538 



NATURE 



[Oct.. 6, 1887 



and exceptions to rules? Do we not remember how 

 hopeless it all was ? how little we advanced ? how we 

 spent a year on this subject and a year on that, and failed 

 to gain a grip of any ? Did we not sometimes believe 

 that every branch of knowledge was merely a collection 

 of rules? Do not then let us teach science as we learned 

 grammar ; else the burden we attempt to bind on the 

 shoulders of our pupils will be more grievous even than 

 that which we bore ourselves in our youth. 



The third point on which I would insist is that chemistry 

 should be taught so as to impress the student with the 

 importance of the subject, and with the fact that chemistry 

 is a living and growing part of the scientific study of 

 nature. A teacher of any branch of natural science must 

 thoroughly believe in his subject ; and he must have a 

 vivid and active imagination. The subject he has to 

 teach is so immense that, unless his imagination is clear 

 and active, he forms blurred and inaccurate images of the 

 natural occurrences which he wishes to put before his 

 pupils, and so presents them with poor distorted pictures 

 in place of the vivid and vivifying realities of nature. 



I see no way of impressing chemical students with the 

 greatness of the subject of their study other than that of 

 constantly keeping before them the many-sidedness of the 

 problems they are trying to solve ; of constantly showing 

 how even the smallest, and apparently quite detached, 

 fact is really in living connexion with the whole science ; 

 and from time to time of reminding them that the subject 

 of their study is but one part of natural science and is 

 closely connected with many other branches of scientific 

 investigation. But these things can be done only by the 

 teachers and the taught constantly working side by side in 

 the laboratory at some of those apparently simple chemical 

 problems which branch off in many directions, and thus 

 together gaining a real grasp of the many-sidedness of the 

 subject they are studying. The student is thus convinced 

 that, although " there are no boundaries in nature," yet 

 it is necessary for us to draw boundary lines ; he also 

 learns the importance of those very facts which, when 

 separated from each other and from the principles that 

 bind them together, retain only a negative value. Science 

 is more than knowledge, and we must make our students 

 realize this. To be in touch with nature is what we aim 

 at ; and knowledge alone will not gain this end. We are 

 striving for a real, living, imaginative, acquaintance with 

 the laws of the universe, in order that our lives may thus 

 become "rich and full and satisfying through realities 

 and not through dreams." 



Finally, I think that fear of the examiner acts very 

 prejudicially on much of the chemical teaching of this 

 country, more especially on the teaching in schools. For 

 after all — I speak as an examiner — even the youngest 

 examiner is fallible. He is not so very terrible a person as 

 some teachers seem to suppose. Not unfrequently he is 

 a foolish person who knows but little chemistry, and has 

 recourse to text-books for good tips. 



If it is really chemistry that is taught, a good examiner 

 will soon find out that the students have learnt the real 

 tiling, and a bad examiner will perhaps be incited to 

 leave his rules and definitions, and attempt to gain some 

 real knowledge of the subject m which he examines. 



I think that much more care ought to be exercised in 

 selecting those who are to examine the results of the 

 chemical teaching given in schools. Even the seats of 

 the higher learning are scarcely yet impressed with the 

 really tremendous importance of sound scientific teaching ; 

 and they still too often wish to get examiners who will 

 set papers for schools in half-a-dozen subjects, instead of 

 selecting men who have made special study of special 

 branches of science, and asking them to examine in their 

 own subjects. 



I have not directly insisted much on the importance of 

 research. Of course the aim of all scientific teaching j 

 must be to train up men competent to investigate nature , 



for themselves. But unless the men are properly trained, 

 and are taught by the examples as well as by the precepts 

 of their teachers what true scientific research is, they will 

 only add a few more facts to that vast gathering of these 

 " brute beasts of the intellectual domain " which is so often 

 but so falsely called chemistry ; and they will persuade 

 themselves that in doing this they are advancing the 

 scientific study of nature. 



I would sum up what I have tried to say in a few words. 

 The teaching of chemistry is still too much under the 

 trammels of the old scholastic methods ; it stands too 

 much in fear of books, and rules, and definitions. The 

 teacher who is in earnest about his work must break 

 through rules, he must " swallow all formuke," he must 

 go constantly to nature and take his pupils with him ; 

 and his reward will be great. 



BOTANY OF THE RIUKIU {LOOCHOO) 

 ISLANDS. 



WITHIN the last score of years much light has 

 been thrown upon our knowledge of the flora 

 of Japan. We still, however, know little about the 

 flora of the groups of islands which lie scattered off 

 the coast of her southern boundary. It is true that 

 some botanical collections made during the last few years 

 have shown a certain insight into the flora of some of the 

 archipelago known as the Riukiu or Loochoo Islands, but 

 it is equally true that most of the islands remain as yet 

 absolutely uninvestigated. Since careful studies of the 

 materials, both literature and specimens, scanty as they 

 are, have shown that the flora of the Riukiu Islands form 

 obviously the connecting link between that of Japan, on 

 the one hand, and, on the other, those of South-Eastern 

 China and the Indo-Malayan region through the islands 

 of Hong Kong and Formosa, it seems necessary to take 

 a clear view of the flora of the Riukiu Islands where the 

 boundary lines of those of the two above main regions 

 overlap. Hence it may be worth while to ofter a brief 

 summary of our present knowledge of the flora of the 

 Riukiu Islands, taken not only from the materials already 

 presented to the scientific world, but also from those works 

 which have been brought out by the hands of native 

 botanists of Eastern Asia, which have not yet been 

 accessible to most of the Western men of science. 



We observe that the earliest records of the plants of 

 the Riukiu Islands are found in that section of the work 

 entitled " Chuzan Denshinroku," or " Records of the 

 Riukiu Islands," which deals with the natural pro- 

 ducts of that archipelago. These records are detailed j 

 in an extended form in another work, the " Riukiu Sam- 1 

 butsushi," or, " The Natural Products of Riukiu." But 

 as to the works which treat exclusively of the botany of tl; 

 Riukiu Islands, reference should be made to the " Riukiu 

 Somoku Shin Dsu" ("Illustrations of the Plants ofj 

 Riukiu") and to " Shitsumon Honzo" (" Queries on thf; 

 Botany of the Riukiu Islands "). The latter, on account ( 

 the excellence of its illustrations of plants, and also on^ 

 account of some interesting facts connected v/ith the 

 paration of the work, demands here special mention, 

 author, Go Keishi, a physician of the Island of Okinat 

 collected during many years not only the plants of 

 island in which he lived, but also specimens from 

 Isles of Takara and Yoko, both of which are situati 

 near 29° N. lat. and 129° E. long. He drew figures, aS 

 gave brief descriptions, of these plants, accompanied 

 by dried specimens, forming a collection of abou' 

 seventy or eighty species of plants at each time, and sen 

 them annually, between 1781-85, to China, in order 

 acquire further information about those plants which 

 considered to be doubtful. No fewer than for 

 five Chinese representative physicians and herb 

 ists of that time, in various parts of the coi 



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