522 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



They would then have been trained in accurate thinking, 

 concise methods of investigation and clear expression of results 

 With a wide and generous syllabus they would acquire some 

 knowledge of their environment and the laws controlling it. 

 If they did not lose their plasticity and intellectual self-reliance 

 in the process, they would prove invaluable Imperial assets 

 in various producing capacities, even though an engineering 

 training only produced the above results for engineering and 

 did not endow boys with them for all or any of their possible 

 life occupations. 



But meanwhile, owing to causes overwhelming at the 

 present, most of the boys under consideration are not able to 

 avail themselves even of the systematic science which does 

 exist at public schools. Hence the importance of organising 

 the divisions in which such boys get their one opportunity 

 of a little science, so as to do them the maximum of good and 

 the minimum of harm. There should be no difficulty in 

 arranging a course that should also be profitable to boys 

 who will begin the systematic study of science on leaving 

 these divisions. 



Under existing conditions the writer has found the following 

 scheme, here briefly outlined, gives the most satisfactory results 

 in stimulating interest and developing a frame of mind favourable 

 to the independent acquisition of further knowledge later on and 

 also in giving the boy a certain conception of scientific method 

 which has stayed with him. 



Experimental work bearing on whatever problem may be 

 under investigation is done throughout by the boy himself 

 and this is accompanied by occasional demonstration, informa- 

 tion giving, summarising and heuristic lecturettes. The practical 

 work is taken in small divisions which make a form of heuristic 

 seminar possible. The boys begin with simple Natural History 

 and the work of great biologists such as Darwin, Pasteur, 

 Lister. The matter is not taken as a " subject " but simple 

 chemical and physical phenomena necessary to the issue are 

 considered ; thus the presence of an atmosphere, the nature 

 of oxidation, respiration and combustion are investigated ex- 

 perimentally as they occur. It is neither chemistry nor 

 physics nor biology but all these " subjects " are drawn upon 

 as necessary. The boys use simple microscopes as well as 

 barometer tubes, air pumps and test-tubes in the same course ; 



