OCTOBKE 26, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



635 



equations, and the laws of chemical com- 

 bination, until the student has reall3' suf- 

 ficient knowledge to understand how these 

 theories came to be necessary. 



There can be no doubt that this new sys- 

 tem of teaching chemistry in schools has 

 been most successful. Teachers are de- 

 lighted with the results which have already 

 been obtained, and those whom I have had 

 the opportunity of consulting, directly and 

 indirectly, cannot speak too highly of their 

 satisfaction at the disappearance of the old 

 system of qualitative analysis, and the in- 

 stitution of the new order of things. Es- 

 pecially I may mention in this connection 

 the excellent work which is being carried 

 on under the supervision of Dr. Bevan 

 Lean at the Friends' School in Ack worth, 

 where the boys have attained results which 

 are far in advance of anything which would 

 have been thought possible a few years 

 since. 



It is, of course, obvious that if a school- 

 boy is made to take the attitude of a dis- 

 coverer his progress may appear to be slow. 

 But does this matter ? Most boys will not 

 become professional chemists ; but if while 

 at school a boy learns how to learn, and 

 how to ' make knowledge ' * by working out 

 for himself a few problems, a habit of mind 

 will be formed which will enable him in 

 future years to look in a scientific spirit at 

 any new problems which may face him. 

 When school days are past the details of 

 the preparation of hydrogen may have been 

 forgotten ; but it was really understood at 

 the time that it could not be decided at 

 once whether the gas was derived from 

 the acid or from the metal, or from the 

 water, or in part from the one and in part 

 from the other, an attitude of scepticism 

 and of suspended judgment will have been 

 formed, which will continue to guard from 

 error. 



* Cf. Professor J. G. Macgregor in Nature, Septem- 

 ber, 1899. 



In the new system of teaching chemistry 

 in schools much attention must necessarily 

 be given to weights and measurements ; in- 

 deed, the work must be largely of a quanti- 

 tative kind, and it is in this connection that 

 an important note of warning has been 

 sounded by several teachers.* They con- 

 sider, very rightly, that it is important to 

 point out clearly to the scholar that science 

 does not consist of measurement, but that 

 measurement is only a tool in the hand of 

 the inquirer, and that when once sufScient 

 skill has been developed in its use it should 

 be employed only with a distinct object. 

 Measurements should, in fact, be made only 

 in reference to some actual problem which 

 appears to be really worth solving, not in 

 the accumulation of aimless details. 



And, of course, all research carried out 

 must be genuine and not sham, and all as- 

 sumption of the ' obvious ' must be most 

 carefully guarded against. But the young 

 scholar must, at the same time, not forget 

 that although the scientific method is nec- 

 essary to enable him to arrive at a result, 

 in real life it is the answer to the problem 

 which is of the most importance, f 



Although, then, there has been so much 

 discussion, during the last ten years, on the 

 subject of teaching chemistry in schools, 

 and such steady progress has been made 

 towards devising a really satisfactory sys- 

 tem of teaching the subject to young boys 

 and girls, it is certainly very remarkable 

 that practically nothing has been said or 

 written bearing on the training which a 

 student who wishes to become a chemist is 

 to undertake at the close of his school-days 

 at the college or university in which his 

 education is continued. 



One of the most remarkable points, to my 

 mind, in connection with the teaching of 



* Cf. H. Picton in The School World, November, 

 1899 ; Bevan Lean, ibid., February, 1890. 



t Cf. Mrs. Bryant, Special Beports on Educational 

 Subjects, Yol. II., p. 113. 



