1 86 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No 504 



The teaching force in this department is supplied by three in- 

 structors, with some regular and efficient assistance from ad- 

 vanced pupils, many of whom are teachers of experience. The 

 department occupies three floors in the south-east angle of the 

 building. Upon the lower floor is a shop, 33 feet by 28 feet, with 

 a modest equipment of lathes, benches, and tools; a physical la- 

 boratory, 34 feet by 54 feet, supplied with water, gas, stone and 

 oak tables and benches, a water-motor, a small dynamo and ac- 

 cessories, and a considerable collection of American, English, and 

 German apparatus for measurement; a store-room, twelve feet 

 square, containing cases for apparatus, one side of the room being 

 used as a balance-room ; two dark rooms, each 6 feet by 15 feet, 

 with optical benches and the usual equipment for photometry and 

 lens work, one side of one of the rooms being fitted up for pri- 

 mary batteries. Upon the middle floor is a recitation-room and 

 laboratory for elementary physics, 34 feet square, furnished with 

 recitation seats and tables for students' work, cases for students' 

 apparatus and demonstration tables; an apparatus-room, 12 feet 

 by 30 feet, with cases for demonstration, apparatus and tables for 

 teachers' use; and a recitation-room and laboratory for higher 

 physics, 20 feet by 24 feet, with the necessary furnishings and 

 equipment. The third floor is devoted to chemistry, and contains 

 a lecture-room, 30 feet by 24 feet, a laboratoi'y 34 feet square, 

 with tables for 40 students, and a work and store-room 13 feet by 

 30 feet, all with the usual fittings, apparatus, and appliances. 



The course of study of this department contains the following 

 titles: 1, Physics I.; 3, Physics II. ; 3, Physical Laboratory Prac- 

 tice; 4, Training in the Physical Sciences; 5, General Chemistry; 

 6, Advanced Chemistry; 7, Physical Technics, including Ad- 

 vanced Laboratory Practice; 8, General Astronomy; 9, Advanced 

 Physics; 10, Instrumental Astronomy; 11, Sanitary Science; 13, 

 Meteorology. 



The first five subjects in this list are taken by nearly all intend- 

 ing teachers who graduate upon the four-years' courses, and are 

 designed to give some knowledge of the content and the methods 

 of the physical sciences and such skill in manipulation as are 

 needed in general teaching. The three numbers following also 

 form a natural group designed to meet the wants of special teach- 

 ers of the physical sciences. The last three are post-graduate sub- 

 jects. Physics I. is a course, complete in itself, consisting of a 

 daily lesson for twenty weeks, with additional laboratory work, 

 upon molecular and mass mechanics. Special prominence is given 

 to the states and properties of matter and the transference of en- 

 ergy. Physics II., a course of the same extent upon sound, elec- 

 tricity, and light, is also made complete within itself as far as 

 possible to meet the wants of those students who have had a brief 

 course in physics elsewhere, but who wish to extend their knowl- 

 edge of these subjects. For most pupils the two form a contin- 

 uous course of one year, with supplementary practical work. 



The only condition for entering upon this subject is the com- 

 pletion of algebra and plane geometry; but the high average age 

 of the members of the class, — between nineteen and twenty, — 

 coupled with the fact that a large number of those who enter 

 upon this subject have already completed elementary physics in 

 one of our excellent high schools and desire to review and extend 

 their studies in this direction with reference to teaching, permits 

 and invites a strong and extended course. 



The experimental work is of two sorts, teacher's class experi- 

 ments or demonstrations and students' individual work carried 

 forward at their tables. Our experience would indicate that the 

 former cannot be entirely omitted without loss. A piece of ap- 

 paratus does not teach its own best use. The student who knows 

 how to investigate thoroughly and to question himself wisely has 

 already passed the elementary stage of scientific work. As to the 

 character of this demonstration apparatus, a portion consists of 

 the ordinary apparatus sold by dealers, but a still larger portion 

 is derived from the home, the farm, and the workshop — com- 

 mercial, working pieces. Important demonstrations are repeated 

 by pupils before the class, so that they may get a feeling for ar- 

 tistic demonstration and neat manipulation before a class. This 

 is regarded as very important, though it is far easier to gain this 

 ability than the power to question wisely. The catechism is the 

 infinite matter. 



In addition to these daily class demonstrations, our course 

 contemplates students' individual work, mainly in measurement, 

 two afternoons a week after the " collective" system. That is, 

 each member of the class has a piece of apparatus exactly like 

 that of the others, and does the same work in the same time. So 

 each student is supplied with abalance in case, turning easily with 

 one milligram, with fine weights; a set of burettes and measuring 

 glasses, English and metric units divided with accuracy, and, in 

 general, examples of the simpler apparatus in dynamics, heat, 

 electricity, and optics. 



As to method, a very important part of the work is presented 

 inductively. That is, physical changes are observed and described 

 by members of the class; the conditions upon which these 

 changes depend are then varied in many cases and in many ways, 

 and in each case the pupils are asked to observe and describe. 

 Wise questioning leads the class to distinguish that which is con- 

 stant from that which is variable in these changes until the law 

 which governs them comes spontaneously into view and is fully 

 apprehended and formulated. With somewhat similar material 

 and under somewhat similar circumstances tlie pupil repeats the 

 work at his own table. Further illustrations, exercises, and prob- 

 lems follow. If a book is used — as is the case in a portion of the 

 work — the subject is assigned as a lesson to be recited in good 

 form — the least valuable part of the work, but still not without 

 value. So, by the exhibition of material and wise questioning, 

 the pupil passes from the observation and statement of fact to the 

 apprehension and statement of law. It hardly needs to be added 

 that this so-called inductive method is not identical with the 

 method of discovery, since the student would not of his own in- 

 stance know what experiments to try or what questions to ask; 

 but from his point of view he is a real discoverer of fact and law, 

 and the process has to him the interest and especially the suggest- 

 iveness of discovery. 



The method of verification and illustration is also freely used, 

 by which that which is dubiously or imperfectly known is brought 

 into fuller knowledge. This method blends easily with the pre- 

 ceding. Resort is had to the method of authority for those nu- 

 merous cases in which experiment and verification are impossible 

 under the circumstances. This is especially necessary in the case 

 of a teacher, who needs to have a complete view of his subject, 

 and who must appeal to book or lecture for the ground of much 

 of bis knowledge. This knowledge of what other people have 

 found to be true is so vivified by the more vital knowledge that 

 the student has gained for himself by similar methods, that it is 

 neither unreal nor unfruitful. Much attention is given here and 

 elsewhere to the selection, care, and use of apparatus, to the 

 graphical method of recording facts, and to the bibliography of 

 physical science. 



3. Laboratory Practice. This consists of " separate," or indi- 

 vidual, work for ten weeks in physical measurements, following 

 and completing the preceding courses. As the members of the 

 classes in laboratory practice have passed over the whole of ele- 

 mentary physics, they are prepared to take any experiment within 

 the range of this subject. Each student works with a different 

 piece of apparatus and continues its use until he has mastered it 

 and secured the highest attainable results. Thus it is not neces- 

 sary to duplicate pieces, and this saving in the cost of extensive 

 duplication is applied to the purchase of apparatus of a higher 

 grade and of greater variety than would otherwise be possible; 

 and thus the course is made more extended and exacting than it 

 could be under the " collective " system. Moreover, many pieces 

 of apparatus in mechanics and heat have optical or electrical ac- 

 cessories which can be understood and put into action only by 

 students who have completed a course in physics. But the real 

 reason for preferring the "separate " system in any serious work 

 in laboratory practice is the facOity which it afiords for indi- 

 vidual and independent work according to observed capacity 

 and advancement. No text-book is used, but exercises are set 

 from a printed list containing references to Pickering, Stewart 

 and Gee, Glazebrook and Shaw, Worthington, Whiting, and 

 other authors, with whose works the laboratory is supplied. 



4. Training in the Physical Sciences. This is a course in meth- 

 ods, and consists of two parts — theory, presented by quizzes, lee- 



