ON THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 2741 
last year’s Report your Committee gave in tabular form the number of 
‘units for payment’ of the grant by the Education Department for the 
several scientific subjects taken throughout England and Wales during 
the session 1893-94, together with a similar return for the schools under 
the London School Board. In the following table these figures are 
reproduced, together with the corresponding returns for the session 
1894-95. It may be desirable to report that the ‘unit’ means a com- 
plete twelve hours of instruction received by each scholar, fractions of 
twelve hours not counting. 
| Units for Payment 
Science Subjects England and Wales London School Board 
1893-94 1894-95 1893-94 1894-95 
Euclid . : 5 - . 595 1,086 10 29 
Algebra . . . . e é 3,940 6,657 316 302 
Mensuration . : : : ; 14,521 32,931 279 BYE! 
Elementary Physiography . ‘ 2,554 4,045 37 9 
Elementary Physics and Chemistry 6,500 7,850 79 200 
Science of Common Things . f 6,223 10,350 231 262 
Chemistry . - , 5 £ 3,484 7,814 212 455 
Mechanics . 3 ¥ : edt 841 1,148 230 197 
Sound, Light, and Heat. 5‘ j 500 1,046 — 15 
Magnetism and Electricity . : 2,359 4,451 662 776 
Human Physiology 4 : ‘ 5,695 8,395 91 68 
Botany . . : : ; 2) 336 547 5 91 
Agriculture . A ° } ri 3,579 4,991 oe she, 
Horticulture . : : ‘ 438 1,140 — ne 
Navigation . : 2 - 4 42 69 = oa 
The total number of units for the year 1894-95 is (for England and 
- Wales) 92,520, whereas the number of scholars is 55,132, indicating that 
fully two-thirds of them must have received atleast twenty-four hours of 
instruction. It will be remarked that there has been an unparalleled 
_ increase in the subject of Mensuration, considerably more than double, 
and that it is farand away the mest popular subject. In some of the others 
the figures are more than doubled ; but it is interesting to note that the 
Science of Common Things holds the second place in popular estimation ; 
and that the allied subjects of Chemistry (which has considerably more 
than doubled itself) and Elementary Physics and Chemistry score between 
them no less than 15,664 units. It appears there were no less than 
18,648 individual students of Mensuration, while the number of students 
for the three other subjects above referred to were 6,638, 4,691, and 4,961 
respectively. There were 5,241 students in Human Physiology. The 
figures for London show an advance, but not in proportion to those for 
England and Wales. The principal increase is in Chemical Science and 
in Botany. 
The popular subject of the Science of Common Things is no doubt one 
that may be made extremely valuable by good teaching. Your Committee 
are glad to know that Professor Smithells has for the last three years 
conducted a course for teachers on this subject at the Yorkshire College, 
Leeds. This course has included practical work. 
Tn last year’s Report reference was made to the improved method of 
teaching Elementary Physics and Chemistry in the schools of the London 
