lxxviii Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIV, 
But if it is a pity when the teaching of mathematics is 
incompressible liquid’: and such corresponding electric terms 
electromotive force’ and ‘capacity’ are just as easy toa 
boy who has played to an equal extent with electric apparatus. 
But how many are nearly as familiar with electric appliances as 
they are with mechanical? And why should we wonder then 
that electromagnetic theory is usually found difficult 4 
Now all that 7 have said applies more to Indians than to 
Europeans for two reasons. First, the wonderful memories of 
most students of this country must be a continual temptation 
to them to remember a discussion rather than to absorb its 
ideas, when memorising is easier than grasping ; and secondly, 
early training in handling tools and apparatus is not nearly a 
general here as in England. As an example of what I mean 
may be allowed to refer to my old school days at St. Paul’, 
where, in addition to splendid laboratories for physics, chemi 
try, and biology, there were prizes to encourage mee 
ingenuity and skill, and as evidence of the standard reached! 
remember one boy was some way down the list although br 
between quantities known only by definitions. : ie 
Training of the hands is necessary also for the acquirement 
of manipulative skill, without which many discoveries WON” 
never have been made one example I will quote the bat = 
Astronomer Gill, who developed methods of measuring ed 
in the sky to one-hundredth of a second, the angle more” 
by a quarter-anna piece at a distance of 330 miles, half 
distance from here to Karachi. As another example wé soe! 
take Ramsay’s determination of the atomic weight of the pe : 
gas niton. The largest volume of it that he could obtam ee 
1/200 of a cubic millimeter, not a hundredth of a pin’s oe to 
bulk ; yet he utilized a balance so inconceivably delicate . = 
weigh this minute amount correctly. ion let 08 
Having considered briefly the subjects of instruction ™) a. 
glance at the methods of testing our students. I th welve 
one of the most disappointing facts learned in the * at 
years that I spent as a lecturer in mathematical phys! gS 
Trinity College, Cambridge, was the amount of time an@*” 
that had to be spent both in examining and in revisime 
ae 
