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OiY SCIENCE TEACHING IN LABORATORIES. 1 



THE thesis which in the present paper I propose to develop will 

 not, I trust, arouse much opposition, inasmuch as my intention 

 is simply to record that which I believe to be the best existing 

 practice. I have no striking novelty to propose for discussion. 

 I hope, however, that I may be able to explain certain facts in 

 connection with laboratory teaching in such a manner as may be 

 of some use to those who, not being themselves teachers of 

 science, nevertheless endow or control the teaching in labora- 

 tories. The manufacturer or commercial man who desires to 

 benefit technical education is almost invariably anxious that the 

 teaching which he is willing to promote by giving time or money, 

 or both, should be of a practical character, and, for my own part, 

 I believe this desire to be perfectly justified. What is called 

 pure science has, and should have, devoted followers, but it is 

 also desirable that applied science should be fostered, and, as an 

 engineer, I have a natural sympathy with those branches of 

 science-teaching which tend to be more immediately fertile. 

 Hence I am disposed to enforce this doctrine, that practical 

 teaching in the experimental laboratory is that which, of all 

 others, deserves and requires endowment ; but in asking for 

 practical or technical teaching, a disposition is sometimes shown 

 to expect that our universities and colleges should teach matters 

 which shall be not only ultimately, but immediately, useful in a 

 given trade or manufacture. It is even thought that the teacher 

 ought to lead the way in improving the practical methods used 

 in the factory ; that the college may, in fact, become a model 

 factory, or contain many model factories. On the other hand, 

 the teacher of pure science is sometimes tempted wholly to 



1 Read at a Conference at the International Health Exhibition, London, 

 1884. 



