748 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is not the label that costs, but the thing 

 labeled. Economy admonishes us to 

 stop with symbols. Phenomena are 

 displayed only as realities ; and things 

 real are property and must be paid for. 

 Experimental facilities are expensive, 

 and museum collections represent im- 

 mense labor. This is a potent reason 

 why there is so much sham in so-called 

 scientific education; or, perhaps, we 

 might more properly say why it falls so 

 far short of what is expected from it. 

 The poor student who cannot get the 

 objects and materials for observation 

 and experiment, is tempted if not com- 

 pelled to make such shift as he can 

 with books and pictures. This is a dif- 

 ference between the two systems of 

 education which is deep and must con- 

 tinue, and it will operate powerfully to 

 hinder the popular spread of true sci- 

 ence. There are, of course, differences 

 in the expensiveness of different branch- 

 es of scientific study ; botany, for exam- 

 ple, being cheaper than chemistry. Of 

 the two classes that may be taken gen- 

 erally as most ignorant of the science 

 of their business, cooks and congress- 

 men, it will cost at least ten times more 

 properly to educate the former than 

 the latter. 



Yet this difficulty of scientific edu- 

 cation is by no means incapable of miti- 

 gation, although but comparatively little 

 has thus far been done to overcome it. 

 The training of professional scientific 

 students for the work of research has 

 hitherto engrossed the main attention, 

 and here much has been done to sim- 

 plify and cheapen operations. Experi- 

 mental physics is more expensive than 

 chemistry, but efficient efforts are mak- 

 ing to reduce the old scales of cost. 

 "We notice that, in the scientific school 

 at South Kensington in London, they 

 have adopted the plan of putting the 

 student methodically at work, at the 

 outset, to make his own apparatus. 

 This is an important step, as a short ap- 

 prenticeship of this kind soon renders 

 him to a very considerable degree in- 



dependent of instrument-makers, and 

 enables him to go on with his in- 

 quiries by utilizing resources that may 

 come to hand in almost any circum- 

 stances. 



Yet the problem from our point of 

 view is still unresolved. Scientific edu- 

 cation, in its popular aspect, does not 

 aim to make investigators or discover- 

 ers; it only proposes to acquaint general 

 students with some of the branches of 

 science which may be selected, but to 

 do it by actual familiarity with their 

 subject-matter. What may be now 

 fairly demanded is, that a certain por- i 

 tion of physics, chemistry, botany, or 

 zoology, be actually mastered ; that is, 

 their phenomena and facts shall be seen, 

 and their principles known by all who 

 take a liberal course of study. This is 

 indispensable to counteract the evils of 

 a purely book education, and to avoid 

 the uncertainty and illusiveness that 

 prevail in the realm of mere words. 

 The importance of this end being ad- 

 mitted, the question remains, how to 

 provide the most economical facilities 

 for this kind of study. It is beyond 

 doubt possible, by the employment of 

 suitable objects that are everywhere 

 available, to give reality and thorough- 

 ness to scientific study without great 

 expense ; but the method of doing this 

 has yet to be elaborated. Perhaps the 

 only exception to this statement is bot- 

 any, which can be studied so cheaply 

 that there is no excuse, on the score of 

 cost, for not introducing it forthwith 

 into all common schools. A method 

 has been developed, which is rigidly 

 based upon the principle that the pupil 

 shall study the actual objects at first 

 hand, so that he may "know what he 

 knows " of this interesting subject, and 

 not stop with book representations of 

 it, while the objects of examination are 

 to be had everywhere by merely pluck- 

 ing them. Something like this, as far 

 as it shall prove possible, is yet to be 

 accomplished for the popular study of 

 physics, chemistry, and zoology. 



