OX SCIENCE TEACHING IN LABORATORIES 187 



of the subject on which he discourses ; he may even sometimes 

 employ a mere spectacle to afford relief from overstrained atten- 

 tion. I will go further, and say that measurement classes are 

 not, in my opinion, suitable for secondary schools. They require 

 in the student an interest in accuracy, and a belief in the im- 

 portance of detail rarely found in boys or girls. It is sufficient 

 for the boy to learn that a magnetised needle may move to the 

 right or left under the influence of an electric current. The 

 commonplaces of science are at one time of life interesting 

 novelties ; but there comes an age when the young man feels 

 that he knows nothing of electricity unless he can predict the 

 force which will be exerted on a given magnet under given 

 circumstances, which are themselves capable of being defined 

 accurately by the aid of numbers ; and he can only learn this 

 knowledge by the aid of practical classes in the laboratory. 



Another advantage of the measurement class is this ; it brings 

 the teacher of science into direct contact with the practical man. 

 It even enables the practical man to some extent to control the 

 teaching of the man of science. 



If a practical engineer comes into a scientific laboratory, he 

 can tell whether lengths, areas, angles, forces, and so forth, are 

 being well measured, or whether the class is being taught in an 

 antiquated or perfunctory manner. It will be obvious to the 

 least educated of our practical men, that measurement is required ; 

 and they can judge what measurements are required. Hence, 

 we may expect that measurement classes, boldly so called, will 

 readily find endowments ; and, as an incidental advantage, they 

 may help to extinguish the popular fallacy of college workshops. 

 Having worked for three years at the bench in a Manchester 

 locomotive shop, I have always protested against the endeavour 

 to set up in colleges or universities workshops, with the object 

 of giving students any considerable practical knowledge of any 

 art. In the secondary school I believe a workshop may be 

 useful as an adjunct, providing certain boys with the means of 

 acquiring a little skill in a pleasant way. There is much pleasure, 

 and some profit, to be got from tinkering among models when 

 we are boys, but when a young man has chosen a trade or art, 

 he can only learn that trade or art by working at it, and by 

 working under the actual conditions of the trade or art : little 



