142 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No 501 



many sources being all thought fit to yield their share of the ice 

 harvest. 



Foi'tunately of late years, owing to the repeated failure of the 

 icecrop, the larger cities in the east are mainly supplied with 

 " artificial " ice. This ice, being formed as it is in the greater num- 

 ber of cases from the regular water-supply of the city, ceases to a 

 large degree to be a source of danger from organic contamination. 

 There have been cases, however, and notably one which fell under 

 my own observation, where an ice company, advertising their ice as 

 made only from pure distilled water, produced daily for some weeks 

 beautiful cakes of crystalline ice, the centre of each cake a rich, 

 dark-brown, and actually giving forth an offensive odor ! Some 

 of these samples were sent to me for analysis, and the results were 

 most startling, indicating rather a concentration of impurity, both 

 organic and inorganic, than a distillation or purification. The 

 cause was naturally looked for and found in the stills themselves, 

 which were eventually overhauled and remodeled, with the result 

 that finally a first-class high-grade ice was put on the market. 



The necessity for an absolutely wholesome water-supply for the 

 manufacture of ice is at once apparent, as in processes generally 

 in use the entire contents of the water tanks are frozen, and all 

 impurities contained in the water must needs enter the ice. The 

 case referred to was interesting, showing as it did how the color 

 and organic matter had been concentrated in the middle of each 

 cake. The ice forming first at the sides had repelled these im- 

 purities until finally, with the freezing of the entire mass, they 

 had of necessity been included. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



BY HENRY MONTGOMERY, PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY 

 IN THE TJNrVERSITY OF UTAH, SALT LAKE CITY. 



Many years' continuous service as a teacher of young men and 

 women, in a measure, unfits one for acting as an instructor of 

 children. I do not say that a teacher of children requires greater 

 or higher qualifications than a teacher of college students; but 

 the qualifications must be different. One who aspires to be a 

 teacher and leader of students of advanced subjects as taught in 

 colleges and universities ought to have good mental faculties and 

 these ought to be in a high state of cultivation. With the in- 

 creasing intricacy and complexity of the studies corns increasing 

 difficulties for the students. These difiiculties must be recognized 

 and dealt with by the instructor. Hence the successful univer- 

 sity teacher must be possessed of teaching powers suited to the 

 minds of students of the advanced branches in which he under- 

 takes instruction. Both the character of the studies and the men- 

 tal condition of the students of the university differ widely from 

 those of the pupils of the common school. Consequently the 

 teachers of these two classes of pupils must differ widely as to 

 qualifications. Between the primary or common school, on the 

 one hand, and the university, on the other, comes the secondary or 

 high school, which, of necessity, must be supplied with teachers 

 of somewhat different qualifications. The high-school teachers 

 must be adapted to the work of instructing pupils of certain 

 attainments and generally of a certain average age, which stand 

 between the common school and the university. A still more 

 satisfactory grading is effected by classifying all pupils in five 

 divisions, viz., the kindergarten, the common school, the high 

 school, the college, and the university; and in these, especially in 

 the common school, a further grading often proves beneficial. It 

 has many times been found that one who has succeeded well 

 teaching a class in some branch in the common school, has not 

 succeeded as a teacher of a lower class or a higher class in the 

 same branch and in the same school. We all know that a child 

 will voluntarily leave other children that may be older or younger 

 than himself, and seek out those of his own age, or, rather, of his 

 own mental attainments; and, again, on reading a story to a child 

 of nine years no interest is awakened, while on reading the same 

 to another two or three years older or younger the most lively in- 

 terest and appreciation of it are immediately manifested. The 

 first thing, then, to be considered in the teaching of science is 

 the stage of the development of the faculties of the child. Let 

 this be first diagnosed, and then let no mistake be made in pre- 



scribing the kind of material suited to his condition, and the 

 character of the methods of instruction to be employed in his 

 particular case. 



To the question, Should science be taught in the public or 

 common schools ? I answer in the affirmative. Most decidedly, 

 yes. Which of the sciences? Should it be chemistry, or physics, 

 or zoology, or mineralogy, or botany, or physiology, or geology ? 

 I answer, all of them as one subject, the study of nature. Spe- 

 cialization, differentiation, or the division of labor, characterizes 

 civilization. It is forced upon us in the higher studies. This is 

 simply a matter of necessity, due to the vastness of the fields of 

 higher learning, the shortness of life, and the limits of the human 

 mind. But, it is possible to specialize only in the maturity of 

 manhood and womanhood. It is not possible in childhood. The 

 youthful mind is not capable of such work. The young mind is 

 not able to fix attention or concentrate thought upon a subject, 

 and particularly if the subject be studied in an isolated and 

 disconnected manner. Add to this a method that is both system- 

 atic and abstract and the avenues to learning are completely 

 closed. In very early years, say before the age of eleven or 

 twelve, the average child cannot readily or profitably study 

 anything in an isolated, a systematic, and an abstract manner, 

 and he can do it but very feebly at this age. The study of a 

 subject systematically by classification, the study of the abstract, 

 and the cultivation of the reasoning faculty should not be at- 

 tempted early. Nature rebels against it. It is the faculty of per- 

 ception which appears first. This is the faculty which should 

 receive the attention of the teacher of children. To the cultiva- 

 tion of observation, expression, and memory, along with the full 

 physical development of the child, all the best energies of the 

 teacher should be given. It is not a question, then, of dividing and 

 classifying the natural and physical sciences, and choosing one or 

 more of them to be placed on the curriculum of schools. This is 

 necessary and proper in the later years of the high-school courses, 

 and in the higher institutions, but not in the common school, or 

 to any great extent in the lower classes of the high school. Sys- 

 tem, method, and classification in study are exceedingly impor- 

 tant for matured persons; but, they do not belong to early life. 

 As soon as the mind is prepared to undertake such work, it 

 should be begun; and it should be increased very slowly, gradu- 

 ally, and almost imperceptibly. I repeat it, common-school pu- 

 pils ought not to be taught zoology as a distinct science, nor 

 botany, nor physics, nor geology as such. All systems of clas- 

 sification, even to the division of these sciences, are artificial. 

 Chemistry, physics, mineralogy, botany, zoology, physiology, 

 and geology should not be separated. These sciences come natur- 

 ally together; and, therefore, they are most readily understood 

 and remembered when studied -in this way. Let the child see the 

 fish swim in the water, the bird fly through the air, the duck 

 swim and sail on the pond, the river erode its banks, the waves 

 beat and grind the pebbles against one another on the beach. 

 Let him be led to use his senses in observing the soil, clay, sand, 

 gravel, grasses, trees, flowers, butterflies, beetles, worms, crops, 

 streams, hills, ravines, bees, squirrels, ants, crickets, birds, snow, 

 rain, stones, rocks, and fossils, just as they occur in nature. In 

 any case, even to adult persons, the associations are of vital sig- 

 nificance. Many a time it happens that a mineral sample, a bit 

 of rock, or a fossil, by itself is of but little use in helping us to 

 understand some question of moment. Again, an extract from a 

 book may be unintelligible or ambiguous. But, in the one in- 

 stance, permit us to see the associated minerals and rocks in posi- 

 tion, and, in the other, to read the context, and what a flood of 

 light is let in upon us ! The relations that objects of the three 

 kingdoms of nature bear towards one another are of the utmost 

 importance. But, in addition to the importance of the associa- 

 tions and relations, the ease with which children are enabled to 

 comprehend the characteristic structure, habits, and uses of any- 

 thing when studied as it occurs in nature, is something the 

 teacher and parent cannot afford to ignore. An old-fashioned 

 method of teaching orthography consisted in compelling the 

 pupil to learn a column or a page of isolated words chosen with 

 reference to the number of syllables they contained. Some of 

 these words were extremely rare; many of them would not be 



