ON TEACHING CHEMISTRY. 267 
suitable for those who wish to make a special and detailed study of 
Chemistry as a science. Insufficient attention is paid to problems, 
like those suggested in the Committee’s last report, designed to develop 
the powers of accurate observation and correct inference; few of the 
questions asked are adapted to test the mental power of students, which 
should have been strengthened and trained by the experimental study of 
Physics and Chemistry. The great majority of the questions asked in- 
volve an enumeration of the properties and modes of preparation of dif- 
ferent chemical substances; but this by itself is a wholly unsatisfactory 
method of ascertaining whether a student has derived benefit from ex- 
perimental work. The mere writing out by the student of methods of 
preparation of individual substances is no proof that he has learned Che- 
mistry. The Committee are of opinion that it is not advisable to ask young 
students to give purely formal definitions of chemical terms. A glance at 
the examination questions appended will show that definitions of such 
terms as atomic weight, molecular weight, water of crystaliisation, acid, base, 
salt, are often demanded. Such questions encourage many students to 
learn by rote certain forms of words without attempting to grasp the 
facts and generalisations which those words summarise. Moreover, as 
many, if not most, of the terms used in Chemistry cannot be defined, the 
demand for definitions of these terms by examiners leads to a pernicious 
and unscientific way both of teaching and learning, by which an apparent 
accuracy in the use of phrases is substituted for a real acquaintance with 
facts and principles. Again, too much attention is often devoted to eal- 
culations which, while they furnish useful exercises, do not necessitate 
any special scientific knowledge. Another noteworthy feature of these 
examination schedules and papers is the very general exclusion of any 
reference to organic substances. There appears to be no reason, even in 
elementary examinations, why the questions should be exclusively confined 
to inorganic materials. Moreover elementary Organic Chemistry can be 
made the basis of excellent training in scientific method, especially if 
the teaching does not follow the formal order or the aim at completeness 
which are usual in text-books, most of which are written for those who 
are studying Chemistry as a special subject, and not chiefly for the sake 
of the educational benefit which may be derived from it. In general 
elementary teaching at any rate it is unnecessary even to make the con- 
ventional distinction between Inorganic and Organic Chemistry. 
The foregoing remarks apply not only to school examinations, but 
also to the various Civil Service examinations, where it is of the highest 
importance that candidates should have received a sound scientific train- 
ing. Most of those selected will afterwards fill positions in which the 
Scientific method of dealing with the various problems which will con- 
stantly be presented for solution cannot fail to be of the highest value. 
It may perhaps be thought that a great deal of what has been said in 
criticism of the present examinational demands in physical science might 
more properly have been urged against the teaching. But since the 
first report of this Committee was issued, in which attention was drawn 
to the defective character of much of the elementary teaching, it has been 
repeatedly represented by teachers in schools of every grade that the 
character of their instruction is necessarily governed by the requirements 
of examiners, and that if modifications were made by examining boards 
in the present regulations it would be possible at once to make the corre- 
sponding changes in the methods of teaching. 
