October 9, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



465 



the useful arts, and which brings about a 

 better knowledfie and appi'eciation of the 

 life and arrowth of that planet which we in- 

 habit for a while, and wish to hand on to 

 our descendants as little impaired in vital- 

 ity and enerfiy as is consistent with the 

 economic use of our own life-interest in it. 

 W. W. Watts. 



TBE TEACH I XG OF CHEMISTRY IN GRADED 

 ASO SECOXDARy SCHOOLS." 



Teachers of science are familiar with 

 the noticeable difference in the attitude of 

 a student when beginning the study of 

 chemistry and when beginning the study 

 of the other sciences. In almost every 

 science but chemistry the student has pre- 

 viously had some familiarity, at least with 

 the material things with which the subject 

 has to deal, while in chemistry the phe- 

 nomena are all of a decidedly new order. 

 It is hard for a student to become inter- 

 ested in an odorless, tasteless, invisible 

 aggregation of molecules called a 'gas,' 

 while he is immediately interested in the 

 leaf of the botanist, the structure of the 

 frog of the biologist, the mechanical models 

 of the phj'sicist and, indeed, the figures of 

 the geometrician are not without interest 

 when compared with the obscurity of chem- 

 ical theorj-. 



As a result the teacher of the science 

 other than chemistry has a certain founda- 

 tion to begin building on. It would, in- 

 deed, be an unobserving child who had 

 never perceived leaves, insects and the 

 common mechanical appliances of daily 

 life and consequently had not at least a 

 superficial knowledge of these common ob- 

 jects with which the science deals. 



It is undeniably true that the funda- 

 mental principles of chemistry are of so 



* A paper read before the Chemical Club of 

 Wesleyan l^niversity, Middletown, Conn., Dereni- 

 ber 7, 1001. 



complex a nature as to require a more ma- 

 ture mind for their comprehension, but can 

 not the child be made familiar with some of 

 the simpler chemical actions even without 

 understanding why the exact order of phe- 

 nomena appears? By so doing the mind 

 would be prepared to consider at a later 

 period of development the more important 

 l)rinciples without having to delay till the 

 simpler phenomena became familiar. 



It here becomes an important question as 

 to how early in a child's life this training 

 should begin. It has, indeed, been joc- 

 ularly said that a certain professor of or- 

 ganic chemistry in one of our large colleges 

 provided his babies with a set of blocks 

 after the nature of the Kekule models of 

 the carbon atom. 



When we consider the thousand and one 

 things crowded into the life of the child of 

 to-day one hesitates considerably before 

 suggesting another. There has been, how- 

 ever, of recent years, a strong undercurrent 

 of opinion in favor of nature study. The 

 teacher in the kindergarten and the prima- 

 ry and grammar school, by developing the 

 powers of observation and drawing atten- 

 tion to the workings of the laws of nature, 

 is rendering incalculable assistance in 

 teaching the sciences. Unfortunately, 

 chemistry profits the least by this prelim- 

 inary training. 



It was formerly recognized that the 

 beautiful phenomena attending many 

 chemical actions were unusually attractive 

 to children and, indeed, to adults. This 

 was attested by the popularity of the chem- 

 ical lecture in lyceums, lecture courses, 

 churches, etc. 



If I may be pardoned in introducing a 

 l)it of personal experience, my interest in 

 the subject was first awakened by a popular 

 lecture on 'A Basket of Charcoal.' I had 

 never seen chemical phenomena before. 

 It was a complete revelation. Obviou.sly 



