ON THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. 57 



of quantitative relations between these facts and the order in which 

 they occur. In this respect physics occupies the great middle ground 

 between pure mathematics, in which the physical facts or axioms are 

 few, and the principles or derived logical relations are the whole con- 

 tent, -and chemistry in which the quantitative logical relations are few 

 and the systematic arrangement of the facts forms the body of the 

 science. 



The discovery and the elaboration of the more important physical 

 laws are justly reckoned among the grandest achievements of the 

 human intellect. The character of a discovery, the persons to whom 

 it was due, its philosophical importance, or bearing upon other parts of 

 a science, the representation of the quantitative relations by symbols 

 and the development of still other relations by the application of 

 mathematical analysis, some facility in interpreting such short hand 

 quantitative statements of physical principles, in short, the theory of 

 physics, which is certainly the major part of this science, can best be 

 inculcated by the use of a text-book and recitations. Surely any teach- 

 ing which does not insist upon the philosophical and quantitative rela- 

 tions, however interesting and brilliant the experiments, or however 

 entertaining the facts presented, or however it busies the student with 

 laboratory exercises, does not teach the science of physics. 



But granting that the theory of physics is the backbone of the 

 science, there is no necessity of making it bare bone besides. The 

 lectures should clothe it with flesh and blood. Physics is' not an ab- 

 stract science like mathematics, and the true physicist objects as much 

 to making physics a mathematical gymnasium as he does to its appro- 

 priation as a toy for the kindergarten. 



The experimental lecture affords the teacher an opportunity to 

 present and explain to the student under the most favorable conditions 

 the comparatively few important phenomena which he has not already 

 met with. By favorable conditions it is meant that these unfamiliar 

 phenomena often require the use of apparatus so delicate and costly 

 that it is not to be trusted in the hands of any but an expert; or that 

 the matter in question may be so overlaid and obscured by contempo- 

 raneous phenomena that the learner can recognize and follow it only 

 with the assistance of a guide. Much also can be explained in the 

 lectures as to the apparatus used for the determination of physical 

 constants and the mode of conducting measurements which has no 

 place in the ordinary text-book, and further the language may be less 

 formal and the mode of presentation may embody much of the personal 

 feeling and enthusiasm of the lecturer, both of which are entirely out 

 of place in a text-book of the principles of a science. There will 

 remain, however, a number of phenomena which, on account of their 

 general minuteness, can not be satisfactorily exhibited in the lectures 



