322 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVT, No. 1447 



enough in which to prepare him by this method 

 for the examination set by the college entrance 

 examination board, although these same stu- 

 dents had little or no trouble in passing the 

 Harvard chemistry paper as set at that time. 

 As the business of our school is to fit students 

 for the college examinations it will be evident 

 that by working out this little piece of educa- 

 tional research I was sacrificing much and I 

 reluctantly had to decide to replace my own 

 text with one of the other texts already men- 

 tioned. But I satisfied myself that the chem- 

 ical instruction as ordinarily practiced was 

 susceptible of considerable improvement and 

 that in my ofwn mind I was on the right track. 



As I look back at the experience now I sus- 

 pect I overdid the laboratory side of the 

 scheme, and it seems plausible that an abbre- 

 viated and modified presentation following my 

 general outline might perhaps lead to a more 

 generally accepted method of presenting our 

 subject. I have gone into some detail on this 

 method, not because I think it might offer the 

 eventual solution, but incidentally to show 

 what has been done and primarily as a protest 

 against the stereotyped method of plunging 

 the beginner into the intangibility of gases. 



Bradbury's "Inductive Chemistry" is the 

 only text I have seen that approximates the 

 method I have outlined. This book starts the 

 student on sulfur, leads on through compounds 

 of sulfur with some familiar metals to some 

 metals themselves, and then takes up carbon 

 as an example of a non-metallic solid; he loses 

 out, however, by making all this textual 

 instead of the basis for laboratory work. Lest 

 I give a wrong impression of this book let me 

 add that succeeding pages deal with oxides, 

 atomic theory, hydrogen compounds, the 

 sodium gi'oup, the chlorine group, and oxy- 

 acids and their salts. 



The student should certainly have a clear 

 conception of the terms and phrases he uses 

 in talking about chemistry, but I doubt very 

 much if the extreme niceties of definition and 

 fine drawings of line that characterize Alexan- 

 der Smith's books are likely to appeal to the 

 beginner, however much the teacher may ad- 

 mire these qualities. 



Blanehard and Wade's "Foundations of 

 Chemistry" is a valuable addition to elemen- 



tary chemistry literature, and agreeably attrac- 

 tive, too, but I always lay it down feeling 

 sorry that so many things are not there. I 

 have never been able to get really enthusiastic 

 over Hessler and Smith's "Essentials of Chem- 

 istry"; the directions for the laboratory work 

 look more satisfactory than the text itself. 

 Perhaps the too frequent use of fine print 

 leaves the impression that much of the material 

 presented is not of prime importance. Dull's 

 "Essentials of Modern Chemistry" strikes 

 closer home. It makes me wish I were a stu- 

 dent again and just beginning chemistry, 

 although he too starts in with oxygen, hydro- 

 gen and water, and that confiicts with my 

 pedagogical ideas. 



For several years now we have been using 

 at Exeter Brownlee's text, but we tie up with 

 it McPherson and Henderson's "Laboratory 

 Manual," as we consider this manual better 

 worded for and better suited to the elementary 

 student. 



The chemistry syllabus of the college en- 

 trance examination board has been a valuable 

 aid in indicating to secondary school teachers 

 what topics should be covered in the first year's 

 course. It has been noted by some teachers, 

 however, that those who set the paper some- 

 times seem to feel that the paper they set 

 should touch in some way on almost every 

 topic in the syllabus. This fact, together with 

 the large number of topics in the syllabus, 

 make it necessary for the teachers to spend the 

 whole year covering the topics in the syllabus. 

 If a majority of the colleges could agree to be 

 satisfied with a smaller number of topics but 

 have these covered more thoroughly, perhaps 

 the board would revise the chemistry syllabus 

 accordingly. This would be a boon to many 

 teachers in that they would have time to cover 

 the essential parts more thoroughly and would 

 have a little time left to dwell upon such spe- 

 cial topics as they find appealing to their 

 classes or appropriate to the localities where 

 they teach. I feel sure that secondary teachers 

 may be depended upon not to take advantage 

 of such diminution in requirements. Those 

 who might be thus guilty could with advantage 

 to the profession be eliminated. 



Elementary chemistry teachers are much 

 indebted to the college men who have written 



