462 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 116. 



tation method, without experiments, with- 

 out laboratory work, without apparatus, 

 often without even understanding, but what 

 a worthless reward is received for the effort. 

 Our pupils come to the secondary schools 

 with memories so abnormally developed 

 that they have atrophied the interest in 

 nature which each of them inherited, and 

 have made serious inroads upon their rea- 

 soning powers. 



Perception is rapidly and easily devel- 

 oped by laboratory work. It is the uni- 

 versal testimony of those who have con- 

 ducted laboratory classes that the students 

 learn to observe accurately and well, but this 

 faculty is not necessarily exercised by either 

 the recitation or the lecture method. 



Faraday said : " Society, speaking gener- 

 ally, is not only ignorant as respects educa- 

 tion of the judgment, but is ignorant of its 

 ignorance ;" and the cause to which he as- 

 cribes this state is want of scientific culture. 



Herbert Spencer, in his 'Education,' says: 

 " Every step in a scientific investigation is 

 submitted to his (the student's) judgment. 

 And the trust in his own powers thus pro- 

 duced is further increased by the constancy 

 with which nature justifies his conclusions 

 when they are correctly drawn." And he 

 adds : " From all this flows that independ- 

 ence which is a most valuable element in 

 character ;" and Professor Bessey, in an ad- 

 dress on ' Science and Culture,' delivered in 

 Buffalo last July, says : " The proper pur- 

 suit of science should develop a judicial state 

 of mind toward all problems. " 



Here is abundant evidence that the judg- 

 ment may be cultivated by proper work in 

 science, and that the student may acquire 

 confidence in his own judgment ; but this 

 also can only be accomplished in the labo- 

 ratory. 



The cultivation of the imagination is 

 another of the possibilities. Professor Car- 

 hart, in his address to the Science Depart- 

 ment of the National Educational Associa- 



tion, says : " It is no new thought that 

 scientific study makes a draft upon the 

 imagination." And this may be best ac- 

 complished in the laboratory, although in 

 the hands of a skillful teacher lesser but 

 valuable results may be obtained in the 

 class room. 



The class-room work may be, and gener- 

 ally is, so conducted as to afford training in 

 deductive reasoning, such as is derived 

 from courses in mathematics. The solu- 

 tion of problems in physics affords particu- 

 larly valuable exercise of the mind in this 

 direction if the problems are judiciously 

 selected, but there is a great difference in 

 the benefits derived from the different prob- 

 lems; for instance, to solve such problems as 

 the following requires very little mental 

 friction: " What is the pressure on the 

 upper surface of a Saratoga trunk, 2 by 3 

 feet ?" while the solution of the following 

 problem will compel thought which yields 

 valuable results : " An empty toy balloon 

 weighs 5 g. when filled with 10 1. of hydro- 

 gen ; what load can it lift ?" 



The repeated solution of problems based 

 upon the same formula is not to be com- 

 mended, since the operation soon becomes 

 mechanical, and therefore of slight cultural 

 value, but the skillful teacher can easily 

 introduce some new point into each prob- 

 lem, if he keeps in mind the object of his 

 work. Furthermore, the discussions of the 

 class room may be so shaped as to afford 

 practice in deductive reasoning ; the appli- 

 cation of theory to the objects of every- 

 day life, the illustrations of the laws, 

 principles and definitions, and questions 

 like ' Account for the slowness with which 

 ice increases in thickness over a pond,' 

 are easily presented to the pupil so as 

 to develop power in this line. The pre- 

 vailing tendency is, I think, to spend too 

 much time on this class of work, for this 

 is the particular province of mathematics, 

 and deductive reasoning is of less value than 



