5 z6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



closing exercises of the examination of the pupils of the academy, 

 which took place at the Opera-House before a large audience, the fol- 

 lowing were the results from the chemical class of fourteen students : 

 Samples were taken at random from the bottles of different commer- 

 cial salts (single bases and acids) by one of the trustees and given to 

 each student. Of the fifty analyses made in a little over one hour, 

 not a single failure was made. The class had studied theoretical chem- 

 istry for seven months three times a week, one hours recitation each ; 

 after which they had table-practice for eight weeks, or twenty-four 

 school-hours ; to which as many more were voluntarily added by the 

 students after school, making forty-eight hours in all of analytical 

 work." 



This brief statement is full of important suggestions. The pre- 

 liminary study of theoretical chemistry for seven months, probably in 

 the ordinary way of lesson-learning, was, no doubt, somewhat helpful ; 

 and it would be well for all pupils, in entering upon a course of exer- 

 cises in analysis, to be possessed of some elementary chemical ideas. 

 But the practical experience of actual investigation is so much a thing 

 by itself, that those who have read up do not really have the great 

 advantage over beginners that might be supposed. The pupil who 

 goes to work fresh will very soon get the elementary conceptions 

 needed, and he will then read chemistry with redoubled interest, and 

 to better purpose. 



But what is significant in this case is that, when the pupils came to 

 practical work, they voluntarily doubled their tasks, and this, too, not- 

 withstanding the "hardness" of exercises that had to be mastered un- 

 helped. The mode of study was attractive because there is no pleasure 

 like the sense of power that comes from conquest. There is, moreover, 

 a fine satisfaction in that free play of the faculties which self-instruc- 

 tion implies ; and Professor Rains says, " The students are allowed 

 entire freedom while at work." The superiority of this mode of study 

 can no longer be questioned ; and Professor Rains has done a very 

 important service to education in thus facilitating the thorough and 

 at the same time pleasurable pursuit of one of its most useful branches. 



THE EXTREME RARITY OF PREMATURE BURIALS. 



By Professor WILLIAM SEE, M.D. 



THE article on " Premature Burials," in the January (1880) num- 

 ber of this journal, from its tendency to magnify the impor- 

 tance of the probabilities of premature burial in cases of trance and 

 suspended animation, and from its assertion that, in effect, the ordi- 

 nary physician or general practitioner is not capable of reaching a 



