612 REPORT — 1901. 



TUJSSDA Y, SEPTEMBER 17. 



The following Papers and Reports were read : — 



1. Some Points in Chemical Education. By Joji Sakurai, LL.D., 

 Professor of Chemistry in the Imperial University of Tokyo, Japan. 



The marvellous and wonderfully rapid progress which chemistry has made within 

 the last fifteen years is characterised by the fact that not only experimental means 

 of investigation have been extended, enriched, and made accurate, but also a number 

 of comprehensive and fertile ideis have been developed one after another, and 

 deductive methods of inquiry made possible and found to be exceptionally 

 fruitful ; chemistry has, in fact, thrown off much of its empirical character, and 

 established itself to be a truly rational science. The educational value, which it 

 has thus acquired, is enormous, a student of modern chemistry having ample oppor- 

 tunities of cultivating the power of observation and the faculty of reasoning at the 

 same time — a two-sided advantage which is possessed neither by an essentially 

 descriptive science nor by an essentially abstract science. 



The teaching of chemistry from the point of view attained by the recent 

 development is not only important for those who would become pure chemists, but 

 also for those who would have to apply the knowledge of that science in special 

 directions, such as physiology and chemical technology, inasmuch as its con- 

 ceptions are exceedingly comprehensive and fertile, their applications in these 

 directions having already led to some important practical results. It is also no 

 less- important for the education of boys in secondary schools, as it puts the 

 fundamental facts of chemistry in a clear, intelligent, and rational form, supplying 

 requisite food for the healthy development of their brain. 



Notwithstanding these evident and exceptional advantages which the teaching 

 of modern chemistry affords, it is still taught, to a great extent, in the same dry 

 and merely descriptive way as m old days, explanations which are in direct 

 opposition to'well-established facts being, moreover, not unfrequently given ; and 

 for the interest of our science and profession this state of things should be speedily 

 remedied. 



One of the remedies would be to remove certain misconceptions which seem to 

 prevail pretty freely. Now the name ' physical chemistry,' which has come into 

 general use, has apparently given to many an idea that it is a special branch of 

 chemistry, whilst, in fact, it pervades the whole domain of our science and treats 

 of specially important and fundamental chemical questions. Exclusive use of the 

 name 'general chemistry,' in its stead, would have the effect of removing this 

 misconception and of accelerating a more free introduction of modern views into 

 the teaching of chemistry. Another misconception, which seems to have 

 crept into the minds of many, relates to the use of mathematics. It is often 

 stated that, as the treatment of general chemistry requires higher mathematics, 

 it is neither possible nor desirable to introduce it into elementary teaching, but in 

 this opinion there is a confusion of ideas. It is true that, for a detailed study and 

 cultivation of general chemistry, a fair knowledge of higher mathematics is both 

 desirable and necessary. This fact should, indeed, be clearly and generally 

 recognised, and students of chemistry should be encouraged to acquire this 

 knowledge. But the teachings of general chemistry can be introduced into 

 elementary text-books without any mathematics, and yet in a concise, useful, and 

 interesting form ; moreover, simple and appropriate lecture experiments, illus- 

 trating the laws of chemical dynamics, the theory of solutions, &c., can be easily 

 contrived. 



A very effective remedy would be to diffuse the knowledge of, and to increase 

 the interest in, modern views among the teachers in secondary schools. For this 

 purpose courses of lectures, in which general chemistry is amalgamated with 

 descriptive matter, should be given to them, say during summer vacations ; also 

 ■writing of elementary text-books on the same plan should be encouraged. 



The objection, which might be raised, that the attempt to give a fair training 



