IV. ON SCIENTIFIC RECORDING, DRAW- 

 ING AND DESCRIPTION 



IN the preceding chapters I have tried to make 

 plain the real aims and profitable procedure in labo- 

 ratory study. There is one phase of the latter, how- 

 ever, of such importance as to require separate 

 treatment, namely, the making of scientific records. 



Exact recording of the results of laboratory work 

 has several values. It is of great utility in general 

 education for the training it gives in preciseness and 

 proportion in exposition of original data. Again, it 

 imposes direction, definiteness, and completeness in 

 observation and reasoning. Finally, and pedagogi- 

 cal ly most important, it enables the teacher to make 

 sure the student has actually and fully worked out 

 his topic's. A clever student may by verbal answers 

 alone convey the impression that he has seen an 

 object fully, when in fact he has seen it but superfi- 

 cially ; but he cannot make a scientific drawing or 

 description of an object until he has first seen it 

 accurately and completely, and realized its construction. 



The aim of the student in recording the results of 

 his study upon any topic should always be to make 

 his nvord a piece of good scientific exposition, a 



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