130 



SCIENCE. 



[N. a. Vol. IV. No. 83. 



its subordination to more favored branches, 

 it is quite impossible to understand. The 

 Conference of Ten recommended "That 

 physics be pursued the last year of the high 

 school course." That recommendation meets 

 the enthusiastic approval of every physics 

 teacher whose experience is worth con- 

 sidering. The exigencies of the school pro- 

 gramme sometimes require that physics be 

 crowded down into the third year, but the 

 instructor in this subject should never cease 

 to protest against any further lowering of 

 the standard by its relegation to the second 

 year. When only a single year is sought 

 for a subject of such transcendent impor- 

 tance, the studies that are crowded to the 

 front for from three to six years should be 

 compelled, in all fairness and reason, to give 

 way, if necessary, at the point where the 

 physics properly belongs. The pupil will 

 then be provided with the requisite knowl- 

 edge of geometry so essential to the intelli- 

 gent study of physics, and may be presumed 

 to have that maturity of mind which will 

 enable him to profit by the study. 



The limits of this paper do not permit me 

 to enlarge on the method to be pursued in 

 teaching physics. It must suf&ce to say 

 that the student in the elements needs a 

 text-book of principles for the purpose of 

 securing accuracy and to enable him to 

 dwell long enough on any portion to com- 

 prehend it. To the didactic work of the 

 class room should be added the method of 

 the laboratory. Practical work acts like a 

 mordant to fix the color which may other- 

 wise be evanescent. It is the testing ma- 

 chine to determine the strength and tough- 

 ness of intellectual fibre. It furnishes a 

 scale by which to evaluate acquisitions. 

 It is the method of original investigation 

 applied to the student ; he will not dis- 

 cover any new laws of nature, but he will 

 discover his own ignorance and limita- 

 tions. 



Henry S. Carhart. 



THE TEACHING OF BEGINNING CHEMISTS Y* 

 The momentous changes which have been 

 brought about in chemical science within 

 the past two decades are too often lost sight 

 of in teaching the elements of the subject. 

 It is easier to go in the old way, the habit 

 of descriptive chemistry, founded primarily 

 on the atomic hypothesis, is too well estab- 

 lished to be suddenly uprooted, and, as a 

 consequence, in America we can see but 

 little progress toward a more rational and 

 scientific means of beginning the study. The 

 reason for this unsatisfactory condition is 

 most probably to be found in the history of 

 the development of science during the pres- 

 ent century. Gay-Lussac, Dalton, Ber- 

 zelius, Davy, Faraday, and the other lesser 

 lights who appeared upon the chemical 

 firmament between the years of 1800 and 

 1826, were completely engrossed with the 

 discovery of new elements, the determina- 

 tion of chemical equivalents and the rela- 

 tionships between these latter quantities 

 and the atomic weights. It was then that 

 our system of chemical notation originated, 

 and for this, even if his name were not in- 

 separably connected with other lines of 

 advance, we owe a lasting debt of gratitude 

 to Berzelius. Naturally at this time, 

 methods of analysis in inorganic chemistry, 

 both qualitative and quantitative, assumed 

 the greatest importance, for where the com- 

 position of so many new minerals remained 

 to be ascertained, and when in each a pos- 

 sible new element might be discovered, 

 such work must necessarily claim the at- 

 tention of the foremost investigators. 

 Scarcely an appeal was made to turn the 

 science into broader channels, the material 

 side was uppermost, the statics of chemis- 

 try was being investigated, and there was 

 no time to think of the nature of chemical 

 changes from any standpoint other than 

 that of the transposition of matter. The 



* Delivered before the Dept. Nat. Sci. Instruction, 

 N. E. A., Buffalo, July 10, 1896. 



