SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, iS 



For months past the attention of university men throughout 

 the country has been centred in the Princeton College Board of 

 Trustees, who were deliberating as to the successor of Dr. M'Cosh 

 in the presidency of that institution. On Thursday, Feb. 9, the fruit 

 of those deliberations was seen in the unanimous election of Francis 

 L. Patton, D.D., to the vacant post. This choice is on all grounds 

 to be warmly commended. Dr. Patton is still a young man, being 

 but forty-five years of age, and has yet to put forth to their fullest 

 extent his marvellous intellectual powers. We seriously question 

 whether any college has a president of so high an intellectual stamp 

 as Dr. Patton. His theological and philosophical learning is vast 

 in extent, and rich in quality. Both with tongue and pen he is clear 

 and incisive. His critical ability is unrivalled, and in his new posi- 

 tion he will have ample opportunity to show whether or not he is 

 equally strong in constructive and administrative power. To follow 

 Dr. M'Cosh is a trying test for any one, but we feel sure that Dr. 

 Patton will confer honor and credit both upon Princeton and upon 

 himself in his administration. That it may be long and prosper- 

 ous, and that Dr. M'Cosh may long be spared to witness the carry- 

 ing-on of the work that he has so wisely planned, is the hearty 

 wish of every friend of higher education in this country. 



SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 



In the report of the council of education (England and Wales) 

 for 1887, there are some excellent remarks about elementary science- 

 teaching which are reproduced in a recent number of Nahtre. The 

 judgment is passed that nothing could be more unsatisfactory than 

 the present position of the knowledge and teaching of science in 

 the elementary schools. Notwithstanding all the advantages that 

 have been offered pupil-teachers for the study of science, as a body 

 they appear to be in a most deplorable state in this respect. The 

 inspector who reports on training-colleges finds the ordinary pupil- 

 teacher deficient even in mathematics. It is in doubt whether this 

 deficiency should be ascribed to poor teaching or defective early 

 training. Mr. Fitch, who reports on female training-colleges, finds 

 things no better there. At the admission examination the work in 

 the arithmetic is satisfactory in point of accuracy, but it displays 

 want of method, failure to appreciate the meaning of the question 

 asked, and ignorance of principles. Thus very few of the candi- 

 dates were able to give an intelligent explanation of simple arith- 

 metical processes, such as subtraction or division. With them, as 

 with the male pupil-teachers, book-work and memory are wholly 

 relied on, and little attention is paid to the intelligent application of 

 principles. " Scarcely three per cent are able to do much more in 

 the teaching of arithmetic than work sums more or less correctly 

 on the blackboard." 



With such material to work on, it is not surprising that the re- 

 sults of the work at the colleges are not what they otherwise might 

 be. Those who are below the average at admission rarely succeed 

 very well in the array of subjects to be learned in two years' train- 

 ing. With regard to the male students, the reports at the close of 

 the first year's training record that the answering of the questions 

 set on the first book of Euclid was disappointing. The students 

 appear to have learned their propositions by rote, and to have dis- 

 played great want of neatness and accuracy. Though the riders 

 were joined to the propositions on which their solution depended 

 and though all these riders were easy, very few of the papers were 

 satisfactory. This inability to solve the easiest geometrical deduc- 

 tions is commented on again and again, and proves beyond doubt 



that either the students are negligently taught, or that they commit 

 the book-work to memory without understanding it, and conse- 

 quently are quite incapable of applying their knowledge to solve the 

 simplest riders. 



In summing up his impressions of the male training-colleges, the 

 inspector gives it as his opinion that the students are over-lectured 

 at some of the colleges, and that the lectures are mechanically re- 

 produced, and transferred as closely as possible to the examination 

 papers. This, of course, is due to the defective early training of the 

 students, and to lectures injudiciously delivered on subjects about 

 which students know absolutely nothing. For instance : one lec- 

 turer delivered a very excellent discourse on the corrupt form of 

 Latin used by the Roman soldiers in Britain, its causes and its ef- 

 fects, to a class of which few, if any, of the members knew any thing 

 whatever of Latin. 



In the female colleges, even in arithmetic, questions on theory 

 and principles are not well done, long problems are inaccurately 

 done, and, as a whole, it is seen that there is yet much that remains 

 before it can be said that the present system is satisfactory as regards 

 the knowledge given and the methods adopted. There appears 

 to be among the students a very narrow view of their future work, 

 a desire to regard the obtaining of their certificates as the goal and aim 

 of their existence. The views on science, of one of these maidens, 

 are worth recording : "Iff am successful in obtaining my certificate, 

 I intend (D.V.) going in for two sciences. At the same time I pro- 

 pose attending a tonic-sol-fa class to get my advanced certificate. 

 Should the two sciences ' sound, light, and heat,' and ' electricity 

 and magnetism,' prove a success, I shall probably take up the 

 science of hygiene." If the training-colleges tend to remove the 

 impression that the technical qualification is the end of the pupil- 

 teacher's work, if they awaken a spirit of emulation among the 

 students, and enable them to teach more thoroughly and intelli- 

 gently, then they will have fulfilled a large portion of their duties. 



With such products as are thus indicated, as teachers, it is easy 

 to predict what the schools that are under their care will be like. 

 With masters, the majority of whom know little or nothing of 

 even the elements of science, the pupils cannot be expected to pass 

 well in these subjects. Thus it is seen, in the return of the number 

 of pupils sent up on ' specific subjects '(most of which are scientific), 

 that only 16.51 of those eligible for examination have been so ex- 

 amined, and of these nearly one-half were from the London School 

 Board District. One-half of the passes were in algebra and animal 

 physiology. 



The inspectors in all parts of the Kingdom agree, that, with the 

 exception of some of the cities and large towns, throughout the 

 elementary schools science is untaught. This we can well imagine, 

 when we have seen that the average teacher is completely ignorant 

 of any of its branches, and it is the average teacher who is sent to 

 the country schools. The explanation of some of the inspectors, 

 that in the country for a great portion of the year the attendance of 

 the children who are fit to be taught these subjects is very irregu- 

 lar, does not meet the question ; for, even were the children most 

 regular in their attendance, the subjects could not at present be 

 taught, and, until the average elementary teacher is altered, they 

 will not be taught. 



The brightest spot of all appears to be Nottingham, and there 

 2,536 children were examined in specific subjects, of whom four- 

 fifths passed. " Mechanics for boys, and domestic economy for 

 girls, are the subjects principally taken by the Nottingham Board 

 Schools, and are taught by a specially qualified science demon- 

 strator and assistant, who visit the various schools in turns, bring- 

 ing the apparatus with them in a specially constructed hand-cart. 

 The lectures given on these occasions are afterwards gone through 

 again by the teachers of the schools, from notes taken at the time. 

 These lectures are simple and interesting, and are given with great 



