January 6, 1910] 



NA TURE 



= 85 



later eliminates from his teaching all the vitalising 

 enthusiasm for knowledge which a man who believes 

 in his teaching can inspire in his boys. The best 

 results are obtainable only when the teacher and the 

 boys believe that the work which the class is doing is 

 really worth while. How can a teacher hold such a 

 belief steadfastly through the disillusions of experience 

 unless he has thought out, to some extent, the why 

 and whereunto of his work? 



Another objection to the scrappy manner of approach- 

 ing problems of class-room and laboratory is that such 

 procedure is unscientific because unorganised. An 

 analvsis of the recommendations which have been pub- 

 lished by societies of teachers in England will be fairly 

 certain to reveal example after example of statements 

 which you can neither accept nor deny until you have 

 settled the aim which justifies inclusion of science in 

 the curriculum. Nor is it to be imagined that a 

 realisation of the educational functions of the various 

 subjects is of import only to persons placed in 

 authority — to the high priests of our educational 

 hierarchy. Such a realisation (or the absence of it) 

 affects every_ minute of every lesson given by the 

 humblest practitioner of the teacher's craft. In all 

 teaching, the objective dictates the method. 



Granted that the fundamental problem of science 

 teaching is the determination of the aim of such teach- 

 ing, how far is it possible to generalise? How far 

 will the aim depend upon the sex, range of age, pre- 

 vious preparation, and probable after-life of the 

 m.ajority of the pupils? It is easy to enunciate a few 

 general truths, but it is clear that each school has its 

 own special problem. Every subject worthy of a 

 place in the school course does at least two things — 

 ( i) it enriches the mental content with valuable know- 

 ledge ; (2) it develops mental power through the pro- 

 cess of acquiring the knowledge. The former is too 

 often under-rated by the schoolmaster, the latter by 

 his lay critic, e.g. the business man. We must pro- 

 mote the fitness of the boy for his particular role in 

 life, and at the same time give him as intelligent an 

 understanding as possible of his fellow-men and their 

 work. The boy should acquire some sense of his 

 inheritance in the round world and all that therein is. 

 Properly taught, science will have a humanistic value; 

 the teachers of literary subjects must be made to feel, 

 by the demonstrated effect of the science teaching in 

 evolving many-sided interest in the boy, that they 

 have not the sole title to " the humanities." But be- 

 yond such broad generalities there are no rules to be 

 laid down, and the individual teacher must study his 

 own case. In this task he inight derive much assist- 

 ance from debate with colleagues and in educational 

 conferences. 



Teachers in the United States have organised large 

 federations of associations in order to discuss the broad 

 problems of teaching. The concluding paper of a 

 " .Symposium on the Purpose and Organisation of 

 Physics Teaching in Secondary Schools " appeared last 

 March, and now we find in "Bulletin Number Two" 

 papers on "The Problems of Science Teaching," 

 written by President Ira Remsen (chemistrv), Messrs. 

 G. F. Stradling (physics), J. M. Coulter (botany), 

 W. T. Campbell (mathematics), and N. M. Fenneman 

 (physical geography). We abstract from the paper 

 which deals with botanical instruction. The first 

 problem, writes Prof. Coulter, is the prepared teacher, 

 a problem not peculiar to botany, but peculiarly con- 

 spicuous. The prepared teacher means one who, in 

 addition to good laboratory and field experience, has 

 a clear conception of the purpose of botany in second- 

 ary schools, as distinct from its purpose in higher 

 institutions. To inject into these schools miniature 

 duplicates of college and university courses is to defeat 

 NO. 2097, VOL. 82] 



their purpose. There is no ideal method of first 

 attack ; the most natural one is the one nearest to the 

 pupils. It would be very unfortunate for any com- 

 mittee to assume to determine that some one method 

 of approach is the best. A current problem is the 

 place of the economic aspects of botany. The older 

 educational theory emphasised mental discipline to the 

 exclusion of useful things, so that sometimes no useful 

 plants were included in the course. In these days 

 there is a tendency to the other extreme, and it is 

 proposed to substitute agriculture for botany — a short- 

 sighted change, because the most practical thing in 

 the world is the foundation of pure science upon which 

 applied science rests. The fundamentals of botany 

 can be obtained from useful plants ; but there should 

 never be a straining after such plants at the expense 

 of a clear illustration of the principle to be estab- 

 lished. Referring to the proposal to include botany 

 in general biology, using plants and animals indis- 

 criminately for giving knowledge of biological prin- 

 ciples, the author finds that this method is inappro- 

 priate to immature students, as the perspective is far 

 too large to be grasped by their limited experience ; 

 but he suggests that the question be settled in con- 

 ference. Finally, Prof. Coulter asks for a clear state- 

 ment of the real value of botany from the point of 

 view of the pupil — a serious attempt to answer the 

 honest question, "What is it good for?" 



Our only comment is that the "prepared teacher" 

 who has answered the last question for his own 

 school is in a fair w-ay to solve the other problems 

 propounded. We welcome this series of papers, for 

 unless the teachers of science study their work with 

 scientific method, qiiis custodiet? 



G. F. D.WIELL. 



M.AGNETIC SURVEY OF SOUTH AFRICA.' 

 npHE Cambridge University Press has published 

 ^ for the Royal Society a work giving an account 

 of the results of the magnetic survey of South Africa 

 carried out by Prof. Beattie, of Cape Town, with the 

 aid of grants from the Royal Society, the British 

 Association, and. the Governments of the Crown 

 Colonies in South Africa. The author, in the preface, 

 acknowledges help from a number of scientific gentle- 

 men in South Africa, and he has been fortunate in 

 securing for the final presentation of the work the 

 help and acute judgment of Dr. Charles Chree. The 

 observations were made at some 400 stations in British 

 South Africa, and extend over the period from i8g8 

 to 1906, and the region is bounded roughly by lati- 

 tudes i8° to 34° S., and by longitudes 20° to 36° E. 

 The epoch to which the results have been reduced is 

 July I, 1903. 



The amount of observational work required is very 

 great and of a peculiarly monotonous type. The re- 

 duction of the results must have been a still more 

 arduous task. It is difficult for anyone looking at 

 the final results to realise the amount of sheer labour 

 involved. 



A work of this kind appeals in the main to pro- 

 fessional magneticians, and for this reason the first 

 part of chapter i. strikes us as a little out of place. 

 It was hardlv necessary to define the magnetic ele- 

 ments, but if the author thought it well to do so, 

 he might have made them strictly scientific, instead 

 of giving the kind of descriptive definitions which are 

 suitable for a popular lecture. Similarly, a very 

 " rough " method of finding declination is given. It 

 looks trifling in a work of professional character. 



Not the least difficulty in making a magnetic survey 



1 Report of a Magnetic Survey of South Africa. By Prof. J. C. Beattie. 

 Pp. x+235. (Cambridge : University Press, 1909.) Price 21s. net. 



