ON THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 233 



the Code of 1893 furnishes interesting data as to the instruction in 

 scientific subjects in these schools. Your Committee drew attention in 

 tlieir Report for 1893 to the development which was taking place at that 

 time in this direction ; but pointed out that the Government return of 

 that year did not furnish precise information on the point. A new table 

 has been introduced this year, which gives the information desired. In the 

 following table your Committee give the number of ' units for payment ' 

 of the grant by the Education Department for the several scientific sub- 

 jects taken throughout England and Wales during the session 1893-94, 

 to which is appended a similar return for the schools under the London 

 School Board, extracted from the Board's Annual Report upon their 

 Evening Continuation Schools. It may be necessary to explain that the 

 ' unit ' means a complete twelve hours of instruction received by each 

 scholar, fractions of twelve hours not counting. 



Science subjects 



Units for payment 



England and I London School 

 Wales I Board 



I 



Euclid 



Algebra 



Mensuration ..... 

 Elementary Physiography 

 Elementary Phj'sics and Chemistry 

 Science of Common Things . 

 Chemistry ..... 



Mechanics 



Sound, Light, and Heat 

 Magnetism and Electricity . 

 Human Physiology 



Botany 



Agriculture ..... 

 Horticulture ..... 

 Navigation ..... 



595 

 3,940 

 14,521 

 2,554 

 6,500 

 6,223 

 3,484 



841 



500 

 2,359 

 5,695 



3.^56 

 3,579 



438 

 42 



10 

 316 

 279 

 37 

 79 

 231 

 212 

 230 



662 



91 



5 



The total number of units is (for England and Wales) 51,607, whereas 

 the number of scholars is 41,960, indicating that about one-fourth of them 

 must have received at least twenty-four hours of instruction. It is evident 

 that London is far behind the country in general in the teaching of these 

 science subjects in their Evening Continuation Schools, excepting in the 

 matter of Mechanics and Magnetism and Electricity. The stronghold of 

 this instruction is in Manchester and the other manufacturing districts. 



It is especially intei'esting to note that 3,696 students took up Chemis- 

 try, and that a much larger number took the comparatively new subjects 

 of Elementary Physics and Chemistry, and the Science of Common Things. 

 Your Committee has already on a former occasion (1893) expressed 

 approval of the course on Elementary Physics and Chemistry in the 

 Evening School Code, which is a practical course intended to be carried 

 out experimentally by the scholars themselves, and deals, not with defini- 

 tions or descriptions, but with actual facts. The course on the Science of 

 Common Things is ' a brief survey of the physical properties of bodies, 

 serving to determine their uses and relative value.' It may be looked 

 upon as an introduction to physical and biological science in general, and 

 to its application to ordinary and domestic life. 



In their last Report your Committee referred to the difficulties inter- 



