April 22, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



235 



for anythiDg else. Two points we must have before us if the 

 scientific work is to be clone for the purpose of attaining its chief 

 end: we must as far as possible lose sight of study for either 

 practical ends, or for the purpose of general information ; and we 

 must as far as possible adopt laboratory instruction. In regard 

 to the first point, we suffer more in our academies and high 

 schools, but perhaps also in our smaller colleges to a lesser extent, 

 from rushing through these abbreviated courses in the sciences, 

 than anywhere else; here it is chiefly that we find the task set of giv- 

 ing every student an outline view of every science, embracing as 

 many diverse facts as his memory can hold. Particularly are the 

 fairer sex compelled to suffer in this regard. Better far to take a 

 single science and develop it much in the same way, though more 

 systematically and to a more extended degree, as that already sug- 

 gested for use in lower schools. 



As regards the laboratory work, it may be very simple and in- 

 expensive, but it is an invaluable aid in science teaching ; a table, 

 a dissecting case, a lens, a few glass jars, a few chemicals, and if 

 possible a small microscope, slides and cover glasses, will form a 

 sufficient equipment for a very practical biological laboratory ; 

 even some of these are not absolutely necessary, as the dissecting 

 case may be replaced by a good knife. For botany the lens, or 

 better the microscope, is almost alone needed; for mechanics, a 

 few of the most familiar carpenters' tools and a bench for work, 

 comprise the necessaries, while in the other branches of physics 

 but little is needed. Even in electricity, a few pieces of copper 

 and zinc, some old electric light carbons, a few chemicals, some 

 wire and a magnet, will go a long way in instruction. Chemistry 

 is supposed to require the largest outfit, and yet I think that some 

 of our dealers in such goods could make no little profit by fitting 

 up collections of chemicals and apparatus for the purposes we are 

 considering, at the cost of not over a dollar for a full set for each 

 student, and five times that amount for the teacher's set ; in other 

 words, expensive equipment is wholly unnecessary for elementary 

 laboratory instruction in any of the sciences, indeed in too many 

 cases, an extensive set of apparatus and fittings distracts the atten- 

 tion of the student from the experiment he is studying. Now in 

 using the laboratory, let it be clearly understood that there is no 

 "practical" aim sought, but merely that the student shall think 

 out for himself all the facts connected with the experiment; if it 

 be considered that a knowledge of certain facts is necessary to his 

 education, let hira be shown where in the dictionary or encyclopedia 

 these facts may be found. 



Our brains are limited in their capacity, and if we load them 

 with that which is of little or no use, there will be little space left 

 for that which is of more importance. Let the student know just 

 where to go for these facts, rather than have his mind filled with 

 them in preparation for examination day. Our aims in science 

 study will be best attained by a few simple experiments, carefully 

 studied and reasoned upon, and these every higher institution 

 ought to furnish. 



When we come to science instruction in college, the same train 

 of reasoning applies, but here it is far easier to carry out our prin- 

 ciples. It obtains in college, as in the lower institutions, that the 

 student is expected to gain at least a smattering of the chief sci- 

 ences; still, with our optional studies, the chance for obtaining 

 the true aim of science study is far greater. One reason for this 

 is the increased time allowed to each subject, and the fact that 

 the teacher is more or less of a specialist in the branch or branches 

 he teaches. Let us in this connection look a little more closely at 

 the science vrith which I, as a teacher, am more familiar than any 

 other, that of chemistry; for this will serve us as a type of them 

 all. Chemistry is studied at college by two classes, one that de- 

 sires to gain a thorough knowledge of the subject, usually for 

 some practical end, and the other, generally comprising all the 

 students who pass through college, desiring merely to gain a gen- 

 eral view of the whole field. Since a thorough study of the 

 chemistry of the non-metals is necessary as a foundation for fur- 

 ther prosecxition of the science, and since the time required to lay 

 such a foundation is fully as much as the majority of the students 

 can spend on the whole subject, it has been in many places in 

 time past, and indeed perhaps we may say is to-day, the general 

 plan to let the two divisions work in entirely different plans, the 



one class going superficially over the whole subject of chemistry 

 in a term, while the other proceeds slowly and thoroughly. This 

 is, I believe, a great mistake; the rapidly moving class is at just 

 the same disadvantage as the academy and high school classes we 

 have already noticed ; they are trying to leai-n facts and statements, 

 and thereby lose the true aim of science study. It would be far 

 better for them by slow study to thoroughly master the principles 

 of the science, and gain its value in stimulating thought, and in a 

 few days' reading at a later period they could gain a far better 

 knowledge of the whole subject than otherwise in the whole term. 

 The student should, in the laboratory, perform after the professor 

 each of the simpler experiments, and be questioned particularly 

 and chiefly as to the meaning and signification of the experiment. 

 In the quantitative laboratory he should study the metals compara- 

 tively, paying particular attention to similar reactions by which 

 metals may be classed together, and to dissimilar reactions by 

 which the metals may be distinguished and separated. In this 

 way he may cut himself loose from all artificial tables except as 

 far as he shall form these tables for himself as a result of his work 

 (I may here perhaps be allowed, by way of parenthesis, to add 

 that I believe it will be found more advantageous for the student, 

 when beginning work on the metals, to examine first the effect 

 of each of the common reagents upon all the metals, than the 

 commonly adopted method of testing each metal with all the dif- 

 ferent reagents; in this latter case the student for the time being 

 loses sight of comparative reactions). 



The more thorough a student is in his work, the more he ap- 

 plies to it all his power of thought; the better his mind will be 

 fitted to carry the science into practical work, should such be his 

 ulterior aim. The more he works by rule, the less fitted will he 

 be for more advanced work, and the less able to leave the beaten 

 track. 



The general principles here laid down in the study of chemis- 

 try, will be applicable to the other sciences. It will be better far 

 for the student to cover less ground and to lay a thorough and 

 thoughtful foundation ; the further general knowledge of the sub- 

 ject will be easily and quickly gained whenever it may be de- 

 sired. So too as regards the idea that a student should study at 

 least a little of every science. To my mind it is better far to de- 

 vote one's self thoroughly to one science or perhaps two in col- 

 lege ; so similar are the methods of tliought in them all, that he 

 who has mastered one, can take up by himself any of the others 

 sufficiently well to gain as much knowledge of it as a liberal edu- 

 cation demands, while he who devotes himself in college equally 

 to all will not only know little of any one, but he will almost, if 

 not completely, have failed to gain the development of mind 

 which science study should give him, and the superficial knowl- 

 edge and facts gained will, for the most part, pEiss from bis mind, 

 as soon as examination day is over. With the scientific method 

 of thought once gained, however, the facts in all other sciences, 

 will naturally fall into such logical sequence that they will, for 

 the most part, readily remain in the memory. 



In sumiming vp this paper let me repeat in conclusion that in 

 my opinion, science study, to have its true value, must have ever 

 before it from Common School to College, as its chief aim, the 

 development of the power of thought; without this aim, it is time 

 largely thrown away ; with it, it is one of the most potent agen- 

 cies in modern civilization. Jas. Lewis Howe. 

 Polytechnlcal Society, Louisville, Ky. 



LETrEES TO THE EDITOR. 



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The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



The Question of the Celts. 



I REPLY with much pleasure to Professor Haynes's inquiries in 

 Science, April 8, p. 207. 



The theory of the European origin of the white race was ad- 

 vanced by Omalius D'Halloy (who is almost as well known for 

 his labors in ethnology as In geology) in various papers published 



