720 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 
practical usefulness and disinterested culture, and (2) at giving to foreign languages, 
either entirely or partly, the share in the formation of young minds which was 
previously considered as a privilege of ancient languages, 
4, Conditions of Science Work in Secondary Schools. 
By R, HE. Towairtes, M.A. 
In a paper on the ‘ Internal Economy of School Science,’ read before the Public 
School Science Masters’ Association in January 1907, figures were presented 
relating to conditions of science work in thirty-six public schools. More recently 
similar data have been obtained from about the same number of secondary schools, 
working in conformity with Board of Education regulations. 
In both cases information was asked for on the following points: Number of 
boys taking science in (1) general course, (2) special course; average number in 
class; number of hours per week for (1) general course, (2) special course ; 
number of science masters ; number of laboratory assistants; approximate annual 
expenditure for science; and answers to the following questions: Do you 
consider your present arrangements to be adequate in respect of—(1) laboratory 
accommodation, (2) laboratory equipment, (3) staff, (4) laboratory assistants ? 
The average results may here be given :— 
Public Schools.—In twenty-nine schools 60 per cent. of the boys take science : 
in twenty-three of these the average percentage of boys in the general course is 
ninety-five, the remainder being specialists. The number in class for twenty-seven 
schools is 21°5 in the general and fourteen in the special course. The time for the 
general course is four hours a week, usually divided between chemistry and 
physics, and for the special course twelve hours. In eighteen schools the annual 
expenditure per boy was about 17. Chemistry costs more than physics for main- 
tenance. In twenty-three schools there is a science master for every seventy-six 
boys and a laboratory assistant to every 147 boys. Sixty-five per cent. of the 
correspondents were satisfied with their laboratory accommodation, 71 per cent. 
with equipment, 77 per cent. with the number of the staff, and only 58 per cent. 
with‘laboratory assistants. 
Secondary Day Schools.—All boys above twelve years of age take science. The 
percentage of boys in the general course, lasting four years, is 94, in the special 
course 6. The average number in class in the general course is 22'6, in special 
course 8 or 9. The number of hours for science in general course is rather over 
four a week, and in special course from eight to fifteen. The work is usually 
divided between chemistry and physics; very little biology istaught. The annual 
expenditure per boy for apparatus and chemicals is 8s. 6d., or 2s. for one hour of 
science a week. The average number of boy-hours a week for one science master 
is about 310. There is one laboratory assistant to 218 boys. Ninety per cent. 
of the correspondents are satisfied with their staff, 77 per cent. with laboratory 
accommodation, 80 per cent. with laboratory equipment, and 50 per cent. with 
laboratory assistants. 
It will be seen that the ratio of specialists to boys in a general course is 
roughly the same in the two classes of schools. In the matter of expenditure the 
day schools are markedly inferior to public schools. In both there are too few 
laboratory assistants. The consequences of this misguided economy are that the 
time of the science master is wasted in drudgery which could be performed less 
expensively by an assistant, and opportunity for preparation of experiments is 
lacking. 
Tin alasipes to the question, ‘ What do you consider to be the maximum size of 
a laboratory division for successful work ?’ the average reply from thirty schools 
was: Twenty boys in the lower classes, twelve in the higher. It need not be 
said that these figures still represent only a pious aspiration in many cases. 
Another question addressed to the same schools related to the advisability of 
teaching experimental mechanics as part of the science course. The answers 
