OCTOBEE 29, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



581 



But the general committee on college en- 

 trance requirements insisted on having 

 more detailed recommendations from the 

 physics committee. Accordingly I, know- 

 ing that various members of this latter 

 body, if body it could properly be called 

 with its parts separated by hundreds or 

 even thousands of miles, held strongly to 

 various opinions concerning details, at last 

 sent to the general committee as my per- 

 sonal suggestion the titles of the Harvard 

 "Descriptive List," at the same time noti- 

 fying every other member of the physics 

 committee of my action and asking each 

 to make any suggestion of his own in the 

 same way. To my surprise only one other 

 member of the committee sent any recom- 

 mendations of his o-RTi. Professor Carhart 

 sent a number, which, however, were prob- 

 ably not intended as a complete alternative 

 for the Harvard li.st. The general com- 

 mittee printed both sets of suggestions, 

 with some introductory paragraphs of 

 which one only need be given here : 



OUTLINE OF LABOBATOBY WORK IN PHYSICS FOB 

 SECOND/VBT SCHOOLS 



At least thirty-five exercises, selected from a 

 list of sLxty or more, not very different from the 

 list given below. In this list the divisions are 

 mechanics (including hydrostatics), light, heat, 

 sound, and electricity (with magnetism). At 

 least ten of the exercises selected should be in 

 mechanics. The exercises in sound may be omit- 

 ted altogether; but each of the three remaining 

 divisions should be represented by at least three 

 exercises. 



This paragraph, too, with the list which 

 followed, became a part of the matter 

 recommended to the colleges of the country 

 in 1900 by the departments of secondary 

 and higher education of the National Edu- 

 cational Association. 



In 1901 the "Definition of Eequire- 

 ments," issued by the recently established 

 College Entrance Examination Board of 

 the ]\Iiddle States and Maryland, contained 

 the following statement : 



The requirement in physics is based on the 

 report of the committee on physics of the science 

 department of the National Educational Asso- 

 ciation. 



It is recommended that the candidate's prepara- 

 tion in physics should include: 



(a) Individual laboratory work, comprising at 

 least thirty-five exercises selected from a list of 

 sixty or more, not very different from the list 

 given below. 



(6) Instruction by lecture-table demonstrations, 

 to be used mainly as a basis for questioning upon 

 the general principles involved in the pupil's labo- 

 ratory investigations. 



(c) The study of at least one standard text- 

 book, supplemented by the use of many and 

 varied numerical problems, " to the end that the 

 pupil may gain a comprehensive and connected 

 view of the most important facts and laws in 

 elementary physics." 



The list of titles of experiments which 

 follows this passage in the original context 

 is precisely the same as that numbered 

 from 1 to 61 in the report of the National 

 Educational Association and in the Har- 

 vard "Descriptive List." 



All this may seem to be a record of easy 

 and triumphant progress, during the years 

 1897-1901, for the physics course under 

 discussion. Perhaps the ease was too great 

 for the triumph, if such there was, to last. 

 Criticisms and complaints soon began to be 

 heard. At a meeting of the New England 

 Association of Colleges and Preparatory 

 Schools in October, 1901, President Hall, 

 of Clark University, pronounced a sweep- 

 ing condemnation of the kind of physics 

 teaching which had come into the schools 

 through the influence especially of Har- 

 vard College. This was the more signifi- 

 cant, rather than less, by reason of the fact 

 that President Hall had during the early 

 years of the Harvard "Descriptive List" 

 expressed approval of its character. In 

 .^pite of an earlj' prepossession in its favor, 

 he had become entirel.y dissatisfied by its 

 working in the schools, as he understood 

 the results of that working. Nor did he 

 long remain alone as a pronounced critic 



