EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 17 



River was made from Aurora to Elgin, with extensions to 

 neighboring points. Respectfully submitted, 



Stephen A. Forbes. 



REPORT ON THE RELATION OF CHEMISTRY 



COURSES TO APPLIED SCIENCES OF THE 



MODERN HIGH SCHOOL 



The purpose of the committee that I represent is, I sup- 

 pose, to bring to the amateur and professional specialists who 

 make up the greater part of the Academy the "new word" 

 regarding high school science. The Academy first gave of- 

 ficial recognition to the higti schools a few years ago, when it 

 appointed a committee to report upon the organization of the 

 sciences in the high schools and upon the correlation that was 

 being attempted between the pure and applied sciences. The 

 committee's report was of a comprehensive character, and was 

 presented to the 1912 meeting by the chairman, Mr. Worrallo 

 Whitney. Last year the committee's report was upon general 

 science in the high school. This year the chairman has asked 

 me to speak briefly upon chemistry in its relation to the newer, 

 special courses, such as agriculture and domestic science. The 

 situation of physics is so closely related to that of chemistry 

 that I shall consider both more or less together, without mak- 

 ing any great distinction between them. 



How is chemistry teaching being affected by the presence 

 of agriculture and domestic science in the curriculum ? If we 

 are truthful we shall admit that the effect varies all the way 

 from a maximum to zero. At one extreme are the schools, 

 happily few, in which the chemistry that does not lead to ap- 

 plied science is not tolerated at all; at the other extreme sits, 

 in serenity, the classical chemist, who has worked out his 

 scheme of logic from the chemical point of view, and pro- 

 poses to teach that and nothing else, though the heavens fall. 

 Between these extremes there is the great body of chemistry 

 teachers, men and women who are seeking to teach the funda- 

 mental things of the pure science, and yet are willing and 

 ready to draw their illustrations from the newer materials of 

 the applied science. 



What about agriculture and domestic science as the ex- 

 clusive sciences of the high schools? Unless I am greatly 

 mistaken, the calm afterview has brought, or will soon bring, 



