September 30, 1892,] 



SCIENCE. 



187 



tures, and reading; and practice, in which tlie members of the 

 class taking the scientific course teach the elements of this sub- 

 ject for a term of weeks in the school of practice. The philoso- 

 phy of methods rather than a definite course of practice mainly 

 engages attention, and yet that most difficult special problem in 

 modern pedagogy, how to teach the elements of the sciences in a 

 real way to pupils below the high school, is attacked with vigor, 

 and a possible course is marked out and illustrated in detail. 

 Much time is also given to practical work in the smaller high 

 schools. The course of reading in this class is quite extended, 

 and its members become somewhat familiar with the best Euro- 

 pean and American methods of teaching secondary physics. 



5, 6. Chemistry and advanced chemistry. In these subjects 

 the members of the scientific course complete Remsen's " General 

 Chemistry," Jones's "Junior Course in Qualitative Analysis," and 

 have ten weeks' quantitative work. The work is arranged with 

 special reference to teachers. The students have much practice 

 in demonstration before the class, in the preparation of apparatus 

 and reagents, in gas analysis, in blowpiping, and the attempt is 

 made to interest each one in some sort of practical work whicli he 

 will be able to continue, and in some chemical periodical which 

 he will desire to read as a teacher. 



7. Physical Technics. The subject of this course is the labora- 

 tory method, which is here viewed from its practical side as it is 

 from its theoretical side in the course in training. Robins's 

 "Technical School and College Building" is made the authority 

 in most matters of construction. The members of the class make 

 detailed plans and specifications for fitting up an ordinary school- 

 room as a laboratory for physics or chemistry or both, and with 

 various degrees of elaboration; prepare lists of apparatus of vary- 

 ing cost from $50 to |1000; and report in full, with drawings and 

 price-lists, upon some high-school or college laboratory which is 

 visited for this purpose. All do much practical work in making 

 and especially in repairing apparatus; construct some important 

 piece; have much practice in testing balances, galvanometers, 

 etc. ; report monographically upon some assigned topic, as, for 

 example, the best form and material for fine weights, the spiral- 

 spring balance as an instrument of precision, comparison of pho- 

 tometers, conditions determining the size of drops, etc. ; and have 

 much careful and continued practice with at least two instru- 

 ments of precision, which were in general used with Isss com- 

 pleteness in the regular laboratory course, as the spectroscope, the 

 saccharimeter, the sextant, the astronomical transit, etc. 



8. Astronomy. The essence of this work consists in the actual 

 observation of the heavens with the unarmed eye, an opera glass, 

 and a small telescope during one school-year. Great familiarity 

 with the constellations is secured, and a full set of drawings 

 showing the observed motion among the stars, and the telescopic 

 appearance, at frequent intervals, of fhe moon and the planets 

 visible under favorable circumstances during the year. A good 

 high-school text-book is incidentally gone through with. 



9. Advanced Physics. The objective point here is a mathe- 

 matical view of physical science and the ability to read the 

 stronger scientific books and periodicals with ease and profit. 

 Those who enter the class have had work in trigonometry, higher 

 algebra, and the calculus, and are able to master an advanced 

 text-book. Much practical work is also done with the purpose of 

 leading the members of the class toward some course of study or 

 investigation to relieve and vivify their subsequent teaching. The 

 post-graduate work will not be described as it has not yet become 

 important. 



It may be asked whether this preparation is sufficient to make 

 a well-furnished teacher of science. For myself I would frankly 

 answer, no. The highest attainable preparation is not sufficient, 

 it is only hopeful — in the way to become sufficient. Our candi- 

 date for success as a teacher has been all along taught that the 

 first condition of success is intimate and exact knowledge of his 

 subject. He already has some knowledge and has been put in the 

 way of getting more, and surely this is a hopeful condition. If it 

 were farther queried whether this man would not have done more 

 wisely to attend a technical school or college for four years as a 

 preparation for teaching science rather than give a laige part of 

 his time to English, history, mathematics, and German, to the 



study of children, to practice-teaching, and to the history and 

 philosophy of education, I would reply that it depends upon who 

 the man is. A native talent for teaching or exceptional knowl- 

 edge and love of young people may render the intending teacher 

 independent of formal professional instruction; but it is my own 

 observatioa continued for many years as principal of a large high 

 school and superintendent of a system of schools, that the normal 

 graduate will be the more painstaking and studious man, and 

 that he will, in the long run and with important exceptions, do 

 finer, sounder, and more rapid teaching than the technical stu- 

 dent. At any rate he has fairly emerged upon the field of ad- 

 vanced secondary instruction and deserves recognition and inter- 

 ested and sympathetic criticism. 

 Ypsilanti, Mich., Sept. 17. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A Parisian Inventors' Academy is distributing letters to in- 

 ventors in this country, informing them that "after examination 

 of your last invention the Academy has conferred upon you the 

 title of Honorary Member (Membre cThonneur) with award of the 

 first-class Diploma and the Great Gold Medal (gilded)," on re- 

 ceipt of ten dollars to defray the cost of the gilded medal, etc. 

 We advise our readers, if so addressed, to consider the value and 

 probable standing of that institution very carefully before send- 

 ing on their ten dollars. A note to our consul in Paris might 

 assist them in securing such testimony as they may require on 

 this point. 



— Recently a communication from the Lick Observatory re- 

 corded a phenomenon which was thought to be as unique as it 

 was beautiful. Fog filled a valley, and upon its level surface the 

 mountain peaks were mirrored as if from a placid lake. Strangely, 

 in the Yorkshire Herald of Sept. 7, ' ' An Early Riser " records a 

 precisely similar phenomenon at 6 a.m. on Sept. 5; It was seen 

 from Leyburn, which overlooks Wensleydale. This lovely York- 

 shire valley was half filled with fog, which looked like a mighty 

 flood or lake. Upon it the opposite slopes, lit up by the bright 

 sunshine, were reflected with "extraordinary distinctness." 



— G. P. Putnam's Sons have in active preparation an edition of 

 the "Works of Thomas Paine," which will be edited by Moncure 

 D. Conway, author of "The Life of Thomas Paine " which they 

 have just issued. The set will be in two or three volumes, the 

 first division being devoted to the political and sociological writ- 

 ings, and the second to the religious and literary papers, of which 

 the most important is "The Age of Reason." The volumes will 

 be uniform with Mr. Conway's biography, and wiU include essays 

 of importance not in any previous collection 



— In " A Chapter in Meteorological Discovery," in the October 

 Popular Science Monthly, Mr. John Coleman Adams presents 

 Benjamin Franklin as the father of American meteorology, and 

 shows the part which RedSeld, Espy, Dr. Hare, Professor Loomis, 

 Blodgett, Mitchell, Coffin, and Dr. Joseph Henry have severally 

 had in building up the science. A philosophical discussion, of 

 much value and interest to thoughtful people, of the best methods 

 of really learning foreign languages is given by Dr. Howell T. 

 Pershing, in an article on "Language and Brain Disease." A 

 curious and liberally illustrated article on the "Evolution of 

 Dancing," by Lee J. Vance, shows how the custom has been 

 largely derived from the religious, mystic, or festive exercises of 

 the human races in the earlier stages of their civilization, and 

 illustrates the various forms which dances assume among different 

 peoples. Pertinently to the present vogue of the " Keeley Cure," 

 Dr. T. D. Crothers discusses the merits of the various specifics for 

 the cure of inebriety that have claimed attention at different 

 times. An important article will appear on the disadvantages 

 which the conditions of modern city-life throw in the way of the 

 best physiological development of children, by Dr. Henry Ling 

 Taylor. The subject is fully reviewed in a philosophical manner, 

 and the attempt is made to measure the influence for good or ill 

 which each of the factors in which city conditions differ from 

 those of the country exerts upon the child's bodily and mental 

 faculties. 



