July 19, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



101 



experiments before the class, and called at- 

 tention to the phenomena, which he ex- 

 plained either by phlogiston or according to 

 the doctrine of Lavoisier, his hearers gained 

 much. If there was still something of the 

 alchemistic glamour, the subject could be 

 studied afterwards in a suitable text-book. 

 All in all, it was the most noteworthy ad- 

 vance in teaching that had taken place up 

 to that time. As the question and answer 

 method will never disappear from educa- 

 tional systems, so the best in the lecture 

 method came to stay, and will always have 

 its place. But it was far from being ideal, 

 or final. During that period the man who 

 could deliver the most faultless lecture was 

 the best teacher. 



But another step was to be taken, in 

 which, in place of a passive observer, the 

 student must prepare and set up his own 

 apparatus, mix his chemicals, adapt the 

 conditions, watch the phenomena and ar- 

 rive at conclusions. This was a more radi- 

 cal revolution than even the lecture method, 

 and it merits more than passing notice. 

 Liebig is accredited as the inventor of the 

 laboratory method as applied to chemistry. 

 This method, transplanted in America by 

 one of his pupils, Eben Horsford, who in 

 1848 was appointed professor of chemistry 

 at the Lawrence Scientific School, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., gained a slow and struggling 

 popularity. It was at the same institution 

 and about the same time that Louis Agas- 

 siz began to employ the laboratory method 

 in natural science. In 1850 Professor 

 Cooke fitted up as a laboratory, mostly at 

 his own expense, a basement room in Uni- 

 versity Hall at Harvard College, where a 

 few selected students were admitted. There 

 was no gas or running water. After seven 

 years more, against great opposition, he 

 succeeded in having laboratory work a re- 

 quirement for Harvard students in chem- 

 istry. The first laboratory instruction in 

 chemistry for medical students in this country 



was in 1853 at the Harvard Medical School. 

 It took another quarter of a century for the 

 laboratory idea to permeate any but the 

 larger colleges, and chemistry continued to 

 be taught by the recitation method. One 

 of the earliest, perhaps the first, secondary 

 school to adopt the new idea was the Girls' 

 High and Normal School of Boston, about 

 1865. It was followed by the Cambridge, 

 Mass. , High School in 1866, and the Eng- 

 lish High of Boston, in 1871. One of the 

 early teachers says: "A chemical labora- 

 tory for pupils was a rarity ; all foreigners 

 and visitors to the city were brought to see 

 it, and they opened their eyes in amazement 

 at the strange sight." This was in 1870, 

 and plans and photographs of this work- 

 shop for students were in demand from va- 

 rious parts of the United States. 



But, generally speaking, the laboratory 

 method, as regards high-schools, is a devel- 

 opment of the past twenty-five years. A 

 new era in chemistry teaching was dawning. 

 It was greatly stimulated by the summer 

 schools of science which sprang up in col- 

 leges all over the land. The first teachers' 

 school of science was that of Louis Agassiz 

 in natural history, held on the island of 

 Penekese during the summer of 1869. In 

 subsequent years this school, enlarged and 

 broadened to include chemistry and other 

 branches of learning, was held in Cambridge, 

 Mass., the example of Harvard being fol- 

 lowed by other institutions, and the labora- 

 torj'^ idea was spread broadcast. 



At first the workshop was usually put in 

 the basement of the school building, and 

 laboratory work was an extra subject, or 

 voluntary exercise to be done after school 

 hours by those sufficiently interested ; hence 

 very little was required. As the work 

 grew and its value became apparent, note- 

 taking was introduced. ' Observation ' 

 and * conclusion ' made up the notes, mostly 

 mechanical, without much connection. 

 After a time, this beiug found insuflicient. 



