140 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1917. 
an attempt should be made to cultivate interest in achievements of 
research outside the school walls. 
While, therefore, prime importance must be attached to adequate 
provision for laboratory work undertaken with the view of imparting 
a knowledge of experimental methods of inquiry, it is essential that there 
should also be instruction in the broad principles and results of scientific 
work which cannot be brought within the limits of a laboratory course. 
Every pupil should not only receive training in observational and 
experimental work but should also be given a view of natural knowledge 
asa Whole. The object should be to evoke interest rather than to impart 
facts or data of science prescribed by an examination syllabus, or even to 
systematise their rediscovery. There should be no specialisation before 
the stage of Matriculation has been reached, and whatever instruction 
is given should be from the point of view of general education. 
Human Aspects of Science.—Assuming that laboratory work is 
commenced at a suitable stage, the question arises as to the best means 
of presenting the broad view of scientific facts and principles desirable 
in a modern liberal education. It should not be possible for any pupil 
to complete a course at any secondary school without a knowledge not 
only of experimental methods but also of the meaning of common 
natural phenomena. Much of this knowledge can be given, and is 
being given, to an increasing extent, in connection with the teaching of 
geography; but in any case descriptive lessons are required in which 
the aim should be to impart broad ideas, and promote interest in Nature, 
rather than to train in practical methods applied to a limited field. 
It is desirable also, by means of general lectures, discussions, or 
reading, to introduce into the teaching some account of the main 
achievements of science and of the methods by which they have been 
attained. Science must not be considered merely as a burden of material 
fact and precise principle which needs a special type of mind to bear it. 
There should be more of the spirit, and less of the valley of dry bones, 
if science is to be of living interest, either during school life or afterwards. 
Everyone should be given the opportunity of knowing something of the 
lives and work of such men as Galileo and Newton, Faraday. and Kelvin, 
Pasteur and Lister, Darwin and Mendel, and many other pioneers of 
science. One way of doing this is by lessons on the history of science, 
biographies of discoverers, with studies of their successes and failures, 
and outlines of the main road along which natural knowledge has 
advanced. It would be far better, from the point of view of general 
education, to introduce courses of this kind, intended to direct attention 
and stimulate interest in scientific greatness and its relation to modern 
life, than to limit the teaching to dehumanised material of physics and 
chemistry which leaves but little impression upon the minds of boys 
if seen only ‘in disconnection, dull and spiritless.’ 
Under existing conditions, which are largely controlled by prescribed 
syllabuses and external examinations, there is little opportunity for 
teachers to direct attention to the useful applications of science on one 
hand, or on the other to awaken interest in the solution of the mysteries 
which surround us, though this could be done incidentally in connection 
with lectures or practical work if the present pressure were removed. 
