TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 681 



Section B.-CHEMISTEY. 

 Peesident of the Section. — Professor W. H. Peekin, Juii., Ph.D., F.R.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



The Modern System of Teaching Fracticallnorganic Chemistry 

 and its Develojmient. 



In choosinp: for the subject of my Address to-day the development of the teaching 

 of practical inorganic chemistry I do so, not only on account of the great import- 

 ance 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 con- 

 tinues : ' "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 scientilic subjects as physiologj', 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 to teach until 1869.' Besides 

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



' 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 Keport a heading for Chemistry was intro- 

 duced in the year 1847, the year of Mr. Hall's appointment. 



