TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 869 



the experience gained whilst teaching or being taught in a sealed-pattern type 

 has led to marked improvements. Personally I am of opinion that only neces- 

 saries should be required, and I rebel against luxuries ; for a student trained 

 by means of the latter will, as a rule, in after life fail to meet with anything 

 beyond the mere essentials for carrying on his scientific work. 



The sealed pattern is practically in abeyance, though it can be trotted out as 

 a bogey, and any properly equipped laboratory is recognised so long as it meets 

 the absolute necessities of instruction. 



The half-dozen chemical laboratories which existed in 1877 have now expanded 

 to 349 physical and 77-4 chemical laboratories. These are spread over all parts 

 of England. I leave out Scotland and Ireland, as the science teaching is no longer 

 under the English Board of Education. 



It is only fair to say that many of this large number of laboratories are at 

 present in secondary schools, regarding which I shall have to speak more at length. 

 But the fact remains that in twentj^-seven years there has been such a growtb of 

 practical science teaching that some 1,120 laboratories have come into being. My 

 predecessor in the Chair likes to call laboratories ' workshops.' I have no objection, 

 but the reverse ; for the word ' laboratory,' like ' research,' sounds too magnificent 

 for what is really meant, and all education should more or less be carried out in 

 workshops. 



The increase is as satisfactory as it is remarkable. It was only possible to 

 increase the numbers in early days by gentle pressure and prophesying smooth 

 things which, happily, did eventually come to pass. In later days the increase 

 has been almost automatic. The Technical Instruction Act has called into being 

 technical instruction committees who in many cases have taken up science instruc- 

 tion in their districts in earnest. They, too, have had public money to allocate, and 

 not a little has gone in the encouragement of practical education. It may, how- 

 ever, be remarked that had it not been for the preliminary work that had been 

 done by the Science and Art Department it is more than probable that the 

 Technical Instruction Act of 1887 would never have seen the light. 



A reference must now be made to the i-emoval of what anyone will see 

 was a great bar to the spread of sound instruction in every class of school where 

 science was taught. So long as the student's success in examination was the 

 test which regulated the amount of the grant paid by the State, so long was it 

 impossible to insist on all-round practical instruction. It was impracticable to 

 hold practical examinations for tens of thousands of students in some twenty 

 different subjects of science. The practical examination in chemistry told its tale 

 of difficulties. It was only when the Duke of Devonshire and Sir John Gorst in 

 1898 substituted for the old scheme of payments payment for attendance, and 

 in a large measure substituted inspection for examination, that the Department 

 could still further press for practical instruction. For all elementary instruction 

 the test of outside examination does more harm than good, and any e.xamination 

 in the work done by elementary students should be carried out by the teacher, 

 and should be made on the absolute course that has been given. It seems to 

 be useless or worse that an examination should cover more than this. Instruction 

 in a set syllabus which for an outside examination has to be covered spoils 

 the teaching and takes away the liberty of method which a good teacher 

 should enjoy. The literary work involved of answering questions, for an 

 outside examiner, is also against the elementary student's success, and cannot be 

 equal to that which may properly be expected from him a couple of years later. 



Advanced instruction appears to be on a different footing. The student in 

 advanced science must have gradually obtained a knowledge of the elementary 

 portions of the subject, and it is not too much to ask him beyond the inspection 

 of his work to express himself in decent English and submit to examination from 

 the outside ; but even here the payment for such instruction should be by an 

 attendance grant tempered in some degree by the results of examination, since 

 ex.aminers are not always to be trusted. 



The attendance grant was not viewed by some with great favour at first, and 

 protests were received against its adoption, a favourite complaint being that it 



