260 



N'A TURE 



[January 15, 1903 



Sir William Anson, Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of 

 Education, took the chair at the afternoon meeting of the first 

 day. He confessed that, having been educated in the dark 

 ages, when science and mathematics found but a small place— or 

 perhaps he should more strictly say when mathematics had but a 

 small place and science had no place at all-in the curriculum of 

 the public schools, he came to listen with a perfectly unprejudiced 

 mind to the discussion. After all, a comparison of various 

 meihods of teaching seemed to him to be for practical purposes 

 as valuable as anything that could be done in the way of the 

 training of the teacher. A grain of practice was worth a much 

 larger proportion of theory, and it must be of great value to 

 hear men who had been successfully engaged in teaching explain 

 the difficulties of their subjects and the modes in which they 

 brought their minds to bear upon the minds of those who had 

 to be taught. The great secret of teaching was to bring their 

 minds into immediate contact with the mind of the learner 

 and to impart to him what they knew and the processes by which 

 they learned it. 



In the morning, papers were read by Mr. Usher wood, on the 

 experimental method in geometry, and by Mr. Frank Castle, on 

 the teaching of workshop mathematics. Mr. Usherwood 

 related his experiences of teaching geometry to boys beginning 

 the subject on a practical inductive plan, and advocated the use 

 of paper-folding and similar expedients as means of encouraging 

 the pupil's self-activity. Mr. Castle enumerated some of the 

 shortcomings of the education given in the great public schools, 

 and traced them to the rigid, iron-bound nature of the prevailing 

 system. He referred to recent changes in the syllabuses of 

 many public examinations as a hopeful sign that methods of 

 mathematical instruction were becoming less academic and more 

 suited to the practical needs of the present day. The subse- 

 quent discussion, in which the Rev. T. \V. Sharpe, Dr. Hoffert, 

 Mr. C. W. Bourne and others took part, showed that the work 

 which has been accomplished by the committees of the British 

 Association and of the Mathematical Association, in the direction 

 of rationalising mathematical instruction, is, on the whole, 

 meeting with the approval of practical teachers. 



At the afternoon meeting, addresses on the teaching of 

 geometry were delivered by Messrs. S. O. Andrews, W. D. 

 Eggar and A. W. Siddons. Mr. Eggar said that the first object 

 in the choice of exercises for a young boy beginning the study of 

 geometry was to instil notions of lines, points, angles, areas, 

 volumes and similar subjects, and this was best accomplished by 

 simple measurement. A discussion followed during which Mr. 

 ■Gerrans, referring to the recent changes in the mathematical 

 requirements for university examinations, said that the universi- 

 ties had in the past deferred such alterations because of their 

 doubt as to whether the schools were ready for change. 



Rational Instruction in Botany. 



The third meeting, under the presidency of Prof. Farmer, 

 F. R. S , was devoted to a consideration of the methods of 

 botanical teaching. During the course of his remarks, Prof. 

 Farmer said that, examination syllabuses notwithstanding, the 

 best way was to study a small part of the subject thoroughly and 

 in all their instruction to help their students to think. Too 

 little attention, he thought, was given to the economic aspects 

 of the subject. He advocated a careful examination of the 

 reasons, for example, of the peculiar conditions of the distribu- 

 tion of vegetation under b;ech and pine trees, and pointed out that 

 such problems would lead to the discovery of the effects exerted 

 by light, soil and other influences on growth, The effect of grass 

 in an apple orchard was also instanced,, and the information 

 which could be obtained from the study of this problem in lead- 

 ing to an appreciation of the interaction, of the grass growth in 

 the matter of drainage and the supply of oxygen was pointed 

 out. Prof. Farmer gave an interesting example of what he 

 called a " museum of mismanagement," in the case of a larch 

 plantation which had been planted on a mountain-side, though 

 it should have been well known that the larch is a deep-rooted 

 plant. 



Two papers were read, one by Miss Lilian Clarke, on the 

 rational teaching of botany, and the other by Mr. Lacey, on 

 experimental plant physiology. Miss Clarke, in a preeminently 

 practical paper, described how, by experiments in the laboratory 

 and school-garden at James Allen's school, Dulwich, she has 

 succeeded in miking botany an interesting and education il 

 subject of study for girls. She explained that though in the 



i past this wcrk has been somewhat in abeyance in the winter, 

 they hoped in the future to be able, owing to the provision by 

 ' the London Technical Education Board of a botanical labor- 

 atory, to be able to pursue the work without a break through- 

 out the year. Mr. Lacey concerned himself more with the 

 work of advanced student*. He described numerous experiment*, 

 illustrated by an excellent series of lantern slides, to show how 

 lessons in botany may be made more valuable by the utilisation 

 of the common objects of ordinary life in the experimental work. 

 The slides of botanical objects under the microscope which he 

 also showed were of particular value to teachers in demon- 

 strating how easy it is to supply the student with graphic illus- 

 trations of the objects of his study. The informative nature of 

 the papers led to questions from the audience rather than a 

 discussion. 



The Art of Illustrating Teaching. 



The last meeting, at which Prof. Callendar, F'.R.S., presided, 

 was taken up with a consideration of the methods of illustrating 

 lectures by experiments and lantern slides. In introducing the 

 speakers, Prof. Callendar insisted on the importance of experi- 

 mental work in the teaching of physics and chemistry, and 

 referred to the difference between experiments suitable for per- 

 formance by the student and those necessary to illustrate the 

 lectures of the teachers. Two addresses were given, one by 

 Mr. G. S. Newth, on experimental illustration in the teaching 

 of chemistry, and the other by Mr. Harold Busbridge, on the 

 making of lantern slides. Mr. Newth, before proceeding to 

 perform certain typical experiments, criticised in some par- 

 ticulars what is commonly known as the heuristic method of 

 teaching, and complained that in important respects it misled 

 the pupil and gave him wrong ideas as to the nature of the 

 great generalisations called chemical laws. In the selection of 

 experiments, he said, the teacher should choose those only which 

 are really illuminative and never introduce one merely because 

 it is amusing. Mr. Newth also gave invaluable hints to 

 teachers as to how to avoid failure in their experiments. The 

 experiments performed were well chosen and invariably met 

 with the success which Mr. Newth's well-known manipulative 

 dexterity led the audience to expect. 



Mr. Bu-bridge provided teachers with practical assistance in 

 the art of making lantern slides at a small cost. He left on one 

 side all photographic methods and confined his attention to the 

 elucidation of simple expedients which could be utilised by a 

 teacher with very little experience of laboratory methods. In 

 a short discussion which followed, Dr. Hoffert referred to an 

 important consideration if the experimental illustration of the 

 ordinary teacher of science in schools is to be improved, that is, 

 the diminution of his duties if time enough is to be provided for 

 him to prepare good, suitable lecture experiments. As Dr. 

 Hoffert said, it is unreasonable to expect the science master to 

 add to his already arduous work by staying after school hours 

 to prepare experiments. All science masters should be given 

 time enough during the hours in which the school is open in 

 which to prepare the experiments necessary for satisfactory 

 lessons in science. A. T. S. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



It is reported that the Italian Minister of Public Instruction 

 has authorised the establishment of a post-graduate school of 

 hygiene and medical jurisprudence in connection with the 

 University of Turin. 



At University College, London, Mr. V. H. Blackman will 

 give a course of about six demonstrative lectures on micro- 

 scopical technique in botany on Mondays during the current 

 term, commencing Monday, January 19, at 4 p.m. 



1 UK Daily Mail states that the late Mr. F. [.Quick, of Eltham, 

 and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, left his residuary estate to the 

 University of Cambridge in trust, to apply the income in pro- 

 moting the study of vegetable and animal biology, for which 

 purpose the university will probably eventually receive between 

 50,000/. and 60,000/. 



At a meeting last week of the Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine, it was announced that since the previous meeting 

 10,000/. had been collected or promised towards founding a 

 chair of tropical medicine in University College, Liverpool, 

 which had been accepted by the college authorities. Major 



NO. 1733, V0L - 67] 



