SCIENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS, 14] 
History and biography enable a comprehensive view of science to 
be constructed which cannot be obtained by laboratory work. They 
supply a solvent of that artificial barrier between literary studies and 
science which a school time-table usually sets up. In the study of 
hydrostatics, heat, current electricity, optics, and inorganic chemistry, 
the attention which has been given to laboratory work has succeeded 
in developing the powers of doing and describing. The weak points 
have been insufficient attention to the broader aspects and to scientific 
discovery and invention as human achievements, and failure to con- 
nect school work with the big applications of science by which mankind 
is benefiting. The study of optics is seldom pursued to a useful 
point, and in the teaching of mechanics there are more failures than 
in other science subjects. The time-table is particularly overcrowded 
during the last two years in the State-aided secondary schools; the 
work is over-compressed, and the philosophical aspects cannot, there- 
fore, be presented effectively. The extension of the normal leaving 
age to seventeen years would have a valuable effect in raising the 
potential standard of scientific knowledge, and in spreading intelligent 
appreciation of science throughout the country. 
At present, as instruction in science proceeds in the school, there is a 
tendency for it to become detached from the facts and affairs of life, by 
which alone stimulus and interest can be secured. It is important that 
every opportunity should be taken to counteract this tendency by descrip- 
tive lessons in which everyday phenomena are explained and the utility 
of discovery and invention is illustrated. 
Domestic science and hygiene are frequently introduced into girls’ 
schools with the object of effecting a link between science and the 
experience of everyday life. It must be pointed out, however, that 
such courses are incoherent and of little value unless science or 
domesticity is the definite objective. If the scientific aim predominates, 
the course can be made to give a good training in elementary experi- 
mental science and should afford a useful background to later practical 
study of domestic arts. If domesticity is dominant, the work cannot 
be accepted as an effective substitute for a proper science course. 
Summary. 
The observational work by which the study of science should begin 
opens the eyes of the pupils and may be used to train them in the correct 
expression of thought and of accurate description. The practical 
measurements in the class-room have for their object the fixing of ideas 
met with in the mathematical teaching. Every pupil should undergo a 
course of training in experimental scientific inquiry as a part of his 
general education up to a certain stage, after which the laboratory work 
may become specialised and be used to supply facts which may be a 
basis for more advanced work or to prepare pupils for scientific or 
industrial careers. 
At suitable stages, when pupils are capable of taking intelligent 
interest in the knowledge presented, there should be courses of descrip- 
tive lessons and reading broad enough to appeal to all minds and to 
give a general view of natural facts and principles not limited to the 
