SCIENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 139 
to encourage observations of animal and plant life, earth and sky, and 
of everyday phenomena manifested in them. Such observations pro- 
vide material for cultivating the art of expression, and with suitable 
reading or descriptive lessons will create and foster attention to many 
aspects of Nature. 
Laboratory Methods and Scope.—In laboratory courses two methods 
of instruction may be distinguished—the subject-method and the 
problem-method—one or both of which may be followed, or, more often, 
a combination of the two. The subject-method may be described as a 
system of impressing fundamental properties and principles upon the 
minds of pupils by means of a graduated course of experimental exer- 
cises. The pupils usually work independently or in pairs, but in some 
schools the same exercises are performed by a whole class simulta- 
neously as a form of drill, in which case they tend to become of the type 
of cockery-book recipes rather than that of scientific experiment. 
The problem-method aims at suggesting a motive and purpose for 
every experiment, and thus of creating the spirit of experimental 
scientific inquiry. It consists in facing a problem, and by means of 
experiment endeavouring to solve it and related questions which arise 
during the work. The intention is not, as is sometimes supposed, to 
make pupils discover for themselves laws and principles previously un- 
known to them, though to some extent this can be done, but rather to 
provide a continuous thread of reasoning for the practical work and a 
definite purpose for whatever is undertaken. It is obvious that this 
method demands much more intensive work on the part of the teacher 
than is required when a prescribed course of exercises is followed; and 
on this account varying opinions are held as to its practicability and 
value. What is wanted for the teacher is a laboratory which he has 
freedom to use exactly when and for whom the teaching requires it, 
and independently of syllabuses prescribed by external authorities, 
whether the subject-method with a definite laboratory course is being 
followed, or the ancillary method in which the experiment to be under- 
taken by any pupil may arise from his own demand, or be assigned to 
him to clear up some observed misapprehension, or as a challenge to 
test his knowledge of what he has been taught, and his resourcefulness, 
or simply to give the final security of personal practical experience, as 
already mentioned. 
The field which can be surveyed practically in any school course of 
laboratory work which forms part of a general education is necessarily 
limited in scope even when the subject-method is followed, and is more 
so when the object of the work is to encourage the natural spirit of 
inquiry, and thus to create a perception of the means by which new 
scientific knowledge is gained. Increased attention to laboratory exer- 
cises has, indeed, in recent years often been associated with a very 
restricted acquaintance with the world of science. The tendency has 
been to make all the teaching a matter of measurement, to the neglect 
of the human aspects of the pursuit of natural knowledge. The teach- 
ing is, in fact, inclined to be narrow and special rather than broad and 
catholic. Experimental work should bring appreciation of the preci- 
sion and methods of scientific inquiry, but, in addition to this instruction, 
