02 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



one of the most thickly settled portions of the city. The lead- 

 ing newspaper of the city attacked the Board of Education 

 most viciously because the board had expended the enormous 

 sum of, perhaps, $175,000 on the building. The building had 

 not a single laboratory for the pupils' use, as I recall matters. 

 In contrast with this case is that of a high school I visited 

 the other day, in a city of less than 90,000, in which the science 

 addition to the building cost $180,000. My point is that much 

 of this change of sentiment is due to the popular science 

 courses of a few years ago and to the conviction produced in 

 the minds of people who themselves had no opportunity to 

 study in the laboratory, that laboratory experimentation was 

 worth while. 



4. Relation of the People to Laboratory Science. — In a 

 country having a strong governing class the people may per- 

 mit experts to tell them not only how they should spend their 

 money, but how much they should spend ; not so in this coun- 

 try, if we can judge by the signs. Here the common man will 

 still have something to say regarding the how much, however 

 far he may ultimately defer to the expert with regard to the 

 use of money. For some years, even without any populariza- 

 tion of science, the appropriation for science laboratories will 

 continue from its own inertia. But sooner or later the Philis- 

 tine will have his day. 



The theory of the laboratory as a part of a school's equip- 

 ment was that all of the people should have an opportunity 

 to experiment for themselves and thus to get the benefit of 

 first-hand acquaintance with nature. Some qualifications of 

 this theory are in vogue today. I have had considerable op- 

 portunity, in the past few months, to observe high school sci- 

 ence teaching, to say nothing of college and university teach- 

 ing. In both classes of institutions I have heard teachers state 

 again and again their belief that the benefits of laboratory 

 work were greatly overrated, that pupils work blindly to get 

 results, while to many instructors the laboratory note book 

 seems to be the principal object of the course. These teachers 

 believe what they say is true, and all of us who teach have 

 probably some share in the belief. Now, I wish to suggest 

 that this is the very antithesis of the belief expressed more or 



