278 THE NA TU RE-STUD Y RE I VE W [ 2 : s-nov., ,906 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



EDITED BY PROFESSOR W. LOCHHEAD 

 Macdonald College, Ste. Anne de Belle vue, Quebec 



Our Canadian readers will no doubt be pleased to know that Dr. John 

 Brittain, of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, N. B., one of 

 the best and most enthusiastic teachers of nature-study in Canada, will con- 

 tribute a series of articles on "The Foundations of Chemistry in Nature- 

 Study" during the coming year. His first article "Chemical Union" 

 appears in this number. 



V. W.Jackson, B.A., Demonstrator in Biology at the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural College, Guelph, for the past two vears, has been appointed Instructor 

 in Nature-Studv for the district of Auckland, New Zealand, and has already 

 entered upon his duties. He will have general charge of the nature-study 

 work, including school-gardens, and will assist the teachers by lectures, con- 

 ferences and visits to their schools. Much attention will be given to the 

 agricultural phase of nature-study. 



THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHEMISTRY IN NATURE-STUDY 



I. Chemical Union 



At the basis of all the natural forms we see — organic and 

 inorganic — lies the fact of chemical union or combination. To learn 

 to distinguish it, by its effects, from mere mechanical mixture, it is 

 not necessary for the learners to wait until they have become 

 acquainted with the molecular and atomic theories. Only very simple 

 apparatus and cheap material are required for the experiments which 

 follow. 



Each member of the class is supplied with a small stick of dry 

 white wood. The sticks are held for a few seconds in the flame of a 

 spirit lamp. At once a soft black substance appears in the heated 

 part of the stick— a substance which will mark on paper and which 

 will be found to be insoluble in water. The pupils recognize this as 

 charcoal which they may be told is a form of carbon. Now the 

 question is, where was the charcoal before the stick was heated? 

 We could not see it before that was done. 



