SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN BOARD SCHOOLS. 615 



very diflQcult to eradicate ; and their mental attitude toward their 

 studies is usually a false one. 



The first fruits of my experience were made public in 1884, at 

 one of the Educational Conferences held at the Health Exhibi- 

 tion. On that occasion, and again at the British Association 

 meeting at Aberdeen in 1885, in the course of my address as presi- 

 dent of the Chemical Section, after somewhat sharply criticising 

 the methods of teaching in vogue, I pointed out what I conceived 

 to be the directions in which improvements should be effected. 

 Others meanwhile were working in the same spirit, and conse- 

 quently, in 1887, a number of us willingly consented to act as a 

 committee " for the purpose of inquiring into and reporting upon 

 the present methods of teaching chemistry." This committee was 

 appointed at the meeting of the British Association in York, and 

 consisted of Prof. W. R. Dunstan (secretary). Dr. J. H. Gladstone, 

 Mr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt, Prof. H. McLeod, Prof. Meldola, 

 Mr. Pattison Muir, Sir Henry E. Roscoe, Dr. W. J. Russell (chair- 

 man), Mr. W. A. Shenstone, Prof. Smithells, Mr. Stallard, and 

 myself. A report was presented at the Bath meeting in 1888, 

 giving an account of replies received to a letter addressed to the 

 head masters of schools in which elementary chemistry was 

 taught. In 1889 and 1890 reports were presented in which were 

 included suggestions drawn up by myself for a course of elemen- 

 tary instruction in physical science. 



Let me at once emphasize the fact that these schemes were for 

 a course of instruction in physical science not in chemistry 

 alone. The objects to be accomplished by the introduction of 

 such lessons into schools have since been more fully dwelt on in a 

 paper which I read at the College of Preceptors early in 1891, 

 printed in the Educational Times in May of that year. After 

 pointing out that literary and mathematical studies are not a 

 sufficient preparation in the great majority of cases for the work 

 of the world, as they develop introspective habits too exclusively, 

 I then said, in future boys and girls generally must not be con- 

 fined to desk studies ; they must not only learn a good deal about 

 things ; they must also be taught how to do things, and to this 

 end must learn how others before them have done things by actu- 

 ally repeating not by merely reading about what others have 

 done. We ask, in fact, that the use of eyes and hands in unravel- 

 ing the meaning of the wondrous changes which are going on 

 around us in the world of Nature shall be taught systematically 

 in schools generally that is to say, that the endeavor shall be 

 made to inculcate the habits of observing accurately, of experi- 

 menting exactly, of observing and 'experimenting with a clearly 

 defined and logical purpose, and of logical reasoning from obser- 

 vation and the results of experimental inquiry. Scientific habits 



