing-fields, and river or lake. 
 On the farm there should be cows, pigs, poultry, 
 and bees ; and the boys should be allowed not 
 only free access to them at all seasons, but to 
 wander freely in every part of the estate. As 
 the months pass by they will be able to observe 
 the fertilisation of the blossoms by the wind or 
 by bees, the mating of birds, the development of 
 seeds and eggs, the ripening of fruits and burst- 
 ing of seedpods, the hatching of chicks and tiny 
 birds, the birth of little animals, and the love of 
 parents for their young. Without the right en- 
 vironment our work will not be easy, for 
 
 One impulse from a vernal wood 
 
 May teach us more of man, 
 Of moral evil and of good 
 
 Than all the sages can. 
 
 Enough of Science and of Art : 
 
 Close up those barren leaves ; 
 Come forth, and bring with you a heart 
 
 That watches and receives. 
 
 In this last verse we catch a glimpse of the real 
 purpose of our science teaching — it is to develop 
 " a heart that watches and receives " ; for unless 
 we can succeed in this, we had better follow 
 Wordsworth's advice and have nothing to do 
 with it. And this brings us to the question of 
 
THE TRAINING OF THE AFFECTIONS 203 
 
 the curriculum, which I propose to divide under 
 three headings : — 
 
 (i) The science work, including nature-study, 
 hygiene, and economics. 
 
 (2) The compulsory practical work, including 
 poultry and bee-keeping, farm and garden 
 occupations. 
 
 (3) The voluntary work in free time. 
 
 The science work should gradually teach a boy 
 to observe and think for himself. He should 
 be encouraged to experiment, to describe his 
 experiments and the conclusions he draws from 
 them. By this means he will gradually become 
 familiar with the facts of nutrition and reproduc- 
 tion, and the laws of growth. He will learn 
 what gives and what prevents health, and how 
 over-indulgence is bound, sooner or later, to 
 produce illness. He must be taught to study 
 living, not "dead," nature, and his attention must 
 be directed not only to the wealth of life around 
 him but to the web of life — to the intimate way 
 in which plants and animals are dependent upon 
 one another, and how they are adapted, or adapt 
 themselves, to their environment. He will soon 
 begin to realise the meaning of " the struggle for 
 life," and will become interested in the way plants 
 and animals shift for their living. Further 
 observation will show him the value of socia- 
 bility, and his attention must be drawn to the 
 
204 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 domestic life of the higher animals and the self- 
 sacrifice of parents for their young. 
 
 The study of the animal world must lead up to 
 the study of man. He should be taught why 
 laws are made, and his attention should be called 
 to the written and unwritten laws of the school. 
 This should lead on to an investigation of the 
 economics of the " neighbouring village or town, 
 and to further discussion of the relationship 
 between work and wages, labour and capital, the 
 effect of competition and the value of co-opera- 
 tion. He will thus gradually learn to understand 
 the laws which govern his own body, his relation- 
 ship to nature and his fellow-men, and will dis- 
 cover how to control nature and himself, and get 
 the best out of his fellows. 
 
 The compulsory practical work will show him 
 the value of steady and patient toil. In the 
 preparation and cultivation of the ground, the 
 interminable weeding, the sowing of the seed, and 
 the eventual harvest, he will see the result of 
 faithful work. Let him neglect his chicks or his 
 calves for a day or two, and death will teach 
 him something that punishment, artificially in- 
 flicted, never may. The care of poultry and 
 bees and the rearing of the young afford oppor- 
 tunity for those boys who want to keep pets. It 
 also brings them into contact with the fertile and 
 unfertile egg, thus enabling the teacher to speak 
 of fertilisation quite naturally. The devotion of 
 
THE TRAINING OF THE AFFECTIONS 205 
 
 the mother to her little ones, their instant obedi- 
 ence to her call when danger threatens, her 
 gratuitous self-sacrifice for them, show the boy 
 that law is necessary and that self-interest is not 
 the only motive of action. The study of the hive 
 and its inmates teaches him similar lessons. 
 
 But while compulsory work has its value and 
 gradually helps a boy to form good habits, we 
 must not neglect to teach him to use his free time 
 well, and to do so I would recommend the giving 
 of prizes for any good work that comes up to a 
 certain standard. Encourage the boy to take up 
 some hobby, such as natural history, gardening, 
 sketching, archaeology or architecture. These 
 hobbies prevent loafing — a practice which often 
 leads boys into vice. In the winter, when out- 
 door hobbies are impossible, boys may be taught 
 some craft, such as leather-work or modelling ; 
 or they may be encouraged, especially the new- 
 comers and timid ones, to box, fence, and wrestle, 
 when they will learn the value of keeping their 
 tempers. 
 
 Such a curriculum as the one sketched 
 out will help us very materially to train our 
 boys as we wish. But though the environment 
 and the curriculum are important they will not 
 help us unless the social life is good. To ensure 
 this we must have many private talks with our boys 
 in order to tell them individually what we cannot 
 collectively. Assuming that they enter the school 
 
2o6 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 between the ages of eleven and twelve, it is well 
 to see each one during his first or second term to 
 ascertain whether his parents have told him, and 
 if not, to explain to him quite simply the facts of 
 birth. The spring term is one of the best times 
 to treat this matter, because nature is awakening 
 from her winter sleep and giving birth to new 
 life. We can therefore lead up to the subject 
 quite easily. 
 
 Before speaking to any boy we must ascertain 
 as much as we can of his past history, in order 
 that we may have some clue as to whether he 
 is likely to have already gained knowledge on 
 these subjects from tainted sources. If the boy's 
 behaviour and character are good it is best not 
 to suggest to his mind that bad habits can be 
 formed ; but to answer his questions, tell him the 
 right use of his body, and encourage him to 
 come to you if he meets with anything he does 
 not understand. If, on the other hand, you are 
 almost sure he has got into bad habits, or has 
 gained his knowledge from bad sources, it is best 
 to talk to him frankly about the matter, and 
 make him feel that at all costs he must give up 
 the habit before it becomes too deeply rooted. 
 At the same time he must be protected, as far as 
 possible, from bad influences ; and have his hands 
 and mind kept well occupied, so that he goes to 
 bed tired out after a full day's work. 
 
 Before a boy reaches puberty it is well to have 
 
THE TRAINING OF THE AFFECTIONS 207 
 
 another talk with him, and by reminding him of 
 some of the phenomena in nature with which he 
 is now famihar, e.g. the waste of pollen grain in 
 fir-trees, prepare him for the changes that will 
 soon come in his own life. 
 
 If you know or suspect that the boy has fallen 
 into bad habits, but is not injuring others, you 
 must beware of frightening him, and making him 
 think that he is wicked. The mental effect of 
 worrying and brooding over his failures is far 
 more serious than any physical effect. He must 
 be taught that in this matter he must strive to 
 gain absolute self-control, just as he has to learn 
 to control his temper and his other bodily appe- 
 tites. Above all, cleanliness and hard physical 
 exercise must be insisted on, and the boy must 
 be given opportunity to be unselfish. This will 
 be the best cure for his difficulties. Teach him 
 to be a friend to some one, and soon his selfish 
 desires will cease to worry him. At the same 
 time he should be told a little about the analogous 
 changes that take place in girls, in order to 
 prevent him from ever being unkind to them 
 through ignorance ; and to a boy who has been 
 taught to observe nature, this knowledge will not 
 come as a shock. 
 
 At this point I should like to say a word about 
 the education of girls, for mothers are often con- 
 tent to tell their daughters just the bare minimum, 
 and leave them in ignorance of the facts of sex. 
 
2o8 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 with the result that the young girls either satisfy 
 their curiosity by reading unpleasant novels, or 
 grow up " innocent," exposed to all the dangers 
 connected with this subject. Though the average 
 girl probably does not have such a battle with 
 herself as the average boy, and is innately less 
 uncontrolled, it is no excuse for leaving her 
 ignorant. She ought to know all about herself, 
 and something about the other sex, not only for 
 her own sake, but for the sake of those to whom 
 she can be of help ; and this, I take it, is the 
 main sanction for bringing up boys and girls 
 together. 
 
 " The fundamental issue in co-education is a 
 moral question," says Rektor Brunn, the head- 
 master of a mixed school in Denmark, where 
 co-education has always been the rule in the 
 villages, and is now the rule in the provincial 
 towns. "It either entails disadvantages and 
 dangers, or has a mutually good influence on 
 both sexes." After a discussion on the subject, 
 which may be found in Miss Henni H. Forsch- 
 hammer's article on " Moral Instruction and 
 Training in Denmark,"^ he concludes by saying 
 that in his experience "co-education, when carried 
 on with interest and care, raises the standard of 
 morality." 
 
 My own experience is the same. I have found 
 
 * Moral Instruction and Training in Schools, Vol. II. Long- 
 mans and Co. 
 
THE TRAINING OF THE AFFECTIONS 209 
 
 during seven years of observation that the 
 presence of girls makes the tone higher and the 
 life sweeter, that the innate purity of girls makes 
 the dangers of immorality less than it is when 
 boys are thrown only with boys. " Hands off" 
 is the girl's instinctive feeling, while the small 
 boy will often give way to the older one. The 
 companionship of girls gradually helps the boy 
 to gain complete mastery of himself, and con- 
 vinces him that men must have the same moral 
 standard as women. 
 
 Miss Forschhammer's article also gives an 
 account of the attempts that are being made in 
 Denmark to teach systematically the problems 
 of sex as a class subject, beginning with lessons 
 on the natural history of plants and animals, and 
 gradually leading up to the discussion of sexual 
 hygiene and ethics. The results of such teaching 
 seem to have been excellent. In these matters 
 Denmark has done more than we have in England, 
 for I am not aware that any such class teaching 
 is given in this country. 
 
 And next, although the title of my article does 
 not allow me, I must ask leave to make a digres- 
 sion, to show how opportunities for unselfishness 
 and service may be given. Perhaps the most 
 powerful influence in a school is the general tone, 
 and a good tone can only be produced by enlist- 
 ing the co-operation of the older boys and girls 
 in the school government. Responsibility will 
 
2IO BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 often do for them what any amount of teaching 
 will fail to accomplish. As soon as they show 
 any signs of being ready for it some small re- 
 sponsibility should be given them ; and with 
 increased responsibility we must provide oppor- 
 tunities for public service. Above all, we must 
 be very patient and allow plenty of freedom for 
 experience. A too rigid discipline and code of 
 rules may very easily crush out individuality and 
 check moral growth, or actually produce vice. 
 We must allow an outlet for the affections if we 
 are to train them. Experience is our best school ; 
 and teachers must not only afford ample oppor- 
 tunity for all — especially the older ones — to learn 
 by blundering, but they should tell them frankly 
 their own experience. 
 
 Before boys and girls leave school they should 
 be spoken to about fatherhood and motherhood, 
 and should be told of some of the dangers and 
 temptations they will meet in the great world, so 
 that being forewarned they may be forearmed. 
 
 Lastly, in the chapel services, which should be 
 as bright as possible, all the teaching must 
 be brought to a focus, and the highest ideals of 
 life must be put before them. They should be 
 taught that religion gives the sanction for these 
 ideals and the incentive to act up to them ; 
 teaching as it does that the whole duty of man 
 consists in love to God and love to his neighbour. 
 
XVIII 
 
 SCIENCE TEACHING AND A CHILD'S 
 PHILOSOPHY 
 
 By CORA B. SANDERS 
 
 TO trace the course of the controversy 
 between scientific thought and religion 
 would lead to interesting reflections 
 on the self-consciousness of a genera- 
 tion ; and though such a subject is not within 
 the scope of this paper, a few words may be 
 allowed for introduction. None will contest that 
 the measure of agreement between the two sides 
 has increased during the last half-century. 
 Theology has accepted new knowledge such as 
 it at first seemed disinclined to do ; and science 
 has taken up a more self-critical attitude, defining 
 the scope of natural law, and leaving room, by 
 implication, for a First Cause — knowable, if at all, 
 through some other range of ideas. To many — 
 among them the present writer — the conflict 
 seems to have been much smaller than those on 
 its brink perceived, and to be now philosophically 
 ended. 
 
 Whether so much be accepted or not, it will 
 
212 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 be agreed that much misunderstanding and 
 distress would have been avoided if each party 
 could have approached the other with a more 
 open mind ; and it is with the object of reducing 
 the dangers of want of sympathy and perspec- 
 tive in such matters that the present paper has 
 been written. 
 
 There seem to be two science-religion pro- 
 blems : one personal and philosophical, the other 
 social and practical. In the former case the 
 individual is hampered by some want of fit 
 between the method and fact of science and the 
 needs of faith. This is the side which in writing 
 this paper has been chiefly in mind. In the 
 second connection we meet in practice two types 
 of mind, suggesting different scales of value and 
 opposite courses of action. For instance, it is 
 sometimes hard to see how the full claims of 
 Christianity can be met in a society which is 
 pledged to national competition in an acute 
 form. It is too large a question for considera- 
 tion now ; but whatever may be said here as to 
 the need for harmonising science teaching with 
 that of religion must ultimately tend, it may be 
 hoped, towards reconciliation in the world at 
 large, as well as in the minds of individuals. 
 
 It should be mentioned, in passing, that where 
 in the sequel the words " theology " and " reli- 
 gion " are used, the writer is thinking in terms 
 of the Christian religion as met with in England 
 
SCIENCE AND A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY 213 
 
 at the present day. The harmony to be attained 
 between scientific thought and faith would be 
 found in somewhat the same way in other cases ; 
 and much of what is said has no specific implica- 
 tion ; but it cannot be forgotten that what school- 
 masters and school-mistresses have to deal with 
 in practice is some form — unsectarian maybe — 
 of the Christian religion. 
 
 The real degree of agreement, then, is more 
 widely recognised now than it was a few years 
 ago ; nevertheless, for a considerable number of 
 individuals the old difficulties still exist (on the 
 Continent this seems to be more frequently the 
 case than with us). Nor is it a matter for sur- 
 prise, as the attitude of destructive criticism is 
 taken up much more easily than the habit of 
 constructive thought is acquired. A man who 
 adopts the former attitude may take for granted 
 the non-existence of a unity, for the perception of 
 which he lacks the mental equipment. 
 
 In our own country, however, the difficulty, I 
 believe, often springs from two much more in- 
 significant sources. 
 
 The first is from bad science or poor theology. 
 When either of these great bodies of knowledge 
 is in any of its parts misrepresented, the un- 
 fortunate learner is left a prey to mental con- 
 fusion. There is a good analogy, applying a 
 physical example to mental processes, in thinking 
 of the enormous distortion produced in an image 
 
214 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 by ever so minute a flaw in one of many glasses 
 through which a beam of light is sent. When 
 in science teaching hypotheses are treated as fact, 
 or from one established point a whole generalisa- 
 tion is made, such a flaw is created ; and it is 
 superfluous to enlarge on the dual criminality of 
 at once disfiguring actuality and violating the 
 true scientific attitude of expectant, patient 
 open-mindedness. Though this happens not in- 
 frequently in adult popular science teaching, it 
 probably does not occur in schools, which are 
 now chiefly under consideration. There theology 
 more often suffers. 
 
 "Poor theology" should here be interpreted 
 less as bad than insufficient teaching. Religious 
 or theological teaching has been very often in 
 the past given as if simply with the object of 
 keeping alive the religious feelings awakened at 
 home, and any real enlargement of view or in- 
 crease of knowledge has been left to private 
 exertion. This may have arisen in many cases 
 from hesitation at showing to children the 
 difficulties which such knowledge tries to meet. 
 These points were brought forward at the recent 
 Congress on Moral Education, and are too self- 
 evident to be mentioned without apology. 
 
 The other cause of difficulty to which I would 
 point is less generally acknowledged, though it 
 is probably a very common one. It forms the 
 chief excuse for adding a paper to these much- 
 
SCIENCE AND A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY 215 
 
 laboured questions. The sequence in which 
 these branches of knowledge are presented is 
 alone responsible for much misconception. 
 Usually religious knowledge has no beginning 
 in the sense that it is part and parcel of an in- 
 dividual's life ; he grows up with it. Science, in 
 the extended sense, is only introduced later, at 
 the very end of school life or even beyond it. 
 Then it may come with a certain shock, as a 
 whole mass of new facts and new hypotheses 
 which cannot be fitted to those already possessed. 
 All the phenomena which by the child were 
 either taken for granted or accounted for by some 
 pictorial tradition are seen as a self-consistent 
 mechanism, and over and over again this new set 
 of ideas takes up the whole mental foreground, 
 either shutting out or overthrowing the earlier 
 series. 
 
 The fact that in most schools some form of 
 science is taught from the lower forms upward 
 does not seriously affect this contention ; for biology 
 rarely appears save under one of two forms. It 
 may occur as nature-study of a rather stereotyped 
 character, where any trace of a theory of natural 
 order is ruled out of natural history ; or secondly, 
 as botany taught on one of the several examina- 
 tion syllabuses which again leave no room for the 
 more general natural theories. All such con- 
 siderations seem to be rigorously avoided ; by some 
 for fear of raising difficulties in children's minds — 
 
2i6 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 the reason cited above as also frequently deterring 
 educators from systematic theological teaching. 
 Others, again, withhold generalisations from 
 middle-school work in conformity with the recent 
 view that the child must itself develop what it 
 learns, and must therefore do without far-reach- 
 ing hypotheses till the time when the adult mind 
 may be supposed to conceive of them. It is not 
 within the scope of this paper to examine in detail 
 the considerations which, to my mind, diminish 
 the force of these objections, and the more im- 
 portant ones can be gathered from subsequent 
 arguments more easily than at this point. 
 
 There is still, it seems then, a science-and- 
 religion problem lurking in a region untouched 
 by the work of the more serious constructive 
 philosophers, a region which may remain for a 
 long time uninfluenced by it. It is usual in every 
 grave difficulty to look to schools for help, and I 
 believe that this one could be forestalled by a 
 slight widening and readjustment of the curricu- 
 lum and without endangering any other purposes 
 of school education. 
 
 Before treating more at length the advantages 
 and difficulties of the suggested change, it is 
 necessary for the sake of completeness to mention 
 briefly some general ideas underlying the whole 
 subject. Without attempting any serious dis- 
 cussion it may be possible to outline a reasonable 
 position in that region where belief or disbelief 
 
SCIENCE AND A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY 217 
 
 must largely influence the educator's method if 
 not his aim. 
 
 The average man does not, or cannot, do 
 without "philosophy." However little he may 
 acknowledge it, however crude his conception 
 may be, some picture of "reality" is there. At 
 some time or other every one, almost every one, 
 renders some account to himself for existence, al- 
 though it may be confused or even shrouded in 
 a general negation. 
 
 Using the term philosophy in this very wide 
 sense for the crude individual ideas of meta- 
 physic, it certainly has its place in childhood no 
 less than in later years. Ordinarily intelligent 
 children very soon think about "beginning" and 
 "ending," both for themselves and other mortals. 
 They realise that they are " here " with a natural 
 accompanying sense of curiosity as to the " not 
 here," which further prompts them to the ques- 
 tioning "wherefore?" This is borne out by their 
 comfortable assimilation of teaching as to the 
 "purpose" of this life.^ This does not need to be 
 
 ' Cf. Report of Congress on Moral Education. The efforts 
 made among non-religious moral teachers to supply this feeling 
 of " reason " and " purpose " in existence are usually, by some form 
 of sociological theory, to show the slow evolution of the race, 
 assigning to each generation its particular charge, inherited and 
 potential, in the cause of progress. It is a question whether this 
 fine conception, which appears to fill sufficiently the mental horizon 
 of some adults, can satisfy a child's spirit and lull its first quick 
 craving for a reason, cause, purpose, which is as much a spiritual 
 as an intellectual demand. 
 
2i8 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 further insisted on. To those who have had 
 varied experience of little children, it is abundantly- 
 clear that the feeling of " will " is very strong in 
 healthy infants, before the time when they can 
 question its freedom ! They only want to know 
 the use of this all-engrossing possession. The 
 early teaching of religion stimulates and feeds these 
 mental and spiritual capacities alike. It shows 
 children by means of simple pictures a world- 
 order in which their immortal personalities have 
 a place and meaning under laws working to one 
 great end ; ideas which are capable of expansion 
 with the normal and healthy growth of the mind. 
 It is not overstating the case to say that a great 
 number of educators seriously doubt whether a 
 complete and happy development is possible 
 without some religious training. Indirect evi- 
 dence, of course, is to be drawn from that wide- 
 spread fear of disturbing a child's faith and from 
 the willingness so often shown by parents 
 professing no religion to give it a place in the 
 education of the young.^ At least as far as 
 England is concerned, it may be taken for 
 granted that these facts are appreciated and that 
 an early religious training is the rule. All but 
 
 ^ One would like to bring to the notice of those who are not 
 convinced of the necessity of some spiritual food to a child's life 
 the extent to which religious teaching is efficacious (in producing 
 that active satisfaction which we term happiness) amongst those 
 in whom intellectual development is much retarded or insufficient. 
 Teaching of the feeble-minded provides matter for study. 
 
SCIENCE AND A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY 219 
 
 the least active minds, however, are soon ready 
 for a more detailed cosmogony, without danger 
 of its leading to over-speculation. 
 
 It would be, I think, pressing the point too far 
 to suggest that science teaching should be co- 
 extensive with religious training, but it would, I 
 believe, be most valuable to give it a place in the 
 regular child-half of school life where it is not 
 practicable to extend it over all school years, 
 remembering how much it adds to the complete- 
 ness of an individual's philosophy and to the 
 stability of his religion to become acquainted 
 early with current biological knowledge, and 
 realising that while formerly it might have been 
 urged that such knowledge was unnecessary, now 
 the fact has to be faced that it is inevitable. 
 
 It will be clearer to consider separately the 
 two sides of science, as in both method and effect 
 the tendencies of organic and inorganic study are 
 very diverse. From our present point of view 
 the organic side presents the most obvious 
 problem. 
 
 It is evident from the opening paragraphs that 
 by the teaching of biology here advocated for 
 young children, the mere teaching of any series 
 of organic facts is not meant. The term is to 
 include something more and something different. 
 The theory of organic evolution should form part 
 of the child's stock-in-trade of ideas. In outline 
 it can be grasped by very small children, and I 
 
220 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 believe few teachers would find it difficult to 
 interweave it with whatever form the "science" 
 is required to take. In nature-study (as it might 
 be taught for the upper part of kindergarten or 
 the lowest school forms) it makes a thread on 
 which all observations may be strung. Later, 
 where some set botanical syllabus has to be 
 followed, it would call for the sacrifice of only 
 two or three explanatory lessons, after which it 
 would of course form a background to all parts 
 of the work, of such intellectual satisfaction to 
 the small students that the number "interested in 
 science " would be more than doubled. And it 
 might result in the desirable end of the accept- 
 ance of some part of animal biology in many 
 curricula where that is now regarded with sus- 
 picion. When once the theory has been put for- 
 ward it need not take a prominent place to the 
 exclusion of observation. Occasional hints are 
 enough to keep it in view, while observations are 
 sorted as bearing upon it or not. The endeavour 
 need not be relinquished even where systematic 
 biological work is impossible ; few schools are 
 without occasional isolated lectures, and natural 
 history will no longer be a topic attractive only to 
 the minority known as "bug-hunters" when the 
 small data cited are incorporated with a concep- 
 tion highly interesting to every intelligent person. 
 Here reference may again be made to the ad- 
 vantage of a simultaneous presentation of the 
 
SCIENCE AND A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY 221 
 
 two sets of ideas, religious and scientific ; and 
 insignificant as this point may seem, I think that 
 the importance of its results cannot easily be 
 exaggerated. Once it has been taken for granted 
 that there is no intrinsic problem in science and 
 religion, then all that appears as such resolves 
 itself into restricted knowledge, or simply con- 
 fusion. Where the two are not learned side by 
 side the last to be understood comes with a dif- 
 ferent kind of force, due not to its own intrinsic 
 value, but to the increased faculty of comprehen- 
 sion and insight with which it is received. But 
 when both are presented at the same age, growth 
 and development in due course affect both 
 regions equally. 
 
 In any analysis of cases in which science is 
 felt to be irreconcilable with faith, one factor, 
 frequently the chief one, resolves itself into a 
 confused conception of Causation. But where 
 knowledge and progress in both fields proceed 
 together, natural law less easily fills the whole 
 view and will assume more naturally the second- 
 ary place. To those who have once thought of it 
 as a method (even a " mechanism ") there will be 
 little difficulty in accepting another cause ; indeed, 
 they will demand it. Some very speculative 
 young people might need a little help here, but 
 more often the co-expansion of ideas will obviate 
 the difficulty. 
 
 I should like to note, in passing, the great 
 
2 22 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 assistance which biology teaching of this type 
 gives in the upper half of school to the Divinity 
 lessons, and to the humane subjects generally 
 (though this is, perhaps, beside the mark). Of 
 course, this is chiefly from the point of view 
 of evolution. It is not an easy conception to 
 introduce either as regards ideas or morals. In 
 dealing with the concrete forms of language 
 it would be more possible if a child's knowledge 
 could be wide enough to trace forms through 
 their changes. But any study of organisms not 
 only furnishes many signs of it, but is even 
 unintelligible in the truest sense without it. And 
 having the idea once fixed from the concrete, it 
 may later be applied in other regions with real 
 understanding. In such work we are doing 
 something in the direction of training in con- 
 structive thought, though it is, of course, a very 
 humble beginning. However, it is worth while 
 to set men's minds to work on the right track, 
 in the only time when we are sure of the 
 opportunity. Is it not for want of some such 
 preparation as this that teachers are so rarely 
 able to deal with such subjects as the develop- 
 ment of man's idea of God, or immortality, in 
 the Old Testament, though they are the very 
 questions on which the fifteen-year-old boy is 
 eager for enlightenment? 
 
 In yet another department, a biological point 
 of view might often be a help to thinkers — that is, 
 
SCIENCE AND A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY 223 
 
 the question of the mysteries of life, though 
 these things usually belong to later reflection. 
 Compare the sort of mental worry which attacks 
 some people of imagining an exact point of 
 departure for " spirit,'' with the scientist's attitude. 
 He has again and again to acknowledge himself 
 beaten in his efforts after an insight into minute 
 beginnings or workings ; he does not, however, 
 allow himself to deny any phenomenon because 
 he cannot explain or trace its origin. He knows 
 that a process is no less real because his eyes are 
 too weak, his weights too gross, and his calcu- 
 lations too mechanical to enable him to understand 
 its initial stages. At whatever phase he perceives 
 it, there he faces and acknowledges it, and re- 
 adjusts his previous conclusions to admit this 
 new element. 
 
 One consideration, of importance equally for 
 inorganic and organic work, is that of the place 
 which " laws of nature " hold in philosophy. 
 For lack of training in logic, this is often only 
 perceived confusedly, and we are misled to think 
 of these as something "absolute." Would it be 
 vain to advocate a more general instruction 
 in elementary philosophy ? It is at least easy 
 to point out how often a decade modifies cur- 
 rent theories, and to put them in their right 
 perspective by showing the alterations, more or 
 less radical, which they undergo from time to 
 time. Thus they can be recognised as what they 
 
224 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 are — namely, the formula by which we try to 
 represent to our minds the series of observed 
 phenomena, " Order " being for us a necessity 
 to clear thought, we postulate it for the universe. 
 
 I believe that chemistry and physics are gener- 
 ally felt not to have such a disturbing influence 
 on religious ideas as biology. Certainly their 
 effect as a mental training is very different, apart 
 from the general schooling in observation and 
 accuracy which both give. The distinction is, of 
 course, between experiment and deduction on 
 the one hand, and observation and reconstruction 
 on the other. One particular danger from in- 
 organic work to the undisturbed possession of a 
 religious creed lies in the gigantic proportions 
 which "matter" is apt to assume. It can 
 dominate every other aspect of reality until any- 
 thing which cannot be weighed and subjected to 
 laboratory tests appears unreal. 
 
 What has already been said about the simul- 
 taneous presentation of ideas would naturally 
 apply in some degree here. Moreover, the 
 general knowledge of biology which has been 
 advocated would help to prevent this one-sided- 
 ness. But it is not a danger likely to assail 
 children, only those growing out of childhood and 
 working in the upper forms, where specialising 
 may cause many hours to be spent on one 
 subject. Here, as has just been suggested, it 
 might be worth while to forestall future difficulties 
 
SCIENCE AND A CHILD'S PHILOSOPHY 225 
 
 by a little help in philosophical thinking. Whether 
 it came under the head of science or theology, 
 an elementary course in " Theory of Knowledge " 
 or " Metaphysics " would be sure to create in- 
 terest, and might give just the guidance necessary 
 to prevent the confusion referred to above between 
 apparent and ultimate causation. It seems possible 
 too that a little speculative theory might be intro- 
 duced into inorganic lessons as well as organic. 
 Laplace's theory, or some suitable astronomical 
 application of " laws of matter," would be useful 
 in bringing these into their right proportion in 
 children's minds — in helping towards the concep- 
 tion that these forces which stagger us by their 
 inevitableness are servants of our universe, not 
 that it is a haphazard product of them. 
 
 It seems a work of supererogation to plead 
 now in any particular direction for that co- 
 ordination of knowledge which is being so care- 
 fully worked out in many branches. But there 
 is an inclination on the science side especially to 
 dispense too readily with the direct teaching 
 which this would involve. And in practice the 
 results may be likened to turning over a large 
 correspondence without any system of filing and 
 arranging, to be carried on by an untrained 
 worker to whom it is all strange. One who has 
 a firm belief in order everywhere will hunt for 
 some system and learn it; and the genius will 
 certainly invent one ; but most will as surely be 
 Q 
 
226 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 overwhelmed and never recover from a state of 
 confusion. Are we justified in not giving at 
 least the key to the best system we have ? 
 
 Perhaps it is well to turn again to the diffi- 
 culties themselves, which have hitherto been 
 looked at from the point of view of their origin, 
 rather than as they appear to the person per- 
 plexed. For him there is always a concrete 
 problem, some contradiction between a fact and 
 an article of faith, which seems so essential a 
 part of the religious structure that the whole 
 must fall if that cannot stand. This is not the 
 place to deal with any such problems in par- 
 ticular. It is evident that all have their root in 
 a weakening of the hold of spirit. Holding to 
 what is spiritual as the alpha and omega of 
 what is natural leaves little room for contradic- 
 tion. Futile efforts at a quasi-material explana- 
 tion of spiritual facts never need confuse the 
 soul. This faith we may, I believe, most easily 
 protect from disturbance by giving early the best 
 we can of science (not limited to one side) and 
 the fullest instruction in religion in our power, 
 taking care, above all, that our trztining includes 
 specific exercise for that part of "the whole 
 man " to which by careful guiding of the intellect 
 we strive to give full play — I mean worship. 
 
XIX 
 
 THE PRESENT CONDITION OF PHYSICS 
 TEACHING IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 By C. R. MANN, Ph.D. 
 
 TWENTY-EIGHT years ago there 
 began in America a reorganisation of 
 the methods of teaching science. Prior 
 to 1 88 1 , school and even college labor- 
 atories were almost unknown. At that time 
 educational theory had reached the stage of 
 recognising that first-hand knowledge was essen- 
 tial to instruction in science. Hence the general 
 lecture demonstration courses, which up to that 
 time had been regarded as adequate courses in 
 science, and which were supposed to give the 
 students some comprehension of the broad under- 
 lying principles of science, began to be discounted. 
 There arose an insistent demand for laboratories 
 and for individual laboratory work on the part of 
 the students, and educators and science teachers 
 were united in the belief that could laboratories 
 be acquired the problems of teaching science 
 would be solved. 
 
 In response to this earnest demand, laboratories 
 227 
 
228 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 have been forthcoming, until to-day there is 
 scarcely a secondary school or college in the 
 country that does not offer laboratory work of 
 some sort in some of the sciences. Thus the 
 past thirty years has witnessed a tremendous 
 advance in the methods and facilities of science 
 teaching, an advance which has had important 
 effects on other subjects as well, since we now 
 hear of studying history, economics, and even 
 Latin by the laboratory method. 
 
 Yet in spite of the universal recognition of the 
 great progress that has been made, most educa- 
 tional authorities and many science teachers them- 
 selves are now raising the question whether, in the 
 light of past experiences in education, we in the 
 United States are now making the best possible 
 use of the laboratory facilities thus acquired — 
 whether the educational results now being obtained 
 justify the time and the money expended on the 
 laboratory work. We are beginning to see that 
 the acquisition of laboratories has not by any 
 means solved the problems of science teaching, 
 but that the experiences of the past fifteen years 
 have shown that we do not yet know how to use 
 laboratories most effectively, and have served in 
 defining for us some of the other and larger 
 problems that must now be solved before science 
 shall be able to make further progress in elemen- 
 tary education. If we would understand the 
 present conditions, we must glance for a minute 
 
PHYSICS TEACHING IN UNITED STATES 229 
 
 at several of the larger factors that have been 
 prominent in their development. 
 
 Perhaps the most powerful influence in shaping 
 the courses of study, including the laboratory 
 work, in the secondary schools has been that of 
 the colleges and universities. These institutions 
 have in the past controlled the kind of work that 
 was done in the secondary schools through their 
 entrance requirements and their preparation of 
 teachers for those schools ; and this influence 
 has been inspiring and of the greatest value in 
 establishing standards for the secondary schools 
 during their period of adolescence. Therefore 
 the |development of science in the colleges has 
 been reflected in the lower schools, so we must 
 look to the former for light on the peculiar 
 development of the latter. 
 
 During the period under, consideration there 
 has grown up in the colleges and universities a 
 profound reverence for the idol of research ; and 
 this in itself worthy reverence has been generally 
 fostered and encouraged by university authorities, 
 by making it clear to the teaching staff that 
 academic promotion would in large measure 
 depend on ability to turn out work that might be 
 classified as research. Those who were pre- 
 paring in colleges for teaching science in the 
 secondary schools very naturally became infected 
 with this research idea ; so it was not strange 
 that the phraseology and manipulations of research 
 
230 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 made their way into the elementary instruction in 
 science. College courses were designed to give 
 training in the technique of science in preparation 
 for research, and secondary-school courses were 
 modelled after the college courses. Thus the idea 
 of educating young people through science has 
 been for the time being lost sight of ; and, carried 
 away by an enthusiastic and eminently worthy 
 spirit of research, science teachers, as one of their 
 number has aptly put it, have been so busy trying 
 to teach science that they have forgotten to teach 
 boys and girls. 
 
 Had this enthusiasm over research resulted in 
 the infusion, along with the phraseology, of the 
 spirit of research into the elementary work, yet 
 greater benefits than those actually apparent 
 might have been obtained. What was actually 
 done, however, was to transplant the forms and 
 technique of the research laboratory into the high- 
 school laboratory, with the expectation that child- 
 ren of high-school age would appreciate them. 
 In other words, until very recently no effort has 
 been made to develop the scientific habit of mind 
 in connection with materials with which the 
 children are familiar, in which they are already 
 interested, and concerning which they have some 
 native curiosity. 
 
 In the modern physics course, for example, 
 the pupil is at once set to work measuring with 
 micrometer calipers, finding specific gravity by 
 
PHYSICS TEACHING IN UNITED STATES 231 
 
 seven different methods, determining various 
 physical constants, moduli, coefficients, and 
 specific this, that, and the other ; all by carefully 
 expurgated classical methods, and all in terms of 
 a highly specialised, refined, and to him unusual 
 set of units. The work is not in itself bad, but is 
 beyond the range of vision of most high-school 
 pupils — they are getting too much of a good thing. 
 The result has been to carry the work farther and 
 farther away from the vital interests of the live 
 boy and girl, and to convert many school labora- 
 tories into what the Germans call " Sterilizirungs- 
 anstalten." That very similar conditions have 
 prevailed abroad must be evident to careful 
 students of the reform movements in France and 
 Germany. 
 
 Another distinctively American influence that 
 must be considered, if we would understand 
 present conditions, is the universal practice of 
 measuring the work of the secondary schools in 
 terms of "units." A unit course is one in which 
 the subject is studied five times a week for one 
 school year. Because the curriculum contains 
 many electives, it has been found impossible to 
 arrange a course that meets twice a week for one 
 year and three times a week the next, as is done 
 with such good effect abroad. Hence, whatever 
 physics, for example, a student gets must be given 
 him in one year. There is no chance for the 
 gradual preparation of his mind for the more 
 
232 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 difficult concepts, and no repetition the following 
 years by which to clinch them. 
 
 It is, of course, a well-recognised fact that no 
 very fundamental knowledge of any subject can 
 be acquired in this limited amount of time ; 
 especially when the pupil is trying to master at 
 the same time four different subjects, and when 
 each of these subjects has been expanded to such 
 an extent by the recent advances of knowledge. 
 The number of new and often difficult concepts 
 that a student is called upon to apprehend clearly 
 each day is far too great. No child ought to be 
 expected to grasp them all, and to keep them all 
 distinct yet in ordered sequence in his mind. 
 That children do not, as a matter of fact, gain 
 clear comprehensions of the concepts presented 
 in science, and that they are, therefore, unable to 
 think clearly, thus missing one of the greatest 
 possible advantages of science study, is evident 
 on every examination paper. 
 
 A particularly good opportunity for observing 
 this failure on the part of science teaching was 
 recently given at the University of Chicago. 
 The university offered a prize scholarship in 
 physics, open to competition to the students of 
 all its affiliated schools. The schools naturally 
 allowed only their best product to compete. Yet 
 there were but two of the twenty-two papers 
 handed in that did not contain several statements 
 like the following, which are taken from these 
 
PHYSICS TEACHING IN UNITED STATES 233 
 
 prize papers : " Work is the force exerted to im- 
 part motion to matter." " I know that red light 
 has the longer wave-length because they always 
 do. It is a known fact." "The force that it will 
 take to raise a hundred pound wagon up a 5 ft. in 
 100 ft. inclined plane is 2000 lbs." (which he 
 proceeds to prove). " The work done equals the 
 amount of power that can be exerted directly 
 against the resistance that has to be overcome." 
 " By Archimedes' principle a body displaces its 
 own weight in water." " The efficiency of a 
 machine is the amount of power received divided 
 by the amount of force exerted upon it." "The 
 wave-length of red light is longer because in the 
 aurora red light stands out more than green." 
 
 Examples of this sort show clearly that the 
 pupils have not obtained from their scientific study 
 clear and definite concepts of the things studied, 
 so that clear thinking, which science, if anything, 
 should develop, is impossible. If quantitative 
 work means the acquirement of definite and 
 clearly definable concepts, which is the generally 
 accepted idea of it, then the present type of 
 quantitative work, in which so great emphasis is 
 placed on measurement for its own sake, fails to 
 attain the result sought. As stated above, the 
 so-called exact measurements are but the forms 
 and technique of research without its inner spirit, 
 and so the teaching often degenerates into a 
 mechanical operation. 
 
234 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 A careful study of the science teaching of the 
 present time in America reveals a number of 
 causes for its partial failure to inspire youth and 
 to implant definite concepts. Some of the more 
 important suggestions as to what these causes 
 may be are the following, each of which suggests 
 a line of educational investigation which must be 
 followed up experimentally before science teaching 
 will attain its greatest efficiency : — 
 
 I. The concepts taught may be intrinsically 
 too difficult to be adequately grasped by 
 children of school age. 2. The concepts 
 may be too numerous for the time avail- 
 able, and so may follow one another in too 
 rapid succession to allow of their being 
 clearly grasped as they flit by. 3. The 
 concepts have no appreciable significance 
 for the pupils, in that they are too remotely 
 connected with or derived from their daily 
 lives, and too little applicable in the 
 solution of their immediate problems. 
 4. Passing an examination may be the 
 purpose of the study, leading to an 
 attempt to memorize words rather than to 
 grasp ideas. 5. The concepts are not 
 understood by the teacher or clearly pre- 
 sented in the text, because of the muddy 
 condition of present metaphysics and the 
 lack of any clear and comprehensive know- 
 ledge of the processes of scientific reason- 
 
PHYSICS TEACHING IN UNITED STATES 235 
 
 ing. 6. The seeds of the concepts are 
 not sown early in the school life, and their 
 growth is not fostered by repetition and 
 use of them over a period of years ; so 
 that they have no concrete foundation in 
 the personal experiences of the child, but 
 are first presented to him abruptly either 
 as definitions or laws, or through a single 
 experience with some, to him, bizarre piece 
 of apparatus. 
 The limits placed on this article will not permit 
 of an extended investigation of these various 
 suggestions. In closing, in order to dispel any 
 impression that this is a too gloomy or pessi- 
 mistic view of the present situation, I will 
 forecast the future by stating some of the 
 problems that have been defined by the ex- 
 periences of the past twenty years, and mention- 
 ing the lines of work that have recently been 
 opened up in America looking toward the solu- 
 tion of these problems. When we recall that 
 the clear definition of a scientific problem is half 
 the battle, we recognise how great a contribution 
 to the future efficiency of science teaching has 
 already been made. 
 
 There have been formed in the past three or 
 four years in America a dozen or more national 
 educational organisations, each dedicated to a 
 scientific study of some one of the more im- 
 portant of the present problems. The specific 
 
236 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 problems attacked, and the organisations that 
 have attacked them, are, for science, the follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 1. How can nature study be organised in the 
 earlier grades so as to preserve the investigating 
 spirit of childhood and yet to lay in the individual 
 child through his own concrete experiences a 
 firm foundation for later scientific and technical 
 work? The American Nature Study Society 
 has just taken up work on this problem. 
 
 2. How may the study of the industries and 
 industrial work be organised and treated in the 
 later grades so as to foster the scientific habit of 
 mind and to store up in the individual those con- 
 crete experiences that are essential to his own 
 immediate growth and to laying a firm founda- 
 tion for his later study of science, pure and 
 applied ? This is one of the problems now 
 before the Society for the Promotion of Industrial 
 Education. 
 
 3. How may the work in the secondary schools 
 be reorganised so as to foster the habit of solving 
 problems scientifically, to use effectively the 
 materials gathered in the earlier work, and to 
 train in habits of clear scientific thinking ? This 
 problem is that of the American Federation of 
 Teachers of the Mathematical and the Natural 
 Sciences. 
 
 4. How may educational standards be defined 
 and enforced so as to foster and not impede 
 
PHYSICS TEACHING IN UNITED STATES 237 
 
 effective growth in educational efficiency ? The 
 National Bureau of Education is considering 
 this problem. 
 
 5. How may colleges and universities re- 
 organise their instruction in science so that a 
 broad conception of the activities of science may 
 be given to those who do not become scientists ? 
 This subject is being agitated, but no organisa- 
 tion has as yet seriously attacked it. 
 
 6. What may colleges and universities do to 
 advance the theory and practice of education and 
 to train more effectively the teachers for the 
 lower schools ? The Association of College 
 Teachers of Education exists for this problem. 
 
 7. Is the true scientist a realist, a materialist, 
 an Idealist, a pragmatist, or what ? What are 
 the philosophic foundations of modern science? 
 What is the modern logic ? While I know of no 
 society in America that is devoted exclusively 
 to the study of these problems for science, the 
 great wealth of current literature on these topics, 
 especially in France and Germany, shows that 
 they are under serious and very active con- 
 sideration. 
 
 The present is thus a time of intense activity 
 in education. For science it is a time of great 
 opportunities. On every side the opinion is ex- 
 pressed that these new problems may be solved 
 only by the scientific method of experiment. So 
 experimental schools — educational laboratories — 
 
238 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 are beginning to appear ; and the number of able 
 men who are turning to this scientific study of 
 education is rapidly increasing. Popular demand 
 for science of the right sort is on the increase, 
 and its value as an educational agency will in- 
 crease in proportion as science teachers apply 
 their own methods to their teaching problems. 
 We may therefore look forward to the future 
 with confidence, well knowing that the results of 
 the present tendencies will be that the study of 
 education will become a science, and the study 
 of science an education. 
 
XX 
 SCHOOL SCIENCE IN GERMANY 
 
 By THE EDITOR 
 
 THE writer's interest in this subject was 
 first aroused years ago in Giessen, when 
 a schoolmaster of that town produced a 
 copy of the Zeitschrift fiir den Physik- 
 alischen und Chemischen Unterricht, and enquired 
 whether we had such journals in England. Con- 
 fession was made that the equivalent hardly 
 existed, although indeed science teaching was 
 touched upon in this and that weekly or monthly. 
 Then the overwhelming answer : " But we have 
 a journal for every subject." 
 
 Returned to England, and teaching again, it 
 seemed virtuous to order the paper specially 
 (almost exclusively) devoted to the teaching of 
 physics ; and it cannot be questioned that the 
 Zeitschrift provides interesting reading for the re- 
 flective teacher, as well as numberless experimental 
 tips for those who are ready to try them. These 
 notes on the growth and present state of science 
 teaching in Germany are largely due to its help ; 
 and if this article passes on to others the same 
 
 239 
 
240 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 interest in comparisons of a suggestive sort, it 
 will have done its work and will have the Zeit- 
 schrift to thank. 
 
 To lead right up to the present from historical 
 beginnings would take us too far : an account of 
 that side of the question is to be found in a recent 
 paper by J. Norrenberg/ among others. From 
 this are taken a few important facts in the later 
 stages of the development. 
 
 At the end of the eighteenth century the schools 
 were beginning to feel the effect oi\}ae.Aufkl'drung, 
 the movement which led to an educational ideal 
 of a more robust and active humanity than that 
 represented in the litterata pietas of the earlier 
 Gymnasia, or classical schools ; ^ and they were 
 also affected by the systematic work of Linnaeus 
 in the realm of natural history. Both influences 
 tended to make a place for teaching in science, 
 and by 1800 definite hours for science work were 
 set apart in many of the Prussian Gymnasia. 
 After the fall of Napoleon there were general 
 reorganisations of the country's forces, including 
 its educational system : and it is worthy of note 
 that in Siivern's Prussian Code, of 1816, the 
 natural sciences were given two hours a week in 
 
 * Geschichte des naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts in den 
 Loheren Schulen Deutchlands. Trubner, 1904. 
 
 2 For a fuller account of German educational terms, cf. Paulsen, 
 German Education, tr. Lorenz (Fisher Unwin, 1908), preface, pp. 
 xii-xx. 
 
SCHOOL SCIENCE IN GERMANY 241 
 
 the gymnasia, and a place in the syllabus of the 
 leaving examination. Materials and teachers, 
 however, were not available in full tale, and the 
 vigour with which educational authorities pressed 
 home at this time the importance of education, 
 led to a great deal of overwork in the schools ; so 
 that when, after a long trial, the code was re- 
 constructed in 1856, natural history and physics 
 disappeared from the leaving examination of the 
 Gymnasia, and they have never been put back. 
 
 By that time, however, another type of school, 
 the Realschule — a type developed from a variety 
 of technical school of a grade lower than the 
 Gymnasium — had developed into an institution 
 aiming at a sound general education on lines less 
 classical than those previously in vogue ; and the 
 Realschule received as such official recognition 
 in 1859. Such schools had a special interest in 
 scientific knowledge, and their coming gave to 
 school science a position and an opening of which 
 it has in many ways availed itself during the last 
 half-century. 
 
 Norrenberg gives an interesting account of the 
 programme of a Realschule at Meseritz in Prus- 
 sia in 1 85 1. We find that out of forty-five periods ■ 
 a week in the first class — such was the substantial 
 allowance — two were given to physics, three to 
 chemistry, two to natural history, and three to 
 four hours to " technology," whilst in the second 
 class eight hours in all, in the third class seven 
 
242 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 hours were devoted to natural science. It may 
 be supposed that the work done in such a school 
 — democratic in tone as the Realschulen were — 
 was very much of the useful, practical, en- 
 cyclopaedic sort, but in high places there was a 
 movement on foot to emphasise the formal, mind- 
 training side of the work and the human element 
 in all knowledge of the material world. The 
 Prussian scheme of 1859 (Wiese's Code), which 
 gave the Realschulen their position as institutions 
 giving a general education, contains the following 
 words — much quoted among writers whose main 
 interest is on the humanistic side : — 
 
 "As to the success of Realschulen, every- 
 thing depends on their avoiding the danger 
 which comes of much contact with a wealth of 
 material things and of empirical knowledge, 
 when it is not impressed upon the student that 
 the deeper ground of all reality lies in the 
 mental content and value of things, and that 
 the visible, tangible world rests upon the 
 invisible and spiritual." 
 
 The exact sciences began, from this time, a 
 steady upward course ; new teachers were re- 
 quired, new demands were made on the uni- 
 versities, new professorships created, and new 
 laboratories built. The rise of a number of 
 science masters who had themselves been able 
 to enter the university from the Realschule gave 
 
SCHOOL SCIENCE IN GERMANY 243 
 
 a new impetus towards the realising of Wiese's 
 humanistic aim ; for men who had themselves 
 gained many of their ideas about life and living 
 in the study of the material world were much 
 more likely to convey these ideas to others. 
 Such men saw the need for equal opportunity 
 in all types of school which could reasonably 
 expect to send boys on to the university, and 
 urged the humanistic value of their own subjects. 
 
 As an example of the defence of the " human- 
 istic " element in science teaching we quote a 
 paper by Hofler, which appeared in the second 
 volume (1888) of the Zeitschrift already men- 
 tioned. Waving aside the view that the bearing 
 of science on latter-day life and industry can be 
 defended as ground enough for its inclusion in 
 the school course, the author goes on to say that 
 the aim of the realists is a clear grasp and en- 
 lightened valuation of the actual, both in mind 
 and matter. Such realism may oppose itself to 
 formalism and verbalism, but does not clash with 
 any true humanism. 
 
 This feature, the humanistic value of science 
 teaching, has been the key-note of much recent 
 work, and so we shall follow Hofler a little further 
 into the details of the special subject of his paper 
 — physics teaching, a matter on which he is an 
 accepted authority. 
 
 School physics is to be mind-training, with in- 
 ductive logic as its peculiar sphere — teaching 
 
244 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 complementary to the mathematician's usual train- 
 ing in deductive. It is urged that the work gives 
 facility with quite other subject-matter, and he 
 quotes with satisfaction a former pupil's report, that 
 the methods of his school physics had come use- 
 fully to mind when he had had to take sides on a 
 question of political economy. Hofler explains 
 that the best method for extracting this inductive 
 training is to hold as closely as may be to the 
 line of historical advance, getting help from such 
 studies as those of Ernst Mach;^ and that it 
 becomes the teacher's practical problem to adjust 
 the rival claims of the historic and systematic 
 orders, and to find a middle path. The history 
 of physics is to be not only a means, but an end 
 in itself; and Hofler suggests, as an example of 
 this, a course on the great astronomers (as might 
 be found for English readers in Lodge's Pioneers 
 of Science). The source of much ill-success in 
 the past is to be avoided, namely, that science 
 has been presented in ready-made doses, without 
 enough consideration as to the fitness and state 
 of development of the receiving minds ; and so 
 nature is first to be introduced as a whole to the 
 heart and mind of the child, before he is led into 
 that artificial way of ordered enquiry which man- 
 kind has only achieved after centuries.-^ At its 
 best and highest, physics is to be not only the 
 type of an exact science, but a medium through 
 
 1 Cf. Dr. Mann's views, expressed in the foregoing paper. 
 
SCHOOL SCIENCE IN GERMANY 245 
 
 which man perceives the beauty of nature and 
 its harmony in relation to himself — "Science 
 so modestly playing a part hand-in-hand with 
 the great literatures of Greece and Germany, 
 whose ideals are the highest the educator has 
 to teach." 
 
 Such a declaration of faith would probably be 
 signed by a number of leading German school- 
 masters at the present time ; it asks in general 
 for humanistic value, and in particular for critical 
 completeness in the higher classes. Indeed, 
 several recent meetings have considered the prob- 
 lem of adding the " Introduction to Philosophy " 
 to the science course, such matters as the rela- 
 tion of the psychology of the sense-organs to the 
 study of physiology, the study of such concepts 
 as matter, force, causality, giving easy chances 
 of dove-tailing. 
 
 With these wide aims the need for severe 
 selection of material arises : and the tendency is 
 towards uniformity of excision and keeping in 
 line with some standard book, which emphasises 
 important matter by change of type, confines 
 itself on the whole to the simplest material, and 
 treats it in the most complete way, since this is 
 best for the grasping of the formal side.^ 
 
 The latest summary of this work of selection 
 is to be found in the report of the Meran Com- 
 
 ' Hofler's Physik, mit Zusdtzen aus der angewandten Mathe- 
 matik, aus der Logik und Psychologie (Vieweg, 1904) does this 
 for physics. Eng. tr. in the press. 
 
246 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 mission/ where it occurs in conjunction with a 
 statement of the amount of time which those 
 interested in science claim for it. The scheme 
 of hours drawn up by the Commission has been 
 adopted for future Oberrealschulen in Bavaria, 
 and these appear as follows : — 
 
 HOURS PER WEEK 
 
 Class 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 III 
 
 IV 
 
 V 
 
 VI 
 
 VII 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX 
 
 Geography . 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Mathematics . 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 .s 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Physics 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 .3 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 Chemistry and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mineralogy. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 Biology and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Geology 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Other subjects 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 This scheme rather more than fulfils, in fact, 
 the requirements of the Commission in regard to 
 the " modern " schools. Something is also said 
 by the Commission as to the teaching of science 
 in the Gymnasien. It is urged that a good 
 grounding in natural science is highly necessary 
 also to boys attending schools of this type, at 
 least so long as such schools are in the majority 
 and educate the majority of future directing 
 classes. As a first step, it is contended, the two 
 hours a week devoted to physics should become 
 three, so that "at least in one department natural 
 
 ' Commission appointed by the Association of German Scien- 
 tists and Physicians, Meran, 1905. 
 
SCHOOL SCIENCE IN GERMANY 247 
 
 science should exert to the full its educative 
 value." The commissioners confess that they 
 are unable to cope with the problem of teaching 
 other branches of science in the classical schools, 
 except by suggesting the sacrifice of more time 
 now devoted to classics (a point impossible to be 
 gained at present), and so they content themselves 
 with pointing out to the authorities a " yawning 
 gap " in the science work of the Gymnasien. 
 
 Though the sympathy of the teacher of science 
 will instinctively go out to such as make this 
 claim, it may be questioned whether the modern 
 schoolboy (and especially the German schoolboy) 
 is not already too much pressed by the onrush 
 of an " all-sided " education. Kerschensteiner^ 
 cries out bitterly that the structure of the new 
 Bavarian Oberrealschulen is supported on four 
 pillars — as many pillars as there are sections in 
 the qualifying examinations for secondary teachers 
 — and that if there had been twenty teachers' 
 departments there would have been twenty main 
 columns on which to build the education of the 
 miserable young victims. All education, he says, 
 should have one main support, whether ancient or 
 modern languages, science, technology or art. 
 Such great ranges of intellectual activity demand 
 in their school treatment — one as much as 
 another — emphasis on practical moral notions of 
 perfection, of justice, of goodwill. 
 
 ' Grundfragen der Schulorganisation. Trubner, 1907. 
 
248 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 Many of these alternative systems are not 
 easy to realise in practice : probably some sort 
 of directly linguistic or historical study will claim 
 an important place in all education for some time 
 to come. But Kerschensteiner's view may well 
 remind us that by crowding in an extra hour for 
 a neglected subject we shall not necessarily im- 
 prove the whole ; and it may be that the position 
 of science in the Gymnasia as a non-tested option 
 is as good an arrangement as is practically possible : 
 especially if we might assume that the work on 
 the classical side aims at supplementing in some 
 way the scanty experience of the concrete and 
 inductive, as, for instance, in archaeological work. 
 
 The main principles laid down by the Com- 
 mission for the teaching of physics in all sorts of 
 schools are three : That physics should be taught 
 as a natural science, and not as a branch of 
 mathematics (since the mathematics and physics 
 are often taught by one man this contention is 
 not so unnecessary as it may seem) ; that it should 
 be taught so as to serve as a pattern for methods 
 of winning new knowledge in any experimental 
 science ; and that regularly organised practice in 
 observation and experiment at first hand is re- 
 quisite for all scholars (a greater novelty in 
 Germany than in Great Britain, and more fully 
 discussed in the sequel). 
 
 The Commission also makes full recommenda- 
 tions concerning chemistry and biology, and it 
 
SCHOOL SCIENCE IN GERMANY 249 
 
 will be seen from the scheme of hours given 
 above that in the upper classes time is devoted, 
 in the " modern " schools, to each of these sub- 
 jects as well as physics. In chemistry the practi- 
 cal element is not yet so strongly represented as 
 in English schools ; but here, as well as in physics, 
 this problem is much discussed, and individual 
 teachers are working out their own courses in 
 their own way ; rediscovering points of method 
 and management that may be old and familiar 
 to English readers, but always with a broad 
 philosophic interest that gives the impression of 
 building — slowly perhaps — on firm foundations. 
 Biology in the upper classes is only now acquiring 
 the position it claims ; in the days of rising 
 Darwinism it was to such a degree suspect among 
 the orthodox in high places that in the code of 
 1882 it was ruled out. The average time allotted 
 to . it at present is not great ; and although all 
 will agree that some acquaintance with modern 
 biological theory and practice is of the utmost 
 value in training a boy as a thinking citizen (a 
 point far too little recognised in English schools), 
 it may be impossible to find room for it in every 
 boy's time-table, — except such urgent matters of 
 personal and public hygiene as can brook no 
 hindrance. Let us hope that at least some pupils, 
 whose keenness lies that way, will get a ground- 
 ing good enough to spread among the rising 
 general public a lively and critical interest in the 
 
2SO BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 attacks of science on the problem of life, of all 
 problems most fascinating and most formidable. 
 Among girls especially, where the mathematico- 
 physical and engineering interests do not elbow 
 their way so ill-manneredly to the fore, it should 
 be possible to reach a high standard of biological 
 attainment ; but time must elapse before the 
 higher education of women in Germany reaches 
 dimensions comparable with that of the men. 
 
 It has been said that the question " in the air " 
 in Germany at the present time among science 
 teachers is that of practical classes. Noack, in 
 Giessen, was one of the first to start such work, 
 the experiments following the demonstration and 
 discussion in the ordinary classes ; later K. T. 
 Fischer, by his enquiries into the methods adopted 
 in England, America, and other countries, and 
 by his numerous publications on the subject, has 
 helped to create a body of public opinion, which, 
 though it does not accept such extreme heuristic 
 views as those of Armstrong, is at least ready 
 to put the practical exercises first, and make them 
 the basis of the whole work. The chief diffi- 
 culties in the way are the cost of equipment and 
 the training of teachers in the practical work. 
 Fischer^ sketches out a useful extension of the 
 ordinary course of university lectures in physics, 
 which should give, in four hours a week for three 
 years, a very good grounding in the teaching 
 
 1 Zeitschrift fur den Phys. undChem. Unterricht, 1907, p. i6. 
 
SCHOOL SCIENCE IN GERMANY 251 
 
 aspects of the subject. His extra course includes : 
 lectures on the growth of physical concepts (cf. 
 Mach's writings) ; exercises in manipulation ; 
 students' demonstrations of class experiments ; dis- 
 cussions regarding recent researches ; and, where 
 possible, a piece of research work (three days a 
 week for one year). Then the student spends 
 at least a year as assistant in a secondary school 
 before he is appointed to an independent post. 
 
 There seems no doubt that Germany must 
 tackle this question of training the schoolmaster 
 who is to be experimentalist and pedagogue in 
 one : and when done we may be sure it will be 
 done thoroughly. If such teachers only succeed 
 in escaping a too rigidly uniform and economical 
 organisation, the prospects are very hopeful : 
 given that the schoolboy is not worked hard 
 enough to lose his health and mental "spring." 
 We may confidently expect in the next generation 
 not only men of free and independent judgment 
 with a reverence for natural law, and counting 
 among their number many who will have been 
 inspired to widen the bounds of mental and 
 natural science, but also — a word to the hard- 
 headed — men who will carry the method of exact 
 observation and inference into fresh regions of 
 application and industry : wielding, with renewed 
 skill and renewed zeal, powers they already 
 inherit, powers of unfathomed import in the 
 economic conquest of the world. 
 
XXI 
 
 SOME PRACTICAL NOTES ON THE 
 PLANNING OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 
 
 By T. H. RUSSELL, M.A. 
 
 MANY are the infallible signs of the 
 widespread extension of science teach- 
 ing in schools and other educational 
 institutions ; and this teaching is not 
 confined merely to the holding of classes and 
 lectures, but as time goes on, more and more 
 practical work, work done actually by the students 
 themselves, is being carried on. 
 
 This increase of instruction in science has, of 
 course, necessitated the provision of suitable ac- 
 commodation, but although an endless number of 
 science-rooms and laboratories have been, and are 
 being, fitted up, the literature bearing on this 
 subject is, by no means, increasing proportionately. 
 This is due to various reasons, such as the 
 changes that the methods of science teaching have 
 undergone, variation in the requirements and con- 
 ditions in individual instances, the personal views 
 of different teachers or governing bodies, etc. 
 Nevertheless, although it would be unwise, if it 
 
 252 
 
PLANNING OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 253 
 
 were practicable, to attempt to standardise methods 
 of planning and fitting-up science-rooms and 
 laboratories for teaching definite branches of 
 science, it is considered desirable to include in 
 this series of articles on science in schools a few 
 practical notes on fittings for science teaching. 
 
 Firstly, let us consider the building or rooms 
 in which the work is to be carried on. It can 
 be hardly necessary to warn the reader of the 
 dangers of converting existing rooms into labora- 
 tories for practical work. How frequently the 
 result is unsatisfactory, if not actually disastrous, 
 can readily be seen by inspecting such conver- 
 sions in one's own neighbourhood. Doubtless the 
 cause is more often lack of funds rather than 
 mere ignorance. One sees drains and pipes in 
 awkward positions and unsightly profusion, 
 draught-flues much in evidence and equally 
 ineffective, windows and doors unsuitable in size 
 and inconvenient in situation. Then we have the 
 instance of the school that wanted a chapel but 
 built a laboratory, because they could get a grant 
 from their County Council for the latter but not 
 for the former ; afterwards converting the labora- 
 tory into a chapel. Who knows but that chapels 
 are not sometimes converted into chemical labora- 
 tories ! 
 
 Much good work, if the teaching is sound and 
 on the right lines, can be done amidst simple and 
 inexpensive surroundings; in fact, not infrequently 
 
254 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 success is inversely proportional to the amount 
 of polished mahogany and plate-glass and the 
 palatial appearance of the laboratory. On the 
 other hand, apart from the efficiency of the build- 
 ing, the moral and physical effect on the students 
 of a well-arranged, properly ventilated and lighted 
 room cannot be ignored. 
 
 Before the erection of a new science-room or 
 laboratory is commenced, the details and arrange- 
 ment of the fittings, ventilation, lighting, and 
 heating should be fully considered and settled. 
 It is no uncommon thing for the rooms to be 
 built first, and then, when completed, the question 
 of the fittings, etc., to be worked out by somebody 
 else — teacher, architect, or school-furnishing firm 
 — called in only at the last moment. 
 
 Nowadays the modern tendency here, as in 
 domestic and other buildings, is simplicity, and 
 the key-note is simplicity in character as well as 
 in arrangement. The fittings should be, as far 
 as possible, of an inexpensive nature, but, unlike 
 much of the present-day household furniture, 
 which is suitable only for these times of continual 
 change and unrest, they must be substantial. 
 
 It will probably be advantageous to consider 
 here those science-rooms and laboratories which 
 are intended more especially for work in elemen- 
 tary science, chemistry, and physics. We may 
 note, in passing, that in secondary schools where 
 the mixed system is avoided, that is, where 
 
PLANNING OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 255 
 
 separate class-rooms, etc., are provided for the 
 boys and girls, it would not be necessary to 
 duplicate "rooms for special instruction in science, 
 art, etc." The number of hours given to these 
 subjects is so small that some arrangement can 
 generally be made for such rooms to be used by 
 the boys and girls in turn. 
 
 When school laboratories are being planned it 
 is very desirable that both future enlargement 
 and changes are kept in mind, as these are so 
 often required afterwards owing to increase of 
 students or alterations in the methods and 
 character of the teaching. The fittings must be 
 arranged so as to give the instructor ease of 
 supervision of, and access to, the pupils, and the 
 latter the least possible excuse for constantly 
 moving from one part of the laboratory to 
 another. The work of the laboratory-attendant 
 and the cleaner, who have to keep the room in 
 a clean, neat, and orderly condition, must also be 
 considered and reduced to a minimum. 
 
 Within so limited a space it is not proposed to 
 attempt to describe all the fittings for chemical 
 and physical laboratories, but merely to point 
 out some of the general principles to be ob- 
 served. 
 
 Science-rooms for elementary work are usually 
 provided with a simple type of bench for the 
 pupils and a long table for the teacher, with some 
 fixed shelves or short benches against the walls ; 
 
256 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 cupboards and drawers, a blackboard, and one or 
 more sinks complete the essentials. The benches 
 should be strong and steady, but narrow, that is, 
 not more than twenty-eight or thirty inches wide, 
 with the pupils on one side only, so that they all 
 face the teacher. But the space between the 
 benches, say, at least two feet nine inches, must 
 allow the teacher access to each pupil. Some illus- 
 trations of special fittings for science-rooms were 
 given in the writer's Planning and Fitting-up of 
 Chemical and Physical Laboratories, published by 
 Batsford in 1903. Small schools are frequently 
 provided with only one room for the whole of the 
 science-teaching, and therefore require special 
 modifications, but the larger ones, where more 
 advanced work is done, have separate rooms for 
 chemistry, physics, botany, biology, etc. 
 
 It is usually stated that chemical laboratories 
 should be lofty, but although this may lessen the 
 unpleasantness of the unavoidable fumes and 
 smells, it renders the efficient ventilation and 
 warming somewhat more difficult. The labora- 
 tory may be lighted by skylights or windows, or by 
 both ; the windows should be kept high, at least 
 five feet above the floor, especially as wall-space 
 is most valuable for shelving, etc. Light from the 
 right or left hand is better than front or back light 
 for work at the benches. The laboratories and 
 lecture-room are very often placed on the top 
 floor in secondary schools ; this arrangement has 
 
PLANNING OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 257 
 
 the advantage of making it easier to obtain a 
 particularly good light for them. 
 
 Ventilation that is sufficient for ordinary class- 
 rooms may be insufficient for large chemical 
 laboratories, but the system, whether "natural" 
 or mechanical, that is best to employ depends 
 mainly on questions of magnitude, cost, position, 
 etc. It is frequently urged that the " plenum " 
 system is unsuitable for schools, as its proper 
 working demands the windows being always kept 
 closed, and therefore does not encourage the 
 pupils to open the windows in their own homes. 
 This disadvantage can be partially overcome by 
 working the " plenum " system in the winter only. 
 The reverse system — the " vacuum " or sucking- 
 out — if less reliable and thorough, is much less 
 costly. " Natural " ventilation is gradually be- 
 coming better understood ; but as it depends 
 solely on the air-movements due to the wind 
 blowing, and to the sun shining on one side 
 of the building only, the results are necessarily 
 extremely variable ; and not eminently satisfac- 
 tory where a large number of human beings are 
 crowded together. In a school laboratory it is 
 often highly desirable to be able in emergency to 
 get a strong through-draught by means of open 
 windows. 
 
 The walls should preferably be washable, and 
 light in tint ; a high dado of glazed bricks or tiles 
 with distempered plaster above makes a suitable 
 
258 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 surface. The floor must admit of being easily and 
 thoroughly cleansed, and the whole length of every 
 pipe, drain, or channel below the floor must be very 
 readily accessible. It is a great advantage to keep 
 down the dust on the floor, and there are now 
 several preparations for this purpose on the market. 
 " Florigene" was tried, and reported upon in the 
 School World for April. The test is described as 
 most satisfactory ; not only was the dust rolled up 
 in a layer of oil and easily removed during the 
 process of sweeping the floor, but its rise and 
 consequent dissemination was prevented during 
 school-hours. Its use was not considered to entail 
 any additional fire-risk. It was noticed the floor 
 became somewhat darker in colour and that 
 the oil was apt to come off" on any clothes 
 brought into contact with the floor, but these 
 effects would probably somewhat pass off after 
 a time ; the manufacturers suggest its use 
 three times a year only. It can be applied to 
 wood, concrete, stone or polished floors, or to 
 linoleum. One of these preparations contains 
 an antiseptic. Then there are the " Ronuk 
 Sanitary Polishes," applicable to all kinds of 
 wood floors ; the manufacturers claim that the 
 pores of the wood are filled up, so that no 
 germs or dirt are harboured in the floor- 
 surface, that their preparations are largely com- 
 posed of antiseptic materials but without any 
 disagreeable smell, and that scrubbing is dispensed 
 
BALAr^a Rd 
 
 ADVANCED CHEMICAL 
 LABORATORV 
 
 T. H. RUSSELL, 
 ARCHITECT, 
 INV. & DELT. 
 
 PREP!i R~ 
 ^ JTORE 
 
 SCIENCE BUILDINGS 
 FOR SCHOOLS. 
 
 SUGGESTED ARRANGEMENT 
 
 OF CHEMICAL AND 
 
 PHYSICAL LABORATORIES 
 
 IN A DETACHED BLOCK. 
 
 APPARATUS ADVANCED PWJ/CAL 
 LmORJKTORy 
 5 10' 20 30 40 
 
 I+h4- 
 
 H f- 
 
 -+- 
 
 4- 
 
 -+- 
 
 -+- 
 
 B, Bench. BB, Blackboard. 
 D, Desk. DC, Draug^ht-closet. 
 S, Sink. SB, Switch-board. 
 
 XALC OF r£ET 
 
 BK, Books. BS, Balance-shelf. C, Cupboard. 
 
 FB, Furnace-bench. G, Galvanometers. P, Pier. 
 
 SC, Screens. SS, Shelves. T, Table. 
 
PLANNING OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 261 
 
 with, only dry rubbing being necessary after the 
 first application. 
 
 Now as to the arrangement of the students' 
 benches in the chemical laboratory. As a general 
 rule, they should not be fixed along the walls, 
 chiefly on account of difficulty of proper super- 
 vision ; draught-closets, shelves for bottles and 
 balances, combustion-benches, cupboards, and 
 blackboards are better against the walls. 
 
 Work-benches are single (about two feet six 
 inches wide) or double (four feet six inches to five 
 feet wide) ; in the latter case half the students face 
 one way and half the other, but these double benches 
 are obviously more economical of floor-space ; the 
 gangways should be at least five feet wide, so that 
 the teacher may be able to pass between the two 
 rows of students. Dr. R. W. Stewart has most 
 carefully worked out a set of formulae for the best 
 dimensions of the room to secure economy of floor- 
 space (see School World, January, 1905). There 
 should be a floor-area of thirty to thirty-six square 
 feet per student, including all gangways, etc. Each 
 worker, or pair of workers, if they work in twos, will 
 want from three feet six inches to four feet length of 
 bench. The demonstrator's table is usually some- 
 what raised above the floor-level, and there should 
 be sufficient space in front for the students to be 
 able to stand round to see an experiment, etc. 
 The bench-tops are thirty-four to thirty-six 
 inches high with cupboards and drawers below 
 
262 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 (to contain the apparatus, etc., entrusted to the 
 workers), a separate set, if possible, for each class. 
 There should be a sink, gas and water taps, 
 rubbish-tray, and perhaps electric-current terminals 
 within reach at each bench-place, but the working 
 space should not be hampered with partitions, 
 tiers of shelves, etc., although a small draught-hood 
 or enclosure is convenient. Small strongly made 
 balances may be provided for each student, but 
 the delicate ones are best kept in a separate 
 adjacent room, or at any rate in enclosures fixed 
 against the wall of the laboratory (preferably at 
 a distance from the draught-closets). It is often 
 said the balance-room should not be entered direct 
 out of the chemical laboratory, as the fumes from 
 it are injurious to the balances. On the other hand, 
 youthful students are apt to spend too long there 
 talking and wasting time if it is not under the 
 direct control of the teacher ; sometimes a window 
 or glazed screen can be arranged so as to over- 
 come this disadvantage. Also on account of the 
 acid fumes in the laboratory, metal-work should 
 be avoided or reduced in amount as far as possible ; 
 this refers especially to^ drawer-knobs, gas taps, 
 etc., usually seen in a corroded and unsightly con- 
 dition. Bronzed ironmongery stands better than 
 polished brass. 
 
 In laboratories and science-rooms there is a 
 greater fire-risk than in the other rooms in school 
 buildings, hence special precautions should be 
 
PLANNING OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 263 
 
 maintained to ensure the prevention of fire. Last 
 year the London County Council issued the 
 following revised regulations on this subject : — 
 
 REGULATIONS FOR THE PREVENTION OF FIRE 
 IN LABORATORIES AND SCIENCE-ROOMS. 
 
 (i) When the laboratory is in use, an adult teacher must 
 always be in charge; 
 
 (2) In laboratories which are used only by day scholars, the 
 head master or head mistress must have the custody of the 
 key, which must not be left finally in the possession of 
 the laboratory monitor after the close of the school ; 
 
 (3) When there are evening classes a second key is provided, 
 which must be in the custody of the responsible teacher ; 
 
 (4) The person in charge, at the time of leaving, must 
 satisfy himself that all taps are turned off; 
 
 (5) Charcoal that has been heated must be placed in 
 galvanised sheet-iron boxes, which must always be closed 
 when not in use, and which should be mounted on asbestos 
 or stone slabs ; 
 
 (6) No imauthorised person must be permitted to enter the 
 laboratory when it is not in use ; 
 
 (7) The receiver of the waste from the sinks must be care- 
 fully cleaned out at least once a week ; 
 
 (8) Inflammable liquids (such as waste alcohol, methylated 
 spirits, ether) must not be poured down the sinks ; 
 
 (9) Very great care must be taken when using sodium, 
 potassium, or phosphorus (or when cleaning out bottles which 
 have contained these substances), to avoid dropping and losing 
 small pieces about the laboratory ; 
 
 (10) Sodium, potassium, and phosphorus must not be kept 
 with other chemicals in the laboratory, but must be in the 
 custody of the head teacher, who is responsible for keeping 
 them in a locked compartment, of which he alone must retain 
 the key. Special lockers are supplied for this purpose ; 
 
264 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 (11) When evening classes are held in the same laboratory, 
 another supply of these materials must be similarly retained 
 in the custody of the evening-school teacher ; 
 
 (12) All bottles containing dangerous chemicals should be 
 distinctly marked ; 
 
 (13) The school-keeper must make a round of inspection 
 every night after work is over in the laboratory, in order to 
 make certain that all taps are turned off, and that there is no 
 danger of fire ; 
 
 (14) For the prompt treatment of bums and acid wounds, 
 a bottle of carron oil should be kept ready for use in each 
 laboratory or science-room. 
 
 MB. — These regulations are to be printed in large type, 
 mounted on cardboard, and hung in a conspicuous place in 
 the laboratory. 
 
 The draught-closets are very important fittings 
 in a chemical laboratory. If there are small 
 draught-hoods or enclosures on the benches, as 
 already mentioned, one closet to every eight or 
 ten bench-places is generally found sufficient, 
 otherwise the proportion should be somewhat 
 larger. These closets should be two feet six 
 inches to three feet long and about nineteen 
 inches deep, with gas laid on inside. Great 
 care should be taken to obtain a reliable and 
 rapid extraction of the air in the closets that 
 is not readily reversed by the general ventilation 
 of the room. A gas-burner (not necessarily a 
 Bunsen burner) placed within a vertical flue or 
 pipe is the simplest way of obtaining independent 
 action ; the fullest advantage is then taken of the 
 heat from evaporations conducted in the closet. 
 
PLANNING OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 265 
 
 Now that electric current is becoming more and 
 more readily obtainable, a small fan or blower is 
 often adopted for this work. Where a number 
 of flues or ducts are grouped together, special 
 care must be taken to equalise the extraction by 
 graduating their sizes. The various methods of 
 dealing with the ventilation of both draught- 
 closets and the laboratories themselves were fully 
 dealt with in a paper given by the writer in 
 January, 1904, and published in abstract in the 
 building papers {Builder, for Feb. 5, and Architect, 
 etc., for Feb. 12). 
 
 The pros and cons of the question of combining 
 the laboratory and the lecture-room into one 
 room cannot be discussed here, but it will be 
 obvious that with a few modifications the labora- 
 tory can be easily made suitable for a certain 
 amount of lecturing or demonstrating, in addition 
 to the regular practical work. One lecture-room 
 is usually made to serve for both the chemical 
 and physical departments. The lecture-table can 
 hardly be too long ; plenty of space must be 
 reserved for working the lantern which is now so 
 largely used for lecture purposes as to be con- 
 sidered quite indispensable. A straight rake for 
 the seats is generally adopted ; the correct step- 
 ping of the seats on a hollow or isacoustic curve 
 to ensure for each student an uninterrupted view 
 of the experiments is not so usual. 
 
 Only the briefest space is left for reference to 
 
266 BROAD LINES IN SCIENCE TEACHING 
 
 physical laboratories. For physical work, what 
 is most required is plenty of space both on the 
 bench and, at other times, between them. Free- 
 dom from all vibration is much more necessary 
 here than in chemical laboratories, and so is 
 dryness for the apparatus. Certain of the opera- 
 tions demand particularly good light. As already 
 mentioned, the laboratories are often on an upper 
 floor in secondary schools, but sufficient steadi- 
 ness can generally be obtained up there for the 
 class of physical work that would be undertaken 
 in these school laboratories. For all but very 
 elementary work it is most convenient to have 
 several tables that can without much difficulty be 
 moved about the laboratory. In advanced labora- 
 tories it is usual to provide some particularly firm 
 supports into the construction of which wood does 
 not enter ; these are for work with instruments 
 that require to be accurately levelled and adjusted; 
 they are generally slate or stone slabs, supported 
 on brick or concrete piers, or built into the walls. 
 For school laboratories the floor-area per student 
 (including gangways, etc.) may be reckoned at 
 about thirty square feet, but forty is advisable if 
 all the apparatus is stored in the room. 
 
 A dark room is a necessity, not only for pho- 
 tography, but also for optical work. One can 
 often be fitted-up under the raised seats of the 
 lecture-room. The proper ventilation of it is 
 frequently overlooked ; it is not always realised 
 
PLANNING OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES 267 
 
 that light will not go round bends if there is no 
 reflecting surface, but air will do so. 
 
 Some brief references have already been made 
 to the provision of electric current for experi- 
 mental work. This is a subject that requires the 
 most careful consideration, even to the smallest 
 detail. Unfortunately the difficulties of the 
 service are greatly increased by the variation in 
 voltage of the current suitable for the different 
 purposes. For experimental work at the bench 
 in chemical and physical laboratories currents up 
 to twenty-five volts are perhaps the most useful, 
 but wires carrying heavier currents are required 
 for the arc lantern in the lecture-room, electric 
 furnaces, etc., while at the lecturer's table it is 
 convenient to have both high and low tension 
 terminals. Frequently when a motor generator 
 can be run from the supply mains, wires from it 
 as well as from the storage cells are taken to the 
 students' benches. 
 
 It is hoped that the foregoing suggestions and 
 observations, brief and incomplete though they 
 are obliged to be, may prove of some interest and 
 assistance to those who have new laboratories to 
 arrange and equip, or old ones to remodel. 
 
 THE END 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 WILLIAM BBENDON AND SON, LTD. 
 
 PLYMOUTH