TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 



651 



branches'of eacb U tube, so that the readings are all at the harometric pressure. 

 To correct for change of temperature, if at the time of making the tinal readings 

 the temperature of the room should not be the same as at the time of the initial 

 readings, by the side of the generating tube flasks, measuring tubes, &c., an 

 exactly similar piece of apparatus is placed, consisting of tube, flasks, measuring 

 tubes, &c., and having approximately the same volume as the original piece of 

 apparatus. . . 



The process employed was shown at the meeting of the Association, and the 

 proposed method of application to organic analysis, by which CO.,, H,-,0, and N 

 may be concurrently determined, and to abnormal vapour densities was explained 

 with the assistance of diagrams. 



3. On the Teaching of Chemistry. By M. M. Pattison Muir, M.A.^ 



AVhy does chemistry progress so slowly in this country ? One of the many 

 answers that may be given to this question is : because chemistry is so little taught. 

 Although many classes are conducted nominally in chemistry, yet very little of 

 what is taught is really chemistry. Sometimes catalogues of so-called facts are 

 taught ; sometimes generalisations and definitions detached from the facts on which 

 they rest are placed before the student. But chemistry is really a branch of natural 

 science. 



When the student is expected to read, and if possible to remember, statements 

 of detached facts about each of the elements and its compounds, such statements 

 become false to him, because they corceal the really important facts_ regarding^ the 

 connexions between changes of composition and changes of properties which form 

 the subject-matter of chemistry. A fatal distinction is too often drawn between 

 the facts on which chemical science rests, and reasoning and generalising on these 

 facts. . 



Chemistry deals with a certain class of natural occurrences, and by studying 

 these it seeks to rise through empirical generalisations to natural laws. The 

 business of the teacher is to make his pupil understand the methods of chemistry, 

 by putting before him well selected and typical chemical facts, in order that he 

 may learn the meaning and importance of the subject he is studying, and thus may 

 become imbued with the true scientific spirit which finds its only legitimate outlet 

 in the continual investigation of natural occurrences. 



Fom- things are to be especially kept in view in teaching chemistry ; (1) to 

 teach so that the student shall acquire real knowledge ; (2) to carefully select the 

 facts and the reasoning set before the student ; (;3) to impress the learner with the 

 importance and value of what he is learning us a part of that orderly and metho- 

 dised study of nature which we call science ; (4) to teach without fear of the 

 examiner. 



Real chemical knowledge can only be gained by connecting the experimental 

 work done in the laboratory with chemical reasoning and with the principles of 

 the science. To do this it is necessary that a well arranged and properly graduated 

 system of practical chemistry should take the place of the present routine of quali- 

 tative and quantitative anal3sis. Analysis is one of the instruments of chemistry, 

 but chemistry is much more than analysis. Tlie work done in the laboratory must 

 be in direct and constant connexion with tlie lecture-work and the reading of the 

 student ; it must also be progressive ; and it must be arranged so that as the ex- 

 periments become more ditticult the reasoning becomes more close and accurate. 

 Such a course of practical chemistry can be arranged without complicated laboratory 

 appliances. The outline of such a course is then sketched in the paper. 



The basis on which chemical facts should be selected is found in the treatment 

 of the elements and their compounds in groups, and not, as is generally done at 

 present, as isolated bodies. In this way the student gains some grasp of the sub- 

 ject he is studying, and he is not obliged to ask why he siiould burden his memory 



' Published in full in Nature, vol. xxxvi. p. 536. 



