1869.] Natural Science in Schools. 383 



teaching, would make a much handsomer income by the practice 

 of medicine than anything he could get by teaching science in 

 schools. At the same time, it might be worth the while of some 

 of our better schools to temj^t men thus educated, by better salaries 

 than are given to ordinary school teachers, to enter upon such a 

 course of instruction. 



By commencing the teaching with boys ten or eleven years old, 

 they might be carried through the elements of all the natural sciences 

 in a scheme hke the following : — 



First year : Experimental physics, embracing the laws of sound, 

 heat, light, electricity, and the elements of mechanics. 



Second year : Chemistry, embracing more especially the metallic 

 elements, and a knowledge of the forms and comj)osition of mmerals. 



Third year : The chemistry of the organic elements, and the 

 consideration of those compounds which enter into the constitution 

 of plants and animals. 



Fourth year : The structm'e and physiology of plants, with the 

 princi])les of systematic botany. 



Fifth year : Comparative anatomy, and the general principles of 

 zoology, and the physiology of the lower animals. 



Sixth year : Human physiology, and anthropology. 



This course of study might easily be varied, according to the 

 judgment of the teacher ; and the organic sciences might even be 

 introduced from the commencement. 



Such a plan as this could only be pursued with able instructors, 

 and when ample time is given to acquire the knowledge imparted. 

 It would be quite impossible to carry it out where only two or three 

 hours a week are given to natural sciences. Five or six hours a 

 week, for eight or nine months in the year, would be the least 

 that would be required for such a course as the above. 



This is one of the greatest difficulties connected with the 

 working of natural science classes in schools, that none of the old 

 masters are prepared to afford a sufficient amount of time for any- 

 thing hke giving a satisfactory amount of instruction. The 

 writer once asked the master of a large school if his pupils were 

 taught natural science, to which he answered, yes ! we teach all 

 the natural sciences. " In what way ? " it was asked, and the answer 

 was, that an occasional course of lectures was delivered by dis- 

 tinguished professors from the neighbouring city. This gentleman 

 would have been greatly surprised if a schoolmaster teaching the 

 natural sciences were to propose to teach Latin and Greek by 

 occasional courses of lectures. This is a fundamental error, if 

 possible to be got rid of from the minds of men educated in classics 

 and mathematics. They all regard natural science as an amusement, 

 as something to be encouraged by way of relaxation in leisure 

 hours, but never as the serious business of Life. Until this notion 



