94 SCIENCE 
may become unstable. There is a running 
down of a part of the intrinsic energy of one 
or both of the substances into heat, light or 
electricity but almost always largely into 
heat; and the substances rearrange themselves 
into those new combinations which are most 
stable under the new conditions. 
This is what we ordinarily describe as a 
chemical reaction, and this can be taught to 
any sensible student just as well as the ele- 
ments of physics can be taught to him. 
Finally, the matters herein referred to, to- 
gether with many others which time will not 
permit me even to mention, can not, of course, 
be taught the beginner all at once, in addition 
to the so-called material facts of chemistry. 
It is, however, a fair question to ask whether 
some of these matters would not be a fair sub- 
stitute for a part of the pyrotechnics that 
sometimes adorns the chemical lecture table? 
In all such matters the judgment and com- 
mon sense of the teacher must of course be 
the final guide, and the intellectual fiber of 
the student must also be taken into account. 
It goes without saying that we must not teach 
dogmatically anything to the student of chem- 
istry, much less to the beginner in chemistry, 
that is not reasonably substantiated; but I 
believe that all of the matters referred to 
above and many more of their type belong in 
this class. 
The final question then is, shall we have 
two chemistries or one? Shall we have a 
chemistry of research, pushing forward at a 
pace that makes the last twenty-five years 
mark a distinctly new epoch in the history of 
the science? and another chemistry taught the 
beginner, which practically ignores all that 
has been done within that period; which deals 
not only with what is obsolete, but with what 
we know to be largely untrue, and which relies 
upon subsequent teaching to do almost the im- 
possible, 7. e., correct erroneous first impres- 
sions, which must in some method be corrected, 
or the result is fatal? 
Or shall we have one science of chemistry ? 
Research leading the way, and teaching fol- 
lowing fairly closely behind? At least doing 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 890: 
nothing that will have to be undone, but in- 
corporating what is truest and best. 
For those who believe as I do that the latter 
is the more scientific course, there is not only 
no ground for pessimism, but not even for 
pragmatic meliorism. 
The progress in this direction during the 
last decade, not only in the better colleges. 
and universities, but in the more progressive 
high schools, has been so rapid that there is 
room for nothing but the most cheerful op- 
timism. 
Harry C. Jones 
IS SCIENCE REALLY UNPOPULAR IN 
HIGH SCHOOLS? 
THE period covered by the tenth decade of 
the nineteenth century and the first of the 
twentieth was one of great activity in the re- 
construction of high school schedules. The 
reports of the N. E. A., Committees of Ten and 
on college entrance examinations, the formation 
of the College Entrance Examination Board, 
the Perry and other movements for the re- 
form and unification of science and mathe- 
matical teaching, all must have influenced 
high school curricula, and the alterations of 
the curricula must have shown effects in the 
percentages of secondary students in the vari- 
ous courses. 
The famous attack made by President G. 
Stanley Hall’ on the methods and attitude of 
secondary teaching in the United States was 
based to a certain extent on the summary 
tables of the percentage of secondary students: 
in the United States taking the various high 
school studies, and published in the reports of 
the Commissioner of Education, 1890 to 1907. 
In order to exhibit these I have plotted the 
data on a chart. The curves for studies, 
graduates and college preparatory students. 
are from the summary table (p. 1052), Re- 
port of the Commissioner of Education for 
1907; that for per cent. of secondary students: 
1G. Stanley Hall, ‘‘ How Far is the Present 
High School and Early College Training adapted 
to the Needs and Nature of Adolescents?’’ N. EH. 
Asso. Coll. and Prep. Schs., 16, p. 72, 1901; Ped. 
Sem., 9, p. 92, 1902; Sch. Rev., 9, p. 649, 1901. 
