TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 623 



■without specialists we can have not only no advance, but no efficient teaching of 

 more than rudiments. 



That teachers ought to engage in research at all is by no means clear to the 

 public and to those representatives of the public who are charged with the 

 administration of these new institutions. This was illustrated very painfully a 

 few years ago by the conditions under which professors were engaged at a certain 

 college founded, according to the declaration of its promoters, ' by the people for 

 the people,' wherein it was announced in round terms that original research was 

 not wanted, as the college was ' for the good of the many and not for the advantage 

 of the few.' This example of ignorance is only remarkable by reason of its 

 audacity. Probably many people hold a similar view, though few are bold enough 

 to declare it. 



Without going far into the discussion of the general question, which is a large 

 one, I may perhaps be allowed to offer a few remarks for the consideration of any 

 of my audience who may perchance incline towards that opinion. 



It is only when a teacher occupies himself with research that the most com- 

 plete guarantee is given that he is interested in his subject and that he is a 

 learner. A popular mistake consists in regarding a professor as a living embodi- 

 ment of science — complete, infallible, mysterious — whereas in truth he is, or ought 

 to be, only a senior student who devotes the greater part of his time to extending 

 and consolidating his own knowledge for the benefit of those who come to learn 

 of him, not only what lies within the boundaries of the known, but liow to 

 penetrate into the far greater region of the unknown. Moreover, the man who 

 has no intellectual independence and simply accepts other people's views without 

 challenge is pretty certain to make the stock of knowledge with which he sets out 

 in life do service to the end. That one may be fitted to form a sound judgment 

 concerning new theories he must be familiar with the methods by which progress 

 is accomplished. The work of investigation then reacts beneficially upon the 

 work of teaching ; that is why teachers should be encouraged, nay even required, 

 to investigate, and not because their discoveries may haply prove to be practically 

 useful. 



Of course it may be said that there have been distinguished investigators who 

 could not teach, but the converse is not true ; every teacher who has attained to 

 eminence as a teacher, who has drawn men after him, who has founded a school 

 of thought, and has left his mark upon his generation, has been an industrious 

 worker in research of some kind. All teachers cannot be expected to reach the 

 same high standard, but this is the ideal after which all must strive, or fail utterly. 



The fact that there is as yet little demand among schoolmasters for high 

 attainments in chemistry is another reason why so little is accomplished in the 

 chemical schools. Here again the public is really to blame. It is disgraceful that 

 in all classes of schools, even where chemistry is supposed to be taught, there are 

 but few places where serious employment is found for the well-trained chemist. 

 I could point to several schools, which claim the position of first-rate, where 

 chemistry is taught by masters who have never studied the subject at all, but 

 who are, I suppose, allowed the traditional ' ten minutes' start ' with the book. 

 Would the head-masters of such places dare to employ a person to teach mathe- 

 matics who did not know the first four rules of arithmetic, or another to teach 

 Latin who had not even got through the accidence ? I fancy not. This, how- 

 ever, is without exaggeration the exact parallel of the position in which chemistry 

 is placed in the majority of schools. I have heard the excuse that there is a lack 

 of competent teachers. Of course the demand and the supply will react upon 

 each other. W^hen you ofter a reasonable stipend, reasonable accommodation for 

 teaching effectively, reasonable leisure for the master's own studies, and a position on 

 the staff' not inferior to that of the classical and mathematical masters, I believe that 

 then, but not till then, there will be as many good school teachers of chemistry as 

 there are of other subjects. 



I could point to other prominent schools where the chemistry and other 

 branches of science are taught by a peripatetic South Kensington teachei", who 

 arrives weekly with his box of tricks. Not long ago I was invited to distribute the 



