SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION IN GIRLS' SCHOOLS. 249 



ley tells us it does, in its usefulness as a means of educational disci- 

 j)line, then the methods by which it is learned must be such as to train 

 the eye in observation, the hand in dexterity, and the mind in deduc- 

 tion and verification. Otherwise no educational discipline can be 

 expected from it. It is obvious that these ends can only be attained 

 by practical work; and for practical work two things are absolutely 

 essential — time and apparatus. Four hours a week spent in practical 

 work, together with one or two hours of more didactic instruction, 

 is the least amount of time from which any real benefit can be de- 

 rived. Furthermore, the practical work must be arranged for in 

 periods of two consecutive hours, otherwise a large part of the benefit 

 will be lost; and, if the seven branches of science now forming 

 part of a girl's education are to be taught with any degree of thor- 

 oughness, this amount of time must be consumed in the case of each 

 and all of them. It seems needless to say that such a state of things 

 does not, and without injustice to the non-scientific side of education 

 can not exist. "We are come, then, to a deadlock. To carry out the 

 principles laid down by scientists for scientific instruction in a num- 

 ber of branches requires an amount of time which no student can 

 atford to give, and an amount of apparatus which few, if any, schools 

 can afford to provide. Yet it is a matter of daily observation that, 

 in some way or other, educational institutions have succeeded in 

 including all the different scientific studies before mentioned in their 

 graded courses of instruction. The explanation of this condition of 

 things lies in the fact, already alluded to, that the executive side of 

 scientific instruction has been left entirely in the hands of the people 

 of liberal minds, whose fixed idea it is that no scholar should be 

 allowed to reach the conclusion of her school career in ignorance of 

 the broad outlines of all the natural sciences, for she knoweth not 

 the day nor the hour when a superficial acquaintance with some one 

 of them may be required of her. In the present system of instruc- 

 tion, which has been developed in accordance with this theory, girls 

 acquire a knowledge of science in the same way that they acquire 

 a knowledge of all the other studies in their school education — by 

 studying a lesson in a text-book and reciting it to a teacher, who 

 under favorable circumstances accompanies it with some limited 

 amount of demonstration. Yet book work, as any competent judge 

 in ^scientific matters will agree, is destructive to the vital principle 

 which gives to natural knowledge its use and dignity. Nor is it any 

 more likely to serve the purpose of non-scientific educators, for scien- 

 tific information thus acquired makes no lasting impression on the 

 mind, and can not exercise any broadening intellectual influence. 



From what has been said we hope that the truth of our first 

 proposition has been demonstrated — namely, that the present 



