466 



NA TURE 



[March 14, 1895 



desirable and possible to largely incorporate these with 

 the arithmetic lessons — to teach parts of arithmetic and 

 some geometry practically, in fact. Gordon's "Elementary 

 Course of Physical Science " is probably the type of book 

 which will be used with advantage at this stage, judging 

 from the success the course has met with in Board 

 Schools commencing with the fourth standard. 



But the pioneer worker in this field is Prof. Worthing- 

 ton. His admirable little book,'' An Elementary Course of 

 Practical Physics," published in iSSi, well known to all 

 teachers of physics in schools, was expanded in 1886 

 into a larger work, ''A First Course of Physical Labor- 

 atory Practice." These books have been of the very 

 greatest service, and have probably rescued physics 

 from being made a cram subject in schools ; but they are 

 scarcely simple or comprehensive enough for such young 

 workers as 1 am contemplating. As they are intended to 

 be used in connection with lectures, the motive for each 

 experiment is rarely explained at sufficient length, and 

 unfortunately they have the fault common to all such 

 books, to which 1 have referred above, that the student 

 rarely approaches the experiment in the attitude of the 

 would-be discoverer. 



Mr. Earl's book, although it deals only with measure- 

 ments of length, mass, and time, is of greater length than 

 Prof. Worthington's, but it does not need lectures to 

 supplement it. It has a short but admirable preface, 

 showing that the author has grasped the nature of the 

 problem to be solved, but it is one thing to do this and 

 another to succeed in solving it ; and here 1 think he has 

 been less successful. The style is far too didactic — the 

 descriptions are far too elaborate — the aim is too high, 

 and far too much is told, not enough left to be found 

 out : to use a homely phrase, which 1 trust will not be 

 misunder.stood, far too much fuss is made about the 

 work. Such work should be done by young children ; it 

 must not be postponed until the evil effects of desk work 

 have warped the scholar's mind, and natural curiosity 

 begins to die ouL But the book is far above such students. 

 What, for instance, is the valueof an introduction telling 

 us what science is, and why we learn it.' If taught to 

 work, children will very soon insensibly learn to ap- 

 preciate what they are doing, and nothing is gained by 

 pointing out to them, for example, that "e.'ich individual 

 stands a centre for himself of all things, knowing 

 that around him are centres of endless variety, 

 &c.'' Platitudes such as these are out of place 

 in an elementar)- text-book, and they are beyond children 

 of nine to twelve years of age, by whom simple measure- 

 ment work will ere long be done in schools generally. 

 In the next chapter, in like manner, we find at the out- 

 set a somewhat elaborate disquisition on the meaning of 

 the words standard and cjuantity, and a description of 

 how measurements of length are made, and then follow 

 directions for a series of exercises: children cannot grasp 

 such disquisitions, and are wearied by them, but most 

 of them will use a foot or centimetre rule with great 

 pleasure. This criticism may be applied to the book 

 generally— the introductory instructions are too fre- 

 quently high-flown, and too many refinements are intro- 

 duced into them and into the exercises. The book, in 

 fact, contains material enough both for a junior and a 

 senior course, and would be more generally available if 

 the matter were thus rearranged. But whilst objecting 

 to it on the score of over-elaboration and absence of 

 that simplicity of statement which is indispensable in a 

 book to be used by young beginners, taken as a whole, 

 and regarded from what I conceive to be the author's 

 point of view, it is a contribution to educational literature 

 of great value. The short preface alone is a manifesto 

 of singular importance, coming as it does from a teacher 

 in a public school of high standing. We find in it the 

 remarkable and, I believe, novel expression — the " scien- 



NO. 1324, VOL. si] 



tific sides" of Public Schools, one, it may be hoped, 

 that will soon take the place of " modern side," to which 

 so great a stigma is attached through the ill-advised 

 action of masters having sympathy only with classical 

 training — action which has led to the modern side being 

 often characterised as the refuge for the intellectually 

 destitute ; if the modern side once become the seat of 

 training in scientific method, a fair share of the intellect 

 of the school being allowed to it, there cannot be a 

 doubt that it will soon reap payment " by results " 

 sufticient to secure to it an honourable revenge. To 

 return to the preface, we read that care has been taken 

 to m ike the course logically progressive, the end in view 

 being to train boys to observe accurately, to reason 

 rightly, and to front nature with an open and inquiring 

 mind. That it must be admitted more generally than 

 is customary that the retention of facts should be 

 subordinate in scientific education to a sound 

 comprehension of them, a mind which has been 

 trained to observe and compare accurately being more 

 likely to acquit itself well in the world. That the right 

 way of learning is chiefly to be cultivated, the matter 

 being obviously less important than the method in 

 learning science, and a logical and inquiring habit of 

 mind being more valuable than the memory of f.icts and 

 laws, as it is better equipment for future research and 

 knowledge. It is urged that the course should afford 

 some training in correctness of expression and accuracy 

 of language, no insignificant part of scientific education, 

 although this is seldom recognised. Lastly reference is 

 made to the lack of continuity in work often prominent 

 as a defect, especially in the modern sides of schools, 

 and to the fact that much of the aver.ige " capacity of 

 learning" is never utilised, owing to frequent change both 

 of subject and matter. The book may serve in some 

 degree, the author suggests, to bridge over with safety 

 the distance between the laboratory and other class- 

 rooms, by acting as a Practical .Arithmetic and, to 

 some extent, as a Practical Grammar. Trite as some of 

 these remarks may appear to be, those who are aware of 

 the state of affairs in schools will know that, tested by 

 the standards which generally prevail, they are the 

 rankest heresy, but none the less heresy that must ere 

 long revolutionise existing beliefs and practices. In fine, 

 1 am inclined to regard Mr. Karl's book as the account 

 of an important research some results of which he has 

 described in a previous publication, this being his second 

 appearance as the author of an educational work. 

 There is the clearest evidence that he has set him- 

 self to work out a problem of which he was able 

 to realise, perhaps, only the general nature at the 

 outset ; and that, as so often happens in experi- 

 mental inquiries as experience is gained, the nature 

 of the underlying problem has been more clearly grasped 

 as the work progressed, and important modifications of 

 procedure have consequently been introduced. I look 

 forward with expectancy to his next memoir, in which 

 the results of his further studies will be presented to us, 

 I trust, in far less elaborate guise, so as to render them 

 available to the simplest understandings. 



"The Laboratory Manual of Physics and Applied 

 Electricity," arr.mged and edited by Prof. Nichols, of 

 Cornell University, U.S.A., is intended as a college 

 course, and is stated to be the outgrowth of a 

 system of junior instruction which has been gra- 

 dually developed during a quarter of a century, and 

 I shall therefore venture to criticise it broadly 

 from an outsider's point of view, as though it were 

 a report on the results of an inquiry, with reference 

 to its general character and the arrangement of the 

 subject-matter. The first volume by Messrs. Merritt 

 and Rogers is intended for beginners, and, we are told, 

 affords explicit directions together with demonstrations 



