THOUGHTS ON SCIENCE TEACHING. 531 



instantly made aware of the beginning of a game and of the particular table upon 

 which it is in progress. 



The apparatus consists mainly in constructing both the spot and the triangle 

 of metal, and of placing them in electrical communication with a suitable indi- 

 cating dial. 



The improved metal spot is preferably constructed with a shoulder near its 

 upper end for forming a bearing when it is let down level with the upper surface 

 of the table. A pin or dowel is provided upon its lower extremity in the form of 

 a binding screw to which the circuit-wire is attached. The spot is perfectly 

 insulated in its position upon the table. 



In operation, a battery and an indicating dial are located at such a point in 

 the room as will be convenient for inspection, the spot and the triangle are con- 

 nected by suitable wires to the battery and to the dial. Whenever the table is 

 idle the tri-angle is of course removed from the spot, but, when a game is com- 

 menced, the triangle is placed in position upon the table in contact with the 

 metal spot, the circuit is thus closed and the fact is indicated by the dial. 



THOUGHTS ON SCIENCE TEACHING. 



ALEXANDER WINCHELL. 



The so-called "inductive sciences" are by no means exclusively inductive. 

 Nor can all science-teaching be conducted exclusively by observational methods. 

 On these two points much erroneous doctrine has been inculcated. Aside from 

 certain rational principles which regulate all intellectual processes, it may be said 

 that the so-called inductive sciences begin by induction, and are founded on facts 

 of observation. The knowledge of the facts is the condition of the existence of 

 the science. The facts, while not constitutive of science, are the data of science ; 

 and in a process of education they must be acquired, A real portion of the 

 science consists of the body of generalizations based on the facts. Any real 

 knowledge of the science must grasp these principles. But the body of proposi- 

 tions generalized from the data of science may next be employed as grounds 

 of deductive inference. Only thus does science attain to a knowledge of facts 

 inaccessible to observation. Thus science becomes a seer, and her vision pene- 

 trates beyond the limited range which bounds the ken of the human race. It is 

 only by deduction from generalized principles that geology, for instance, can 

 venture any affirmation concerning the history of the world in the ages before 

 human observation, or can predict vicissitudes impending in the remote future. 

 Those portions of a science reasoned out from general principles often constitute 

 its most important domain. They generally afford the most entertaining and 

 inspiring themes for contemplation, and this is evidently because the method 

 carries us through time and space and causation to distances most remote from 

 the little circle which limits the sphere of facts merely observed. 



