PHYSICS IN GENERAL EDUCATION. 21 



It seems, therefore, not improper to raise the question, What can 

 this Association do, or, more specifically, what can this section do, to 

 increase the efficiency of instruction in physics ? 



I do this the more willingly for the reason that a considerable ma- 

 jority of the members of the section are engaged in this instruction 

 during the greater portion of the year. In America a few only are 

 privileged to devote themselves to original research. Here instruction 

 and investigation, to a great extent, go hand in hand, and it is gener- 

 ally admitted that it is better so. The teacher does not reach his 

 greatest efficiency, indeed he must fail completely, unless he contin- 

 ues a student, not of the works of men alone, but of Nature herself. 

 On the other hand, some of the best and most fruitful inspirations of 

 the investigator spring from his contact with those to whom he is 

 communicating the finished products of his work. The history of 

 science goes to show that many, perhaps most of those who have con- 

 tributed to its advancement, have been great teachers. We neglect 

 our duty, then, when we fail to give attention at proper times and 

 under proper circumstances to the improvement of methods of in- 

 struction. 



Perhaps in no other department of science has a greater change in 

 these methods been wrought during the last ten years than in physics. 

 And yet this change has been going on in an irregular, unmethodical 

 sort of a way. There has been little or no concerted action among 

 those interested and engaged in the work. Although all have had 

 practically the same end in view, each individual has, in the main, 

 worked out his own solution of the problem in accordance with his 

 own views, modified and often largely controlled by the conditions 

 and restrictions to which he was subjected. 



It is not surprising, therefore, that results attained should in many 

 cases be widely different and, on the whole, not entirely satisfactory. 



In this new instruction many things have been attempted that 

 could not be, and some things that ought not to be, accomplished. 

 That overburdened and somewhat obnoxious word practical has found 

 a place in our vocabulary, and we hear much of practical instruction in 

 physics, whatever that may mean. 



The subject, considered as a whole, naturally divides itself into 

 two parts, pertaining respectively to higher instruction and elementary 

 instruction : instruction in the colleges and instruction in the schools. 

 Let us briefly consider each of these. 



In referring to higher or collegiate instruction, it will be remem- 

 bered that I do not include that of the post-graduate course in the 

 university, properly so called, for which laboratories for research are 

 equipped and maintained, and to which students are admitted only 

 when thoroughly prepared by previous training. Fortunately for 

 American students, a few such courses in physics are now open in this 

 country, and it goes without saying that those who are conducting 



