TUANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 783 



Bs to whether a hand-mirror is a satisfactory test for a damp bed. They do not 

 know why washing soda goes white or brass grows greeu. They think that dry 

 cleaning is done without using liquids, and that salts of sorrel have some unique 

 and inscrutable action upon ink-stains. They kaow nothing of gas meters, filters, 

 or clinical thermometers, and are paralysed before a smoky chimney. Yet these 

 people are learned about the oxides of nitrogen and the chlorides of phosphorus, 

 the oxidation of secondai-y alcohols and the tests for cadmium. 



Whilst science of this formal kind is being dispensed in certain schools and to 

 certain kinds of pupils, there is something of a different kind being done in other 

 echools to other pupils. The need for knowledge of more mundane and practical 

 matters is fully realised, and we have long had with us the teaching of this under 

 a variety of names. Domestic economy and hygiene are the names most commonly 

 attached. Here we have the other extreme — science, properly so called, scientific 

 method, scientific discipline, rationally connected knowledge, are here practically 

 excluded. The reasoning powers are in abeyance, and the pupil learns a mis- 

 cellaneous assortment of facts — tags of knowledge borrowed from physics, 

 chemistry, and physiology, and laid down by authority. 'Caraway Steds are 

 largely imported from Plolland, and are much used for flavouring confectionery, 

 cordials, &:c. They are the seeds of the Canon carui, a plant somewhat similar to 

 the carrot and parsnip.' ' There is found in tea and coffee an astringent substance 

 which gives the well-known bitter taste to the infusions when they are allowed 

 to '' stew." In the case of tea it is known as tcmnin, and forms from 1.3 to 20 per 

 cent, of the dried tea-leaf. In cofi'ee it is called caffeio or caffio-tannic acid, but 

 its amount is much less than the tannin in tea.' And so on and so on. This is 

 the sort of thing which has been offered as useful knowledge for the household. 

 It is sorry stuff, and small wonder that it has produced nothing but nausea in the 

 pupils and elicited nothing but ridicule from those who thmk that this is what 

 we are aiming at. 



I am convinced that there is a more excellent way. I am convinced that it is 

 possible to develop a science of the household which is free from the pedantry of 

 the formal science that has prevailed in one place, and free from the stale, flat, 

 and unprofitable memorising of dietetic statistics that has been customary in the 

 other. I have found it possible, as many others have done, to arrange a course of 

 science lessons in which scientific discipline and scientific method can be inculcated 

 by simple experimental work, based entirely on matters of the household and of 

 daily life ; where the information acquired is truly useful knowledge ; and where 

 the minds of the pupils are awakened to the fact that the household is, as I have 

 said before, a laboratory of applied science that may constantly engage the 

 intelligence. Syllabuses of this kind of work have been before the public for a 

 long time, and among the earliest and best are those framed by Mr. Heller. We 

 may call the subject domestic science. It is compounded of physics, chemistry, 

 physiology, bacteriology ; but these are hard names for simple things, and I prefer 

 to suppress them. 



Along with the teaching of domestic science in girls' schools I am anxious to 

 see the teaching of domestic arts. I want to see a kitchen and laundry, as well 

 as a laboratory. I want to see the teacher of domestic science well trained in the 

 domestic arts and the teacher of domestic arts well trained in domestic science. 

 In that case girls who have had their training in domestic science will in the later 

 stage of their school career proceed to the practice of the domestic arts under the 

 most favourable conditions, and their teachers will be able to play into each 

 others hands and give unity and continuity to the scheme of training. In this 

 way I believe you may do something that is beyond the province of home training 

 and is yet well worth doing. It seems to me quite as unreasonable to say that a 

 girl will learn in the home all she needs to know about the household as to say 

 of a boy that he will learn in the workshop all he needs to know of engineering. 

 I submit that there is a vast undeveloped intellectual region connected with the 

 domestic work of women. I have alluded only to a small part of it, and perhaps 

 not to the most important, for I have said nothing of the nurture and training of 

 children. I do not undervalue home training ; I am not so inhuman as not to 



