2 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



Muir gave us a sketch of the organisation of the teaching" of 

 Science from the lower schools to the University. He said : — 



" The lirst great duty of the State towards Science is to provide an 

 effective and comprehensive system of national education. In the lower 

 stages of the system direct and formal instruction in Science need not 

 bulk very largely. What is essential is that the pupil shall throughout 

 his course be trained to observe, to think, and to reason. In the 

 middle stages — the stages covered by secondary schools of all classes — 

 tlie actual study of Science, and especially of scientific method, must 

 form a larger and ever increasing part of the curriculum." 



Withotit going into details under these heads Dr. Muir con- 

 tinued : — 



" It is sufticient for our present purpose to insist in connection with 

 lK)th on the desirability (i) of fostering rather than repressing the 

 natural curiosity of the young; (2) of constantly recurring to the study 

 of things in supplement to that of words; (3) of training the hands 

 in the use of appropriate tools other than the pen ; (4) of gradually 

 introducing research methods into class-room work. It is the neglect 

 of this advice that has been a main cause in the retardation of Science. 

 It has also helped to make school-life a byword for dulness, and in 

 many cases made the after-life unintellcctual and even trivial. When we 

 come to the higher stages — the stage of the University, and more prac- 

 tical institutions co-ordinate therewith — the interest in our subject 

 naturally increases, for there we look not only for instruction in Science 

 and training in scientific method, but for a steady How of fresh con- 

 tributions to the stock of human knowledge. That this last is a legiti- 

 mate expectation is now the received opinion throughout the whole 

 civilised world." 



At the outset let it be understood that what Dr. Muir 

 sketched in the passages which I have quoted from his address 

 is an ideal organisation of the teaching and study of Science for 

 schools and University colleges, which 1 regret to say is not in 

 existence in South Africa at the present time. We are now only 

 striving and struggling towards the realisation oi this ideal or- 

 ganisation, but I firmly hope that the time is not far when we 

 shall have attained this object at least in connection with the 

 University colleges, considering the progress which the teaching 

 and studying of Science has made in our colleges during the 

 last forty years. 



The University of the Cape of Good Hope was called into 

 existence by the University Incorporation Act passed -by the 

 Cape Legislature in 1873. The calendars of the University 

 puiblished during its first years give us accurate information as 

 to the Science subjects which figured in the svllabuses and in 

 the papers of the two examinations which in those days were 

 the two principal examinations conducted by the University, z'i::.. 

 the Matriculation Examination and the Bachelor of Arts Examina- 

 tion. The teaching of Science subjects in the colleges vvhere 

 the candidates preparing their examinations were studying 

 was, of course, limited to what was prescribed in the University 

 Calendar. I may here already remark that at that time the 

 students for the Matriculation Examination were almost ex- 

 clusively prepared at the colleges, whereas at the present time 



