4/6 



NA TURE 



[September 13, 1900 



SECTION B. 



chemistry. 

 Opening Address by Prof. W. H. Perkin, jun., Ph.D., 



F.R.S , President of the Section. 

 The Modern System of Teaching Practical Inorganic Chemistry 

 and its Development. 

 In choosing for the subject of my Address to-day the develop- 

 ment of the teaching of practical inorganic chemistry I do so, 

 not only on account of the great importance of the subject, but 

 also because it does not appear that this matter has been brought 

 before this Section, in the President's Address at all events, 

 during the last few years. 



In dealing generally with the subject of the teaching of 

 chemistry as a branch of science it may be well in the first place 

 to consider the value of such teaching as a means of general 

 education, and to turn our attention for a few minutes to the 

 development of the teaching of science in schools. 



There can be no doubt that there has been great progress in 

 the teaching of science in schools during the last forty years, 

 and this is very evident from the perusal of the essay, entitled 

 *"■ Education : Intellectual, Moral, and Physical," which Herbert 

 Spencer wrote in 1859. After giving his reasons for considering 

 the study of science of primary importance in education, Herbert 

 Spencer continues: "While what we call civilisation could 

 never have arisen had it not been for science, science forms 

 scarcely an appreciable element in our so-called civilised 

 training." 



From this it is apparent that science was not taught to any 

 appreciable extent in schools at that date, though doubtless in 

 some few schools occasional lectures were given on such scientific 

 subjects as physiology, anatomy, astronomy, and mechanics. 



Herbert Spencer's pamphlet appears to have had only a very 

 gradual effect towards the introduction of science into schemes 

 of education. For many years chemical instruction was only 

 given in schools at the schoolroom desk, or at the best from the 

 lecture table, and many of the most modern of schools had no 

 laboratories. 



The first school to give any practical instruction in chemistry 

 was apparently the City of London School, at which, in the 

 year 1847, Mr. Hall was appointed teacher of chemistry, and 

 there he continued tp teach until 1869.1 Besides the lecture 

 theatre and a room for storing apparatus, Mr. Hall's department 

 contained a long room, or rather passage, leading into the 

 lecture theatre, and closed at each end with glass doors. In 

 this room, which was fitted up as a laboratory, and used prin- 

 cipally as a preparation room for the lectures, Mr. Hall per- 

 formed experiments with the few boys who assisted him with his 

 lectures. As accommodation was at that time strictly limited, 

 he used to suggest simple experiments and encourage the boys 

 to carry them out at home, and afterwards he himself would 

 examine the substances which they had made. 



From this small beginning the teaching of chemistry in the 

 City of London School rapidly developed, and this school now 

 possesses laboratories which compare favourably with those of 

 any school in the country. 



The Manchester Grammar School appears to have been one 

 of the first to teach practical chemistry. In connection with 

 this school a small laboratory was built in 1868 ; this was re- 

 placed by a larger one in 1872, and the present large labora- 

 tories, under the charge of Mr. Francis Jones, were opened in 

 1880. 



Dr. Marshall Watts, who was the first science master in this 

 school, taught practical chemistry along with the theoretical 

 work from the commencement in 1868. 



As laboratories were gradually multiplied it might be sup- 

 posed that boys were given the opportunity to carry out 

 experiments which had a close connection with their lecture- 

 room courses. But the programme of laboratory work which 

 became all but universal was the preparation of a few gases, 

 followed by the practice of qualitative analysis. The course 

 adopted seems to have been largely built up on the best books 

 of practical chemistry in use in the colleges at that time ; but it 

 was also, no doubt, largely influenced by the requirements of 

 the syllabus of the Science and Art Department, which con- 

 1 Mr A. T. Pollard, M.A., Head Master of the City of London School, 

 has kindly instituted a search among the bound copies of the boys' terminal 

 reports, and informs me that in the School form of Terminal Report a head- 

 ing for Chemistry was introduced in the year 1847, the year of Mr. Hall's 

 appointment. 



NO. t6i I, VOL. 62] 



tained a scheme for teaching practical chemistry. 1 Even down 

 to quite recent times it was in many schools still not considered 

 essential that boys should have practical instruction in connec- 

 tion with lectures in chemistry. 



A Report issued in 1897 by a special Committee appointed by 

 AA ^^'^^""^^' Education Board of the London County Council 

 adduces evidence of this from twenty-five secondary schools in 

 London, in which there were 3960 boys learning chemistry. Of 

 these 1698 boys, or 43 per cent., did no practical work what- 

 ever ; 955 boys, or 24 per cent., did practical work, consisting 

 of a certain amount of preparation of gases, together with quali- 

 tative analysis ; but of these latter 743, or 77 per cent., had not 

 reached the study of the metals in their theoretical work, so 

 that their testing work can have been of little educational value 

 It was also found that in the case of 655, or 68 per cent, of the 

 total number of boys taking practical work, the first introduc- 

 tion to practical chemistry was through qualitative analysis. 



But some years before this Report was issued a movement had 

 begun which was destined to have a far-reaching effect. A 

 Report "on the best means for promoting Scientific Education 

 in Schools" having been presented to the Dundee Meeting of 

 this Association in 1867, and published in 186S, a Committee of 

 the British Association was appointed in 1887 "for the purpose 

 of inquiring and reporting upon the present methods of teaching 

 chemistry." The well-known Report which this Committee 

 presented to the Newcastle Meeting in 1889 insisted that it was 

 worth while to teach chemistry in schools, not so much for the 

 usefulness of the information imparted as for the special mental 

 discipline it afforded if the scientific method of investigating 

 nature were employed. It was argued that " learners should 

 be put in the attitude of discoverers, and led to make observa- 

 tions, experiments, and inferences for themselves." And since 

 there can be little progress without measurement, it was pointed 

 out that the experimental work would necessarily be largely of 

 a quantitative character. 



Prof. H. E. Armstrong, in a paper read at a conference at 

 the Health Exhibition five years before this, had foreshadowed 

 much that was in this Report. He also drew up a detailed 

 scheme for "a course of elementary instruction in physical 

 science," which was included in the Report of the Committee, 

 and it cannot be doubted that this scheme and the labours of 

 the Committee have had a very marked influence on the develop- 

 ment of the teaching of practical chemistry in schools. That 

 this influence has been great will be admitted when it is under- 

 stood that schemes based on the recommendation of the Com- 

 mittee are now included in the codes for both Elementary Day 

 Schools and Evening Continuation Schools. The recent 

 syllabuses for elementary and advanced courses issued by the 

 Incorporated Association of Headmasters and by the Oxford 

 and Cambridge local boards and others are evidently directly 

 inspired by the ideas .set forth by the Committee. 



The Department of Science and Art has also adopted some of 

 the suggestions of the Committee, and a revised syllabus was 

 issued by the Department in 1895, in which qualitative analysis 

 is replaced by quantitative experiments of a simple form, and by 

 other exercises so framed "as to prevent answers being given 

 by students who have obtained their information from books or 

 oral instruction." This was a very considerable advance but it 

 must be admitted that there is nothing in the syllabus which 

 encourages, or even suggests, placing the learners in the attitude 

 of discoverers, and this, in the opinion of tlie Committee of this 

 Association, is vital if the teaching is to have educational value. 

 Many criticisms have been passed upon the 1889 Report. It 

 has been said that life is much too short to allow of each 

 individual advancing from the known to the unknown, according 

 to scientific methods, and that even were this not so too severe 

 a tax is made upon the powers of boys and girls. In answer to 

 the second point it will be conceded that while it is doubtless 

 futile to try to teach chemistry to young children, on the other 

 hand experience has abundantly shown that the average school- 

 boy of fourteen or fifteen can, with much success, investigate 

 such problems as were studied in the researches of Black and 

 Scheele, of Priestley and Cavendish and Lavoisier, and it is 

 quite remarkable with what interest such young students carry 

 out this class of work. 



It may be well to quote the words which Sir Michael Foster 



1 I find, on inquiry, that examinations in the Advanced Stage and 

 Honours of Practical Chemistry were first held by the Science and Art 

 Department in 1878, the practical examination being extended to the 

 Elementary Stage in 1882. 



