December 29, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



357 



LABORATORY WORK BY THE STUDENT OF 

 CHEMISTRY SHOULD BE SUBORDINATE 

 AND AUXILIARY TO THE DEVELOPMENT 

 OF FACTS, PRINCIPLES AND THEORIES BY 

 THE TEACHER/ 



BY R. W. JONES, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI. 



Those of us who are engaged in teaching chemistry- 

 recognize the fact that it is a difficult subject to teach 

 scientifically; it is ofttimes hard to make its lessons clear 

 to the mind of the student; difficult to employ it with its 

 due power as a means of intellectual discipline and an 

 element of general, liberal education; and yet it has a 

 place, an accorded place, in every properly arranged 

 scheme of education : no such scheme is complete with- 

 out it, and no one can be said to be liberally educated 

 who has not learned the elements of this science; for 

 without the knowledge of these elements, at least, it is 

 impossible to read understandingly the literature of our 

 day and to appreciate a thousand things of common oc- 

 currence in respect to health, well-being and progress. 

 The practical utility of chemistry is unquestioned; but 

 some question its disciplinary value as an element of 

 general education. In my opinion, the skillful teacher 

 makes its value in this regard equal to the languages 

 and mathematics, and gives to the mind exercise and 

 truth which in character are peculiar and in quality most 

 valuable. 



The great value of the study of general chemistry 

 turns solely on the adoption of good, sound methods of 

 instruction. 



The nature of the subject, the inquiry into strange 

 forces, into marvellous activities and changes, give to 

 it, in the eyes of beginners, the appearance of the inys- 

 terious, making it seem, as it did to the Egyptians, a 

 "Black or Secret Art. " The puzzling vastness of the 

 number of facts, the important and interesting relations 

 between them, the comprehensive laws, the profound 

 theories, tax the powers of the capable and patient stu- 

 dent. The teachers and the writers of text-books often 

 find it difficult to decide what to use and what to omit 

 of this profusion of material. The subjects can be so 

 selected, the matter so arranged with due regard to the 

 time at our disposal and such methods of instruction 

 employed that no other subject could be profitably sub- 

 stituted for the study of chemistry. 



The methods of teaching general chemistry have 

 varied greatly at different times and now vary more or 

 less in different schools. Ot course, each teacher car- 

 ries his persi-nality into his class room: this is right and 

 inevitable; there are differences of method which are 

 broader, proceeding from difference of standpoint and 

 difference of view both of the object to be accomplished 

 and the way of reaching it. 



We cannot emphasize too strongly the general disci- 

 plinary value of ihe study of chemistry and its essen- 

 tiality to culture ; and it devolves upon us to maintain 

 the Correctness ot our estimate by tlie intellectual and 

 industrial results ot our teaching. The first object is to 

 use chemistry in a scheme of education to make intellec- 

 tual men, and the second is to prepare skilled chemists. 



After noting these differences of method, I am sure 

 we maj' all agree that the feature which specially char- 

 acterizes the teaching of chemistry at present and which 

 distingaiishes it from the method of past years is experi- 

 mentation by the student. 



And yet in many high schools and colleges^ even in this 

 day, the eft'ort is made to teach chemistry without experi- 

 ments either by the instructor or by the pupil. Many 



iRead before the International Congress of Chemists, Chicago. 



of these schools and colleges have no apparatus. Such 

 teaching of chemistry and of science generally is illus- 

 ory. Chemistry is justly and highly valued in its gen- 

 eral study as an element of disciplinary power and as a 

 foundation for special attainments; but its most earnest 

 and intelligent advocates in a course for a well-rounded 

 education would admit that it would be far better to 

 omit it altogether than to teach it in that irrational 

 manner without experiments, and to devote the time 

 thus saved to the study of some subject which can be 

 scientifically taught without apparatus. 



As teachers, we must insist that an experimental 

 science, such as chemistry is, cannot be taught without 

 experiments. 



In my judgment, the best method of teaching gen- 

 eral chemistry, in the earlier part of the course, the 

 best way of laying a substantial basis of knowledge that 

 is reliable and definite, on which the student can subse- 

 quently build most surely and rapidly, is for the pro- 

 fessor to give in didactic style oral lectures, adapted to 

 the comprehension of his class, setting forth in order 

 the most important portions of the great body of estab- 

 lished facts, connecting them by threads of scientific 

 relation, that bring them into a simple unity, illustrat- 

 ing them by experiments, on the lecture table, which 

 cover all essential points and help the minds of students 

 to apprehend them as real. 



A really good text-book is very valuable, and the in- 

 structor ought either to follow the order of subjects in 

 the text-book or be careful in assigning the readings so 

 that the lectures and text-book will each day cover the 

 same ground substantially. Otherwise confusion of 

 thought will arise in the student's mind. 



To indicate something of the scope of instruction I 

 would say that there should be a clear presentation of 

 the nature of chemical science, its relation to other 

 sciences, and the ways of doing the work: there should 

 be a discussion of the elements and their most import- 

 ant, best known compounds : as the teacher's knowledge 

 covers his whole course he is able to call attention to 

 that which is essential and that which may be at the 

 time incidental, to note the connection between facts, 

 the relation between substances, and thus to systematize 

 and organize knowledge and build up the science in the 

 minds of students: this prepares the way for the proper 

 presentation and discussion of laws and theories, for 

 calling into vigorous exercise the faculties of compari- 

 son and judgment. He can exhibit the method of prop- 

 erly guarded generalizations and formulations of his 

 teachings ; his duty and plan are to guard the student 

 against the presumptuous thought that one man can 

 make experiments to cover all the facts and phenomena 

 and demonstrate all the laws of chemistry, and to im- 

 press on the mind respect for the work that has been 

 patiently done by others and thus give a just regard 

 for authority, through which so much of our knowledge 

 comes in every department of inquiry: the pupil learns 

 that for a satisfactory demonstration of chemical truths 

 he needs a large complement of facts and processes. 



At each meeting the class should be questioned upon 

 the matter of previous lectures and readings; skillful 

 repetition is needed to make distinct and abiding im- 

 press of the truths, to wear off the strangeness of the 

 subjects and to get a lodgement of the facts and princi- 

 ciples. 



The careful keeping of notes, subject to periodical in- 

 spection of the teacher, the writing of chemical reac- 

 tions and the solution of problems constitute an import- 

 ant part of that instruction which is necessary to ex- 

 actness in method and clearness of understanding. It 

 goes without saying that the student must be taught to 



