PREFACE 



IN the compilation of this book the object has been to provide in 

 convenient form a course in Physics and Chemistry suitable for use 

 in connection with the new syllabus prescribed for Junior Grade 

 students by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction 

 for Ireland. It is interesting to note, in connection with the new Irish 

 syllabuses in science, that they anticipate by about a year the 

 conclusions of Sir J. J. Thomson's Committee appointed to enquire into 

 the Position of Natural Science in the Educational System of Great 

 Britain. 



The report states that "A general course in science should fulfil 

 two functions ; (a) it should train the mind of the student to reason 

 about things he has observed for himself and develop his powers of 

 weighing and interpreting evidence ; (6) it should also make him 

 acquainted with the broad outlines of great scientific principles, with 

 the way in which these principles are exemplified in familiar phenomena 

 and with their applications to the service of man." Further, the 

 report points out that the time allotted to the study of science, even if 

 on the most liberal scale, does not permit the various branches of 

 science to receive the detailed treatment possible where only one or two 

 branches are attempted. " There must necessarily be great gaps in 

 the student's knowledge of these branches, but in the general course 

 we think these should be distributed, rather than that one or more of 

 these branches should escape consideration altogether." 



The new syllabuses of the Department aim at carrying out this 

 object, and in so doing they introduce certain changes in the matter 

 and methods of science teaching in Irish Intermediate Schools. In 

 the Junior Grade (the needs of which this book are intended to meet) 

 students are now required to possess the knowledge hitherto comprised 

 in the two introductory courses. The present volume is so arranged 

 that the necessary ground may be covered in the course of the school 



