198 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. i 



in liancl with a legitimate amount of infor- 

 mation. It is striving against nature to 

 throw a pupil wholly on his own resources 

 and allow him to find his way alone. This 

 effort not only wastes valuable time, but it 

 is an attempt to return to primitive condi- 

 tions and to produce unfavorable surround- 

 ings that do not exist at the present time. 

 This kind of teaching is fortunately very 

 rare nowadays, and usually an ideal that it 

 is impossible to pursue consistently in act- 

 ual practice. 



The natural and right course is really fol- 

 lowed by a very good teacher, and strives 

 not only to exercise and train his pupil's 

 faculties, but at the same time or at proper 

 intervals furnishes information that will 

 give needed nourishment and renewed 

 strength to liis power of doing pioneering 

 work, if he be capable of this higher order 

 of effort. 



The happy combination of self-culture 

 and sufficient intellectual meals is by no 

 means easy, and they are mingled in due 

 proportion only when the pupil can be em- 

 ployed for much the largest part of his time 

 in the handling of objects or experiments 

 under proper direction, which will enable 

 him to build up bj^ his own experience meth- 

 ods suitable for his own mind, or, failing 

 that, to at least learn how original work 

 has been done by others. 



Laboratory teaching is an effort made 

 now by all institutions to furnish proper 

 facilities for practical instruction of this 

 sort, and it is successful or the reverse, ac- 

 cording to the proportions in which the 

 system adopted deviates from the happy me- 

 dium in which neither self-culture nor the 

 administering of information is allowed to 

 usurp the whole field. 



This being a partial description of Labor- 

 atory teaching, it is a question in the minds 

 of most naturalists whether it is in a strict 

 sense applicable to large classes except un- 

 der very exceptional conditions. In the 



first place, what is a large class ; is it foi-ty, 

 eighty, or one hundred and sixty? Can 

 the class be taken in sections or must it bo 

 handled as a whole? Can the instructor 

 command laboratorj' facilities in the shape 

 of rooms, tables, specimens or instruments, 

 and materials for observation or experi- 

 ment, and, above all, can he command as- 

 sistants ? All of these queries must be re- 

 plied to in some shape bj' each instructor 

 before it is possible for him to consider 

 the subject from any practical point of view. 



It is obvious that laboratory exercises and 

 information must be individuaUzed to be of 

 the highest standard, and this could not be 

 carried out fully by an instructor alone, ex- 

 cept for a small class. There is also an ob- 

 vioiis limitation of numbers due to the neces- 

 sarj' limitation of facilities that can be 

 offered bj^ any institution, however well 

 equipped. Even if an instructor had an 

 enormous laboratory capable of accommo- 

 dating a large class and money to employ 

 the best of assistants, it is also obvious that 

 the larger the class the further removed 

 the members must be fi-om personal contact 

 with their teacher, and as individuals con- 

 sequently less able to benefit by his experi- 

 ence and by his example, these tw'o last be- 

 ing perhaps after all among the most im- 

 portant elements of good teaching. 



Assistants come not only between the head 

 teacher and his pupils, but where there are 

 many minds there must be some strict 

 system and set ways of doing the work, and 

 more or less disregard of the peculiar needs 

 of each individual. It is, however, evident 

 that as long as this is recognized as a neces- 

 sary evil, and the red tape of the system 

 regarded in this light and not exalted into 

 a fetish of productive virtue, a very large 

 class may be kept at work through assist- 

 ants, if they are allowed to have some indi- 

 viduality themselves and are taught to cul- 

 tivate the same gift in some of then- pupils. 

 In such matters, however, one must speak 



