^3° 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 240 



■sound-waves, photometr)', plane mirrors, converging lenses, lines of 

 magnetic force, construction of galvanic cells, action of electrical 

 currents upon magnets, electrical resistance of wires, battery re- 

 sistance, construction of electro-magnets. Nearly all of these exer- 

 cises are of a quantitative character, requiring measurements of 

 some kind. It is expected that they will be liberally supplemented 

 with other less formal experiments, not necessarily to be performed 

 by the student, such as are described in ordinary text-books, with 

 problems, and with general teaching, all of such a range and charac- 

 ter as to give effect and continuity to the course. 



In considering whether such a course of physics is practicable 

 there are several points to be looked at : — 



I St. The material equipment required. It will not in general be 

 practicable for a teacher to give proper attention to more than 

 twelve students working in the laboratory at the same time. The 

 cost of t\\t por/ab/c apparatus and material needed to enable twelve 

 students to follow the course marked out in this pamphlet, each 

 working upon the same experiment at the same time but in general 

 independently, may be any thing from $250 to S450, according to 

 the amount of time and skill the teacher can devote to its prepara- 

 tion. I think this part of the equipment, with apparatus ready 

 made, can be bought outright for the larger sum mentioned. There 

 will be needed also two strong tables, each about twelve feet long 

 and three feet wide, one or two sinks with water-faucets, and for 

 each student a supply of gas for a Bunsen burner. 



For a school already well supplied with the ordinary' illusiraiive 

 apparatus, the total cost of adding the material equipment for the 

 laboratory course, on the scale supposed, may range from S400 to 

 $800. If only one or two students are to be provided for, the cost 

 may be not more than $50 or $100. 



2d. The demand upon the pupil's time. In the summer of i885, 

 Harvard sent out to a large number of teachers of physics in pre- 

 paratory schools a circular requesting answers to certain questions, 

 one of which related to the amount of time devoted to this study' in 

 their respective schools. About eighty replies to this circular were 

 received, and the conclusion from these replies was, that, in laying 

 out the elementary physics courses for admission to the college, we 

 might assume that the pupil would have for this subject the equiva- 

 lent of one school exercise of about forty-five minutes daily for one 

 school-)-ear of thirty-five or forty weeks, with some hours of study 

 weekly out of the school-room. The proposed course has been planned 

 in accordance with this estimate. This is probably about as much 

 time as will be required for elementary French or elementary 

 German in fitting for Harvard, and not more than one-half as much 

 as most candidates have given to prescribed Greek, or one-third as 

 much as they have given to prescribed Latin. 



3d. The arrangement of hours. Experience in the Harvard 

 physical laboratory, with a course veiy similar to the one proposed 

 for the schools, dictates the suggestions, I, that one school-hour per 

 week be gi\-en to a preliminary explanation, and perhaps hasty per- 

 formance by the teacher, of the exercises presently to be under- 

 taken by the pupils, the whole class being assembled for this exer- 

 cise ; 2, that each pupil have two consecutive school-hours per 

 week for the actual performance of the formal experiments of the 

 course, the class, if large, being divided for this purpose into sec- 

 tions of not more than twelve ; 3, that the other two school-hours 

 per week be devoted to the supplementary work of the course with 

 the whole class assembled. In order that the time alloted for the 

 laboratory work may be sufficient, the student should be required to 

 plan his work and his note-taking, so far as this is practicable, be- 

 fore coming to the laboratory. 



4th. The demand upon the teacher's time. Scholars so young as 

 those will be who may take this course need much direction in 

 their laboratory work. The teacher should be in the laboratory 

 whenever work is going on there. The preparation and care of 

 apparatus and the proper supervision of the students' note-books 

 will take much time, especially at first. After every thing has set- 

 tled into regular working order, it may require six or eight hours 

 more, weekly, of the teacher's time to conduct a class of thirty or 

 forty students in the experimental laboratory course than to con- 

 duct a class of the same size in the text-book course, which is to be 

 the alternative. 



5th. The fitness of teachers for such work. Probably only a 



small proportion of the teachers of physics in the preparatory 

 schools have had such a training as would enable them to arrange 

 and conduct the proposed course without considerable effort and 

 some mistakes. For the first year or two crude work is to be ex- 

 pected, but teachers who are possessed of some mechanical skill, a 

 good general knowledge of physics, considerable energy, and a 

 willingness to think, will quickly become accustomed to the duties 

 of the new course. 



Just how great the difficulties which have here been touched 

 upon will appear to the preparatory schools the writer is unable to 

 foresee, but there can be little doubt that the larger schools which 

 send boys to Harvard will, in general, speedily adopt the experiment 

 method in preparing boys in physics. Last July about eighty can- 

 didates presented themselves for the entrance examination in the ex- 

 periment course, and, although this course as now laid out will be 

 more severe than that which some schools have followed during the 

 past year, it is unlikely that any school having once undertaken the 

 experiment course will abandon it for the text-book alternative. 



The enthusiasm with which many teachers welcome the oppor- 

 tunity to follow the experiment method is very striking, and en- 

 courages the hope that the day of perfunctory cramming in physics 

 merely for the purpose of getting into college is nearly over. 



E. H. Hall. 



Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. 



The above subject in its varied aspects, to which the review of 

 Mr. Finck's book in Science has called attention, must be regarded 

 by all thoughtful men, and above all by the biologist, as one of 

 great, possibly unsurpassed interest to mankind. The question in 

 its broadest aspect comes to this : How are the interests of man- 

 kind dependent on conjugal mating and the circumstances under 

 which this is brought about ? As no one can pretend to see the 

 whole truth on such a subject (or indeed any other of compre- 

 hensive range), I shall give the results of my own observations and 

 reflections, with a view of drawing increased attention to a subject 

 of such transcendent importance. While every one, in some vague 

 way, recognizes the importance of the step taken when two human 

 beings agree to join their fortunes for life, the multiform implica- 

 tions of such an act require for their comprehension a biological 

 knowledge that but few, in the present state of civilization, possess. 



Mr. Finck, after enumerating the characteristics of romantic love, 

 grants that many of these are found in the lower animals, but at the 

 same time leads us to believe that romantic love is wholly a modern 

 growth, or that it had no genuine existence, at all events, previously. 

 Is this position consistent for an evolutionist .' If it existed lower 

 in the scale than man, it seems very unlikely that it should cease to 

 exist in the higher form. Mr. Finck seems to have rather over- 

 stated the case. That it never had complete development till 

 modern times, that it was smothered, dwarfed, or perverted, we will 

 freely admit ; but we must deny that it is purely a new thing. 

 Why is it, as we know it, modern in its development ? Because 

 never before was the altruistic conception of human conduct fully 

 developed. That a man should sacrifice himself for an inferior 

 was utterly opposed to all ancient ideas. When this concep- 

 tion took shape it at once began to appear that woman, being the 

 weaker physically at least, demanded, in harmony with the al- 

 truistic principle, the service and sacrifice of the stronger, hence 

 gallantry, etc. Formerly this was but an undeveloped germ in the 

 breast of man ; but it was there, however, and is not an absolutely 

 new thing. In a word, romantic love demands a relatively high 

 moral development for its vigorous growth. Perhaps Mr. Finck 

 would really contend for no more than this. 



Darwin, consistently with the great influence he assigned to 

 sexual selection in his scheme of organic evolution, included man 

 with other animals. He pointed out that " the men who are rich 

 through primogeniture are able to select, generation after genera- 

 tion, the more beautiful and charming women ; and these [he adds] 

 must generally be healthy in body and active in mind." No doubt 

 this explains a great deal, but it does not explain the origin of 

 beauty in man or woman. In explaining the high average of comeli- 

 ness and the relative frequency of beauty in human beings in 

 America, this factor enters very largely into the explanation both of 

 the preservation and increase of beauty of form and expression. 



