c Charles Edward Hugh 1867 -1938 ''" Professor of Education University of Californ THE TEACHING OF SCIENTIC METHOD AND OTHER PAPERS ON EDUCATION The Teaching of Scientific Method and other Papers on Education BY HENRY E. ARMSTRONG, LL.D., PH.D., F.R.S. PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY IN THE CENTRAL TECHNICAL COLLEGE OF THE CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE ; PAST-PRESIDENT OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY J PRESIDENT, 1902, OF THE EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE SECTION OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE J MEMBER OF THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1903 All rights reserved DEW. PEEFACE THE publication, in a collected form, of the papers included in this volume may not be without value at the present critical juncture of educational affairs when so many serious attempts are being made' to bring our school system into harmony with the times and to improve the methods of teaching. The earlier articles are didactic: in these I have sought to give reasons for the introduction of scientific method into all schools. The later articles are con- structive : they contain the suggestions which, from time to time, I have ventured to make for the improve- ment of the methods of teaching elementary physical science. Whilst the former may be of interest to the general reader, the latter will appeal more to the specialist. In the last article, in which the question of school workshops for experimental studies is considered, I have urged that the provision made in future should be full but simple. It is very important, on account of the great educational value of such work, that it should be understood that there need be no excessive expenditure for this purpose indeed that the work is JV.S37SI35 vi PAPEES ON EDUCATION best done under simple conditions with simple appliances, space and efficient teaching being the chief requisites. The essays cover a period of about twenty years. They are not arranged in any chronological order. No doubt, they all deal mainly with one topic, so that I may be open to the charge of somewhat unduly repeating my argument : if I venture to put them forward, it is in the hope that such repetition of a plea may add to its cogency and carry conviction at least of my own belief in its urgency. The fourteenth article is my maiden essayin it will be found the germ of all my subsequent work. This essay may be of interest to teachers, if they will compare it with the later articles and mark the gradual development of the method of treatment which is fore- shadowed in it, now known as the Heuristic method. Parenthetically, let me here at once say that I am not responsible for the introduction of this word, still less of the principle included under it. The method, in a sense, is as old as the hills in fact, it is the method of nature : of the animal creation ; of the human -. ^_ . ^ n . infant ; and yet, as now practised, it is essentially new in the completeness with which its advocates seek to correlate experimental inquiry with both inductive and deductive inquiry and is, in this respect, a great advance upon the Socratic method. Its use has been advocated over and over again. But it has fallen into disuse, having been almost lost sight of since literary methods have secured the mastery in schools. Desiring PEEFACE vii to develop the method and extend its use, I have ventured to lay emphasis on a name for it which is eminently suggestive and descriptive, whilst being an admirable contrast to the antithetic term didactic however much it may meet with objection from the classical purist. But in advocating the introduction of scientific method into schools, still more in advocating that teachers generally should have mastered the experi- mental method and be able to assume the attitude of the investigator, I know that I shall command the ^ support of few simply because, at present, so few can appreciate what is meant by such expressions. And yet it is very necessary that they should be under- stood by all. It is the office of the teacher to carry his pupils forward ; his success depends on the extent to which he displays individuality ; and the one all- potent means of developing a constructive and imagina- \ tive habit of mind is to engage in inquiry. The teacher "whcTacts merely as the mouthpiece of others is only fit to train parrots ; he cannot fail to exercise a narrowing influence on his pupils. Man is by nature a reasoning being and needs to be treated as such ; unfortu- nately, in schools, this fact has been more honoured in the breach than in the observance. In the course of a century or so, the introduction of the experimental method has led to the most extra- ordinary advance in knowledge ; the infinite beauty of natural objects and phenomena has been disclosed to us ; control has been gained over natural forces and viii PAPEES ON EDUCATION the engineer has acquired dominion in consequence. But, as yet, no organised effort has been made to put our youth in possession of the new knowledge to enable them to grasp its meaning and importance and to make use of it : forced still to concentrate their attention on pious ^Eneas and on Caesar, they hear nothing of the great engineers, of Black, Cavendish, Dalton, Darwin, Faraday, Lavoisier, Liebig and many others, who in modern times have made the world of to-day what it is. While the classes which formerly stood out as cultured are falling behind, a new intellectual order is arising, comprising the workers in various branches of science and engineers men of deeds rather than of words, who are all striving to go forward and to give peace to society, true missionaries in the cause of progress. However much their work may be delayed by ignorance, they will eventually conquer, as they have no selfish ends and are bent on bringing mankind into intimate touch with nature. Hitherto our schools have been too much in the hands of men unpractical by habit and too often un- practical by nature trained to dogmatic beliefs and therefore without the freedom of mind which is absolutely essential to the teacher. Consequently, education has had little reference to the wants of the world : its tendencies have been illiberal and narrowing ; worst of all, a one-sided, selfish devotion to humanistic studies has induced an attitude of blindness, indeed of irreverence, towards natural objects and phenomena. PREFACE ix Until practical men and women are put in charge of our schools, there will be little progress there are enough cases of success already to prove this to demonstration. Teachers such as we need will riot be forthcoming, however, unless the universities take a far broader view of the situation than they have done heretofore. It will not suffice to supplement the ordinary degree course by a year's study of pedagogics although such study will have its value. Talking will not make teachers little more than the mere tricks of the trade will be learnt in the practising school : real teachers will only arise 'when the training given is such as to develop thought-power and some understanding of the art of experimental inquiry" In the case of articles previously printed elsewhere, the place of publication is indicated in the table of Contents. I am much indebted for permission to republish the articles to the editors of the publica- tions named especially to the Council of the British Association ; to the Board of Education ; to the Editor of the National Review, Mr. Maxse ; to Mr. Murray, the publisher, and Mr. Laurie Magnus, the Editor, of National Education ; and to the Council of the Ivoyal Institute of British Architects. I have also to thank Mr. Maurice Solomon, a former student, for allowing me to reproduce his poem on " The Conservation of Matter," called forth by my paper (No. 21) on " Domestic Science." x PAPEES ON EDUCATION I am indebted to Professor R. A. Gregory and to Mr. A. T. Simmonds for advice in selecting and editing the articles for publication ; and I owe the former very special thanks for the manner in which he has at all times placed his great technical knowledge at my disposal. July 1903. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE 1. THE TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD ... 1 The Educational Times, May 1891. 2. AN APPEAL TO HEADMASTERS . . . . 11 Journal of Education, January 1901. 3. THE FUTURE WORK OF THE SECTION OF EDUCA- TIONAL SCIENCE. . . . *. . 24 British Association, Glasgow, 1901. 4. ADDRESS TO THE EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE SECTION OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- MENT OF SCIENCE. BELFAST, 1902 .. . . 35 5. THE NEED OF GENERAL CULTURE AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE . . . . . .97 The National Revieiv, September 1902. 6. THE PLACE OF EESEARCH IN EDUCATION AND OF SCIENCE IN INDUSTRY . . . . .119 Science Progress, January 1896. 7. THE DOWNFALL OF NATURAL INDIGO . . . 144 Letter to The Times, 15th April 1901. 8. SCIENCE IN EDUCATION THE NEED OF PRACTICAL STUDIES . . . ...... . .153 National Education, chap. v. London, John Murray, xi xii PAPEES ON EDUCATION CHAP. PAGE ^9. AIMS AND METHODS OF SCIENCE TEACHING . . 173 Letter to The School World, May 1901. 10. THE WORKSHOP IN THE SCHOOL . , . . 177 An Address delivered at Stoke-on- Trent, December 1901. 11. SCIENCE TEACHING IN SCHOOLS IN AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS . . *.,< , -/ , ... % . . 186 The Technical World, 1895. ) 12. TRAINING IN SCIENTIFIC METHOD AS A CENTRAL MOTIVE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS . . . 195 Report of Conference at Guild ford, June 1902. < 13. DOMESTIC SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. . 207 The Technical World, 1896. 14. ON THE TEACHING OF NATURAL SCIENCE AS A PART OF THE ORDINARY SCHOOL COURSE AND ON THE METHOD OF TEACHING CHEMISTRY IN THE INTRODUCTORY COURSE IN SCIENCE CLASSES, SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES . ' ... . . .219 International Conference on Education, p. 69. London, 1884. 15. THE HEURISTIC METHOD OF TEACHING OR THE ART OF MAKING CHILDREN DISCOVER THINGS FOR THEMSELVES . . . * ' i . 235 Board of Education, Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. ii., 1898. 16. SUGGESTIONS FOR A COURSE OF ELEMENTARY IN- STRUCTION IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE . . . 300 "Report on Teaching Chemistry," British Associa- tion, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1889. 17. EXERCISES ILLUSTRATIVE OF AN ELEMENTARY COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE . 345 "Report on Teaching Chemistry," British Associa- tion, Leeds, 1890. CONTENTS xiii CHAP. PAGE "IS. THE TEACHING OP SCIENTIFIC METHOD . .'367 Educational Times, May 1891 (conclusion of Art. 1). 19. How SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED TO BE USEFUL . 377 The Technical World, 1896. 20. JUVENILE KESEARCH . . . . . ..393 "Address to Conference of Science Teachers," The London Technical Education Gazette, March 1900. 21. "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" ...... 400 "Address to Conference of Science Teachers," The London Technical Education Gazette, February 1901. 22. THE CONSERVATION OF MATTER . . . .422 Poem by M. Solomon. 23. TRAINING-COLLEGE COURSE OF GENERAL ELEMENT- ARY SCIENCE ....... 425 "Memorandum of the Departmental Committee on Training-College Courses of Instruction," 1901. 24. SCIENCE WORKSHOPS FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES . 452 Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Third Series, vol. x. No. 6, p. 165. I THE TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD THIS title is chosen advisedly, in order to mark the contrast between the teaching of what is commonly called science and the teaching of scientific method : it is, I think, to the failure to discriminate between these that the delay in introducing experimental studies into schools generally of which we so bitterly complain is largely attributable, For years past the educational world has been witness of conflicts innumerable: its time-honoured and most cherished dogmas and practices have been subjected to severely searching criticism and it cannot be denied that they have oftentimes emerged from the battle in a terribly mangled condition ; nevertheless they have hitherto manifested a marvellous recuperative power. Modern subjects, especially experimental science, have as yet barely obtained a foothold in our schools and their educational effect has been scarcely appreciable nay, it is even said, probably with too much of truth, that the results under our present may I not say want of system are inferior to those obtained in the purely classical days of yore when the scholars' efforts were less subdivided when fewer subjects claimed their attention. The net upshot of B 2 PAPERS ON EDUCATION has bsen simply that we are intensely dis- satisfied with our present position and that we realise that some change has to be made. What that change is, we are not yet agreed. This, after all, is a very healthy state to be in and one which necessarily must precede the construction of a satisfactory programme of studies suited to the vastly changed conditions under which the work of the world has been carried oh since those two potent agents, steam and electricity, have assumed sway. In setting our house in order, one great difficulty arises from the multitude of counsellors : every subject in turn asserts its soul-saving power and puts forth its claim on a portion of the school time ; an infinite number of suggestions are made who is to arbitrate in so difficult a case ? Certainly, the more I study the educational problem, the more I realise how extra- ordinary are the difficulties which it presents : we are not all cast in one fixed mould and cannot all be made alike ; educational rules must necessarily be made in- finitely elastic and educational success can only be achieved by the elastic administration of rules. But are those who are charged with the conduct of so difficult a mission in any way specially prepared for the campaign ? Suppose that at a largely attended representative meeting of British teachers some one were to discourse in most eloquent terms of the beauties of the Chinese language and were to affirm in the most positive manner possible that no other language offered the same opportunity of inculcating lessons of the highest import what would be the result ? Few, if any, present would know a word of the language ; therefore, although all might agree that they had listened to a most learned and interesting i TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 3 discourse, the effect would be ephemeral and the advice given would be wholly disregarded by the majority. Never having had occasion to study the language, probably they would mentally set down the lecturer as a doctrinaire as a member of that trouble- some and objectionable class, the enthusiasts, who are always interfering with other people's business and trying to lead them to mend their ways. Some few might think it politic to include Chinese in their school programme. These would either purchase a " Eeader " and endeavour to master the subject them- selves sufficiently to impress a smattering of informa- tion on a limited number of pupils in the higher forms in their schools perhaps ; or they would engage as teacher a young fellow fresh from the University who had little more than mastered the principles of the Chinese alphabet but was considered capable of any- thing because he had taken a good degree. I very much fear that the treatment which I picture as accorded to my hypothetical subject, Chinese, is very much the kind of treatment meted out to experimental science in most schools. In the majority of cases, it has been included in the programme because it is become fashionable and is a subject in which public examinations are held ; more or less under compulsion ; without real belief in its worth or efficacy as an educational instrument. It is not surprising, therefore, that the results have been so unsatisfactory. Two causes appear to me to operate in retarding educational progress. In the first place, with scarcely an exception, our^schools are controlled by our ancient Universities. These, I think, are not improperly described as, in the main, classical trades-unions ; the majority of those who pass through their courses are 4 PAPERS ON EDUCATION i required only to devote their attention to purely literary studies ; unless by accident, they acquire no knowledge of the methods of natural science ; con- sequently, having no understanding of, they exhibit no sympathy with, its aims and objects. It is a strange fact that so limited and non-natural a course of training should alone be spoken of conventionally as " culture " and that it should count as no sin to be blind to all that is going on in the world of Nature around us and to have no appreciation or understanding of the changes which constitute life no knowledge of the composition and characters of the materials of the earth on which we dwell. As the entire body of teachers in the more important of our schools are University men and the example which such schools set permeates into and pervades schools generally, the result of the introspective system of training followed at our Universities is disastrous : that the effect of a change in the system on scholastic opinion and practice would be far-reaching has been clearly realised. 1 But, beyond the difficulties created by the low standard of scholastic and public opinion as regards natural science, there is a second retarding cause in operation, for the existence of which we teachers of natural science are in a great measure responsible and which it behoves us to remove. I refer to the absence of any proper distinction between the teaching 1 " I sometimes dream of a day when it will be considered necessary that every candidate for ordination should be required to have passed creditably in at least one branch of physical science, if it be only to teach him the method of sound scientific thought." CHARLES KINGSLEY. "If, twenty years ago, this University (Oxford) had said, from this time forward the elements of natural science shall take their place in Responsions, side by side with the elements of mathematics, and shall be equally obligatory, you would long ago have effected a revolution in school education." DR. PERCIVAL (circa 1885). i TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 5 of what is commonly called science i.e. facts pertaining to science and the teaching of scientific method. The dates at which our various kings reigned, the battles they fought and the names of their wives, are facts pertaining to history and it is not so very long since such facts alone were taught as history ; nowadays, such facts are but incidentals in a rational course of historical study and it is clearly realised that the great object is to inculcate the use of such facts the moral lessons which they convey. " And if I can have con- vinced you that well-doing and ill-doing are rewarded and punished in this world, as well as in the world to come, I shall have done you more good than if I had crammed your minds with many dates and facts from modern history " (conclusion of Kingsley's lectures on America at Cambridge in 1862) are words which aptly convey an idea of one of the chief purposes gained in teaching history and by which the methods of teaching it are being moulded. In like manner, to inculcate scientific habits of mind to teach scientific method we must teach the use of the facts pertaining to_ science not the mere facts. Again, in teaching history in schools, we recognise that the subject must be broadly handled and attention directed to the salient points which are of general application to human conduct ; the study of minutiae is left to the professed historian. But the very reverse of this practice has been- followed, as a rule, in teaching natural science in schools. At various times during recent years at the Educational Conference held at the Health Exhibition in 1884 and at the British Association meeting in 1885 I have protested against the prevailing system of teaching chemistry, etc. to boys and girls at school as though the object were to 6 PAPERS ON EDUCATION i train them alHoJbe^chemistsj and I have also protested against the undue influence exercised by the specialist an influence which he has acquired in consequence of the inability of the head of the school to criticise and control his work. I refer here as much to the examiner as to the teacher ; indeed, more. It appears to me to be our duty to regard all questions relating to school education from a general point of view to consider what is most conducive to the general welfare of the scholar; and in allowing the specialist access to the school, the greatest care must be taken that the subject treated of is dealt with in a manner suited to the requirements of the scholars collectively. It is )only in the case of technical classes that supreme (control can be vested in the specialist. ~ln order that we may be in a position to criticise usefully the educational work which is being done and the proposals brought forward, it is essential to arrive at a clear understanding of the objects to be achieved. Much of the work in a school is done with the object of cultivating certain arts mechanical arts, we may almost call them : the art of reading, the art of writing and the art of working elementary mathematical problems until the operations involved are efficiently performed in an automatic manner. An elementary acquaintance with these arts having once been gained, all later studies may be said to originate naturally in them both those which lead to the acquisition of knowledge and those which have for their ultimate object the develop- ment and training of mental faculties. The character and extent of these later studies is subject to great variation according as individual requirements, oppor- tunities and mental peculiarities vary ; but the variation is not usually permitted to take place until a some- i TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 7 what late period in the school career. We recognise, in fact, that in the case of every individual the endeavour must at least be made to develop the intellectual faculties coincidently in several directions. The question at issue at the present moment, I take it, is the number of main lines over which we can and are called on to travel. Hitherto only two have been generally recognised the line of literary studies and the line of mathematical studies ; but those of us who advocate the claims of natural science assert that there is a third and 'that this is of great importance, as a large proportion of the work of the world is necessarily carried on over it. We assert, in fact, that however complete a course of literary and mathematical studies may be made, it is impossible by attention to these two branches of knowledge to educate one side of the human mind that side which has been instrumental in erecting the edifice of natural science and in applying science to industry : the use of eyes and hands. I never tire of quoting the following passage from Kingsley's lecture to the boys at Wellington College (Letters and Memoirs of his Life, 3rd abridged edition, p. 146 ; Kegan Paul & Co.); it puts the case into a nutshell : The first thing for a boy to learn, after obedience and morality, is a habit of observation a habit of using his eyes. It matters little what you use them on, provided you do use them. They say knowledge is power, and so it is. But only the knowledge which you get by observation. Many a man is very learned in books, and has read for years and years, and yet he is useless. He knows about all sorts of things, but he can't do them. When you set him to do work, he makes a mess of it. He is what you call a pedant, because he has not used his eyes and ears. . . . Now, I don't mean to undervalue book learning, . . . but the great use of a public school educa- tion to you is, not so much to teach you things as to teach you 8 PAPERS ON EDUCATION i how to learn. . . . And what does the art of learning consist in ? First and foremost in the art of observing. That is, the boy who uses his eyes best on his book and observes the words and letters of his lesson most accurately and carefully ; that is the boy who learns his lesson best, I presume. . . . Therefore, I say, that everything which helps a boy's powers of observation helps his power of learning ; and I know from experience that nothing helps that so much as the study of the world about you. Literary and mathematical studies are not a sufficient preparation in the great majority of cases for the work of the world they develop introspective habits too exclusively. In future, boys and girls generally must not be confined to desk studies : they jmust not only learn a good deal about things, they [must also be taught how to do things and to this end must learn how others before them have done things by } actually repeating not by merely reading about [what others have done. We ask, in fact, that the use of eyes and hands in unravelling the meaning of the wondrous changes which are going on around us in the world of Nature shall be taught systematically in schools generally that is to say, that the endeavour shall be made to inculcate the habits of observing accurately, of experimenting exactly, of observing and experimenting with a clearly defined and logical purpose and of logical reasoning from observation and the results of experimental inquiry. Scientific habits and method must be universally taught. We ask to be at once admitted to equal rights with the three It's it is no question of an alternative subject. This cannot be too clearly stated. The battle must be fought out on this issue within the next few years. The importance of entering on the right course when the time comes that this claim is admitted as it i TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 9 inevitably must be when the general public and those who direct our educational system grasp its meaning cannot be exaggerated. The use of eyes and hands : scientific method cannot be taught by means of the blackboard and chalk or even by experimental lectures and demonstrations alone ; individual eyes and hands must be actually and persistently practised from the_*~ very earliest period in the school career. Such studies cannot be postponed until the technical college or University is reached ; the faculties which can there receive their highest development must not have been~"\ allowed to atrophy through neglect during the yearsj spent at school. This is a point of fundamental importance. At school the habit is acquired of learn- ing lessons of learning things from books and after a time it is an easy operation to a boy or girl of fair mental capacity, given the necessary books, to learn what is known about a particular subject. One outcome of this, in my experience, particularly in the case of the more capable student, is the confusion of shadow with substance. "Why should I trouble to make all these experiments which take up so much time, which require so much care and which yield a result so small in proportion to the labour expended, when I can gain the information by reading a page or so in such and such a text-book ? " is the question I have often known to be put by highly capable students. They fail to realise what is the object in view that they are studying method ; that their object should be to learn how to make use of text-book information by studying how such information has been gained ; and to prepare themselves for the time when they will have exhausted the information at their disposal and are unprovided with a text-book when they will have 10 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION i to help themselves. I am satisfied that the one remedy for this acquired disease is to commence experimental studies at the very earliest possible moment, so that children may from the outset learn to ^acquire knowledge by their own efforts ; to extend infantile practice for it is admitted that the infant learns much by experimenting and the Kindergarten system into the school, so that experimenting and observing become habits. The vast majority of young children naturally like such work and it is to be feared that our system of education is mainly responsible for the decay of the taste with advancing years. II AN APPEAL TO HEADMASTERS MORE than twenty years ago Matthew Arnold wrote : " The want of the idea of science, of systematic know- ledge, is ... the capital want ... of English educa- tion and of English life." The same statement may be made to-day without fear of contradiction. And yet, during the latter part of our century, science has revolutionised the world and its charms as well as its claims on our attention have been eloquently advocated by a multitude of speakers, Arnold implied that the responsibility for the condition of affairs he deplored rested with our schoolmasters. It is to be feared that they have done little in the interval to exonerate themselves : if not obdurate in resisting change, they have at least made no proper effort to bring it about. Why is this ? A writer on China has remarked : " The contempla- tion of China is discouraging to think it got so far so long ago and yet has got no further ! The Emperor Hoang-li, who lived 200 B.C., may be supposed to have foreseen the deadening effect that government by literary men has upon a nation, for he burnt all their books except those that treat of practical arts." May not a clue to our failure to appreciate science be 11 12 PAPEES ON EDUCATION n found in this passage ? For is it not the case that we are at the stage of being governed by literary men that those who have the charge of the education of the youth of the country are nearly all literary men ; that most of our youth are allowed to grow up as literary men ; that our Parliament is full of literary men ; and that our Press is a purely literary organisation ? Do we not pay so little attention to studies of " practical arts " as to justify the statement that they are disregarded by all but the very few among us ? And are not the consequences very serious ? As men of the world we must see that complaints are develop in your children some power of appreciating the beauties of Nature > Have they before them objects of beauty such as would serve lo correct the impression made on them by dull surroundings' Is anvthine; done to educate their powers of imagination '. Much could be done by leading them lo study and rasp the nieanni" of some of the wondrous changes Ljoin 1 ;' on unperceivcd under their very eyes. Hooks cannot do this. Mere information lessons \\ill not suffice. Again, is not the right use of coal economy of fuel a subject deserving most careful attention in the Staffordshire disl 1 1< I but ho\\ many leave .school with any midorstmulin^ of such mallei How many of us here to-ni^ht can sit in front of a lire and call up any mental picture of the plav of forces it embodies '( Such beiiu; our ignorance, it is in no way surprising thai we are so absolutely improvident in our use of coal that we never for one minute think ol the storm of execration we shall reap in eonsotiuenee Irom future generations. Our absolute selfishness in such matters. rarely strikes any one. Your iron works may appear to be dirty, untidy places: but in reality they are full of wondrous nwebinory ; those who help in making and shaping the metal have stram;e and beautiful phenomena brought constantly before their eyes: but how many see anv thin", how manv can enter in imagination into the marvellous changes that are ^oni", on before them or in anv wav realise how full of life, as it were, is the hot iron bar? Surely, if the schools taught how some of these things may bo Understood, tho daily toil would x TIIK WORKSHOP IN TIIK SCHOOL isi appear far less irksome and the work might be more skilfully and reverently done. I believe the question of gla./es lias excited some interest, in this district of la,to would it ever have assumed the aenl-e lonn it did if those who worked with them had done so thoughtfully ' ( )ne last illusfrat ion if we turn to the domestic side of our life, how many among us understand our- selves ? dust consider how little interest we fake in ourselves; how little we do towards studying even our own comfort. The vast majority never ask whether they ma.y not themselves he to blame for the stale of discomfort in which they live. Surely we may well leave, it an open question whether Alfred burnt the cakes or not and turn to the consideration of the best means of preventing our own lingers from being burnt. If we did so, we should perhaps realise that, the power of imagination, insight, is almost crushed out of us in these days and that instead of glorying in the wonders around us we are reduced to wiling away our time by reading rubbish utterly unworthy of attention and from which no useful impulse or inspiration what- ever can IK- Dallied. " Hut whv labour such a, point,," you may say "as practical Knglishnwn we. have little to do with imagination." Hut is this so ( If we- lark imagination, we must, lack imaginative power; if we. lack imaginative; power we cannot progress. There is an interesting article in the Ninflfi-nth Ci'ii/nr// Mrjdiig^jnust become__ ingrained habits from which it is impossible to escape. As a necessary corollary, subjects must be taught in such an order that those which can be treated heuris- / v tically shall be mainly attended to in the first instance. ' Largely in consequence of the discussions that have taken place as to the presumed antagonism of religion and science, the public have been led to misconceive the position of the scientific worker and to disregard the moral value of scientific training. It is very important, therefore, to emphasise the fact that experi- mental work, when properly conducted, affords means of developing character unquestionably superior to any provided by the other subjects in the school curriculum, 256 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xv mainly because it touches upon daily practice at every point as well as on account of its disciplinary value. This argument is seldom brought sufficiently into prominence and it is difficult, moreover, to recognise its force as long as the teaching is so imperfect as at present. I know of few cases in which the value of science has been so clearly acknowledged from this point of view as it was by Mrs. Fenwick Miller, then a member of the School Board for London, in the course of the discussion, at the Health Exhibition Conference in 1884, on a paper read by Miss Beale on the curriculum of a girls' school. After expressing the opinion that women were specially capable of taking scientific principles and drawing from those scientific principles practical rules for daily conduct and that in the future women would have a special work to do with regard to education, Mrs. Miller made the remarkable statement : " She believed the way they would work it out was chiefly by morals, she meant the practical conduct of daily life ; and she believed there would be a development, of which they did not dream, of morals founded upon science, of good conduct based upon reason and upon reasoned facts, such as had never yet been seen and such as they could hardly conceive. She believed that the great work for which the world was waiting was a science from which they could daily draw their life lesson. ..." Among the various ways in which, when properly conducted, heuristic experimental studies conduce to the formation of moral and intellectual character and purpose are the following : In the first place, interest is excited in common objects and common phenomena and these are gradually studied not merely talked about. Children are thus xv THE HEUKISTIC METHOD 257 encouraged to look about them to be properly inquisitive and inquiring. They learn to use a balance, to weigh and measure not things only but deeds and words also for what- ever is done is done exactly ; measurements are made whenever possible and their value as the means of making exact statements is cultivated by use measuring and weighing, in fact, are so constantly practised as to become ingrained habits. Habits of observing correctly are acquired. Neat- ness and care in all work is insisted on. The waste of materials is in every way discouraged and the practice of economy inculcated. The habit of patiently attending to details is acquired. The power of reasoning from observation is culti- vated in every possible way a logical habit of mind is thus developed. The use and value of evidence becomes obvious. And that nothing may be taken for granted is insisted on. The faculty of reasoned judg- ment is cultivated. The power of devising and fitting up apparatus as well as of devising and carrying out experiments is cultivated. Thus handiness is acquired. Surely a sufficient list of possibilities. Many practical problems must be solved, however, before suitable studies can be effectively introduced into schools generally and these results secured. It stands to reason that the instruction can only be properly given by sympathetic cultured teachers capable of engaging in elementary research work ; and if the subject be not in the hands of the head of the school, it must nevertheless be accorded the fullest sympathy and not rated inferior to any. The provision of proper teachers will occasion the s 258 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv greatest difficulty until our colleges and universities take the requirements of teachers into account. The instruction given at Training Colleges at the present time is as anti-heuristic as it is possible to make it, so that little help can be derived from them. There is no doubt indeed that very special steps must be taken to secure a supply of competent teachers of both sexes. But that universal bugbear, the time-table, steps in even where the conditions are otherwise favourable. In the early part of the course there is no difficulty in treating the subject like all others ; but when experiments involving the use of apparatus come to be made, little can be done in the time devoted to an ordinary lesson. In all probability the time difficulty will never be properly met unless a radical change in our method of conducting schools be effected: until a new con- ception of school life is introduced, based on due recognition of the fact that, as Huxley puts it, " the great end of life is not knowledge but action." Let us then guard our future by introducing into our schools an education calculated to promote action. Kesults show that our present system has precisely the opposite effect : the majority of scholars stream towards the clerk's desk and sedentary employment for which their education affords some preparation whilst pro- viding practically none for a life of action. We must not only protest but revolt against and depose those who hold the nation back through want of culture and failure to understand the conditions of the problem. Surely our schools should give an education that is liberal in every sense of the word. To this end, we must give up a large proportion of the desk work done in schools and instead of enforcing xv THE HEUETSTIC METHOD 259 silence encourage our scholars to enter into rational conversation about the work they are doing. Why is it that our children so seldom talk about their school work ? Why is so much trivial conversation indulged in on all hands ? Why is so much trivial literature read ? Is it not because so little encouragement is given to rational conversation and reading at schools ? When our pupils engage together in the work of discovery and are set to find out things themselves, they will naturally be led to discuss their work together, to exchange views, to ask each other's advice : they will be so interested in their work that they will not fail to talk about it. Nothing could be less rational less truly preparatory for the work of life than the system of enforced silence we enjoin ; but it is a necessary outcome of didactic class teaching, extravagant indulgence in the use of books and dis- regard of all tools and weapons other than the pen. In all schools open in the afternoon, after the mid- day meal, I would only allow work to be done in the workshop or workroom a room in which scholars can move about freely and do all kinds of practical work and several mornings in the week should also be spent there. In schools such as Girls' High Schools, where the practice prevails of giving lessons only in the morning, at least two mornings should be given up to workshop exercises. It would be better in such schools to substitute attendance in the school work- shop for some part of the excessive amount of home work exacted. In many schools country schools especially I would have little else but such work or equivalent outdoor exercises in the experimental gardens which will, I believe, in the future, be held to be an essential feature of their equipment. Gradually 260 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv I would have nearly all class-rooms converted into workrooms or workshops. The use of the words workroom and workshop is in itself not unimportant they are good English, 1 believe. Laboratory an un-Saxon term is without significance to English ears in comparison with them ; even its pronunciation gives rise to difficulty. When class teaching is the order of the day, it is easy to exact attention and silence in the workroom by ringing a bell; at other times, teachers would constantly move about, noticing what is being done, criticising and giving brief directions to one group of pupils after another. The system is simply that pursued in many college classes. Young children will work as steadily as their elders, if only they are properly disciplined from the very outset : under almost any conditions if interested in their work. Moreover, when such a system is adopted, an effective punishment will be a few days' banishment from the workroom to the bread-and-water-solitary-confinement atmosphere of the old-fashioned class-room. Of course it will be said : " But such a scheme is purely " chimerical ; it is the dream of an idealist, of a theorist who has " no acquaintance with, nor con- ception of, practical possibilities." Quite so ! But most of my friends who were teachers in schools were good enough to say that the British Association scheme was an impossible one to carry out in practice ; and yet a couple of earnest men, without preconceived views but full of common-sense, in the course of half a dozen years succeeded in applying it to a large number of scholars in public elementary schools, which, surely, are sufficiently difficult and unpromising material to deal with. Many teachers in our great public schools, xv THE HEURISTIC METHOD 261 I know, still hold such a view; but no one expects such schools to reform before the millennium is reached ; they are in the toils of our ancient Universities and too fully engaged in classical scholarship to consider what is good for boys generally. After all it is mainly a question of attitude. The revolution advocated could be effected if only it were seriously entertained ; if the matter were considered not from the point of view of the mere student but on the assumption that school training must be regarded as a preparation for the diversified work of life ; if the heads of schools and university authorities could only be led to see that it is now necessary to substitute " well-practised " for the expression " well- read " in which it is usual to embody the scholastic ideal of proficiency. And after all the inevitable must happen. Why cannot we therefore recognise this and in every way hasten the advent of a reform so urgently needed, especially as the thin end of the wedge is already inserted for among the conclusions formulated in the report of the Technical Education Board of the London County Council to which reference has been made, the following are to be found : 1. That chemistry is a valuable subject for school teaching but that it should not exclude training in mathematics and languages but should with these form part of a general education. 2. That it should be preceded by an elementary course of physics, to be treated as much as possible as exercises in measurements and practical arithmetic. 3. That the work should be always largely practical. 4. That attention should be paid to the style of the daily record of work, so that it may serve as an education in handwriting, grammar arid English composition. 262 PAPEBS ON EDUCATION xv These are sufficiently important recommendations to come from such a Committee and I rejoice to learn that they are already being attended to in many London schools. The last is, if possible, the most important of all, as it clearly contemplates what may well be termed the workshop method of instruction ; but drawing should have been included. At present little attention is given in most schools to handwriting and still less to drawing; handwriting is spoilt rather than improved, as boys and girls are called on to scribble down a vast quantity of notes of lessons dictated to them. In the future this system, let us hope, will give place to a rational one from which hurried writing is abolished and in which every lesson involving writing will be a lesson in writing. Also, however much attention may be lavished at school on grammar and composition, when young people leave school, as a rule, they cannot write six lines of plain English descriptive of common objects or events or of anything they themselves do. Many perhaps have learnt to compose plausible essays on the Imagination, the Infallible or the Infinite ; but a simple personal report, giving an account of the work carried out under their very eyes or even with their own fingers, is entirely beyond their power. It is to be hoped that when scientific method is introduced into schools all this will be changed. Let us^ consider what may be done. .. JAn elementary course of physics, treated as much as possible as exercises in measurement and practical arithmetic, is to come first, we are advised. As it is easy to teach children to use figures, to measure and weigh and do simple arithmetic with the aid of a foot-rule, even before they can either read or write, such work will have been begun xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 263 in the Kindergarten class ; in school it will from the outset take the place of conventional arithmetic. In this work will be included the drawing of lines and simple figures of given dimensions with the aid of T and set squares, accuracy being insisted on ; and colouring will be resorted to whenever possible. During this period, among other things, leaves of various kinds may be collected, their outline traced or drawn, the venation sketched in and the attempt may even be made to colour such sketches appropriately. The children will also be led to take note of the various materials of common occurrence and to collect specimens of these. As soon as flat figures are understood the square, oblong, triangle, etc., " boxes " or solid figures may be built up from these and the idea of volume early established. Such teaching may be varied in an infinite number of ways. No books will be used but the class will gradually write its own book and so come to understand how books are written : for whenever an object has been properly studied, the teacher, instead of dealing with the scholars individually, will call them to order as a class and by judicious questioning will then elicit all that is needed for the description of the work done. The simplest possible account will be written on the blackboard as the questioning proceeds and at the close of the lesson a senior pupil will copy this with a typewriter ; each member of the class will afterwards receive a copy, which will at once be pasted in a book, to be kept for reference and used as a reader. But as soon as they can write, children will be required themselves to make out lists of the things they have collected and as they systematically study these, to note down their origin, use, colour and other properties obvious to them. And then they 264 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv will go on to make experiments to ascertain properties which are not quite obvious. For example, they will be provided with a simple anvil a common flat-iron turned upside down and supported in a box and with the aid of this will find out that metals are more or less soft and may be bent and beaten out ; that other substances are hard and brittle ; and so on. Then, by measuring and weighing regularly shaped blocks, slabs or plates of wood, stone or metal, the differences in density of different stuffs will be dis- covered. The blocks required for these measurements should, at least in part, be fashioned by the class and there is no reason why girls as well as boys should not do such work, as they would thereby learn much of the nature of the materials in common use and also how to manipulate simple tools. The choice of materials for examination would, however, be largely influenced by locality and the special requirements of the scholars; and girls and boys might often be treated somewhat \ differently in this respect. Most children take the greatest interest in finding out what they can about the things that are before their eyes and in common use : if properly led at the outset they soon acquire the habit of helping themselves and of working systematically. By thus selecting some object for study and teaching several subjects at once, so to speak, the time given to the several subjects when taught in distinct lessons may be secured for one lesson, the advantage being that the teacher or teachers where several combine to take one such composite class could then find time to pass round the class and criticise the doings of each pupil. To make such teaching effective, the account of the work done should be most carefully written out by xv THE HEURISTIC METHOD 265 the worker as the work proceeds the dictation of notes by the teacher being regarded as a criminal offence and no rough notes should be permitted. Such accounts will necessarily be brief and it will be easy for the teacher passing through the class to comprehend quickly what has been done, to underline the mistakes made or to give any necessary explana- tion. The child would then be at once informed what was wrong and guided in correcting mistakes and in future work. Under the existing system of correcting exercises out of school, not only is a most grievous burden imposed on teachers to the great detriment of their health and always of their efficiency as teachers for no work is more soul -destroy ing but correc- tions so made never come properly home to the scholars and more often than not are unnoticed. " Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves " may be translated for school purposes into " Attempt little but let that little be as near perfect as possible." If we can but lay the foundations of method at the outset, great things may be done subsequently. Each day let some simple task be set; insist that this is carried out with scrupulous care and equally carefully recorded in very few lines of clear simple language ; whenever possible have illustrative drawings introduced into the record ; teach spelling by calling attention to mistakes and requiring these to be corrected by reference to the dictionary a book which should be in constant use but which is rarely consulted except by those who have grown ashamed of spelling badly ; ask for the meanings of certain words used in the record and have various parts of speech selected ; even go so far as to require certain words to be translated 266 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xv into French. As the work proceeds, more and more difficult tasks may be set. In later work, when the problem stage is reached, a certain order in entering the record of work should always be insisted on. First should come a clear statement of motive of what is to be attempted, what it is desired to find out. This should be followed by an explanation or justification of the particular form given to the experiment. The why and wherefore being thus made clear, an exact account of what is done should follow ; then would come the observations made and the results obtained. The con- clusions to be drawn and their bearing on the, question under discussion having been most carefully pointed out, the next experiment should be led up to. Throughout, the language should be such as to make the account a personal one, leaving no doubt that something which had been done and witnessed by the writer was described. At present every boy and girl from school, when asked to describe something, will tell you to do this or that ; or that if you do so and so, this and that will happen. They simply repeat the words used by their teachers. If training can be given in schools on the lines above indicated, it will be simply invaluable as a preparation for the work of life. Of course there are many difficulties to be over- come. To teach scientifically will always be more difficult than to teach mechanically. But scientific teaching not the teaching of science is imperatively demanded of us and we must find out how to give it. The problem is one that can only be solved by trial by heuristic means. As showing how such work has been begun in xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 267 Elementary Schools, I append (Appendix C) a short account by Mr. Heller of the method Mr. Gordon and he have adopted. In the introduction to the Headmasters' Syllabus of Instruction in Elementary Science, it is stated, it will be noticed, that the course is intended for all boys and girls commencing the study of science. This provision is one of very great importance from an educational point of view, as its acceptance involves the admission that other branches of experimental science cannot be usefully studied until the elements of physics and chemistry have been mastered. This principle, I venture to think, is beyond all question although I fear there are yet many by whom it will not be regarded as established. Let us hope that even these will gradually become convinced as they reflect that practice in measurement is of altogether fundamental importance as the foundation of all scientific procedure ; and that as life is one unbroken series of chemical changes the comprehension of the nature of chemical change is also of the utmost value to all. Parts of the course, however, are undoubtedly of less importance than others to the majority of students and their consideration may well be either postponed or even omitted in favour of extensions of the course in other directions. The part of the physical course dealing with forces is in this latter category. Although the discovery of the composition of water is of the very highest value as an educational exercise, for most purposes of ordinary life the knowledge that water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen does not come into account such knowledge is essential only to the engineer and 268 PAPEES ON EDUCATION X v other specialists. Therefore, if required to omit any part of the exercises, I should not hesitate to postpone those leading up to the discovery of the composition of water in order to retain all relating to the study of air, fire and earth, the last as typified by chalk. But the comprehension of the nature of food materials and of their function as heat producers, etc., is of the utmost consequence to all ; their study should on no account be omitted, if possible, and the composition of water might well be discovered before attempting their examination. With these limitations, both the series of exercises specified are of extreme value, on accoujit of the discipline they afford as well as of their bearing on matters of everyday importance affecting all alike. But to make the course in any way complete, from the point of view here put forward, it should be supplemented by a series of exercises calculated to excite an interest in plant growth and serving as an introduction to the comprehension of physiological processes. Parenthetically, I may point out that the teaching of physiology proper in schools, except to really advanced pupils, cannot be too strongly depre- cated. There is no greater fraud on public credulity practised in schools than that involved in teaching this subject. It is true that botany has been introduced of late years, more especially into girls' schools, as a means of satisfying the growing popular demand for science ; but unfortunately the methods adopted have in too many cases been such as to deprive the teaching of all value as training in scientific method. In fact, the reason for selecting it has frequently been that it could be taught without special apparatus. xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 269 A suitable practical course for the purpose here contemplated remains to he devised. Professor Marshall Ward, however, has, at least, taken the first step towards framing a scheme in a syllabus which he originally prepared for the Major Scholarships Com- mittee and which is now included in the programme of the Joint Scholarships Board Examinations. In order that his suggestions may not remain buried in the oblivion of a set of scholarships regulations, I venture to reproduce them here, merely remarking that they seem to me to afford a capable teacher ample material for a series of intensely interesting and instructive heuristic exercises some of which might be carried out coincidently with the earlier lessons of the elementary science course and others after the problems in the chemical section had been worked through. The possibility nay, the need of adjusting the " science " exercises to meet special and local require- ments has been implied if not directly adverted to in the course of this article. It is in this direction that there is so much opportunity for capable teachers to display originality and scope for their talent. On the human side we all have like requirements although the needs and powers of some extend further than those of others ; but as workers and as men and women we are called on to execute varied tasks. These considerations must govern our education and regulate the extent to which it is made alike for all and the extent to which it is diversified. It is to facilitate such treatment of the subject that it is imperative that the fullest understanding be arrived at of the object in view in introducing practical heuristic studies into schools : that it be 270 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv recognised that it is not intended to teach any separate branch of science but that our one purpose is to give training in scientific method as a means of developing faculties at present rarely cultivated but which are essential to the successful performance of all ordinary duties. The general public will be with us instead of against us when this is once understood : ceasing to regard science as an extra, they will welcome it as a means of making school education a more practical preparation than it is at present for the work of life. But we shall have revolutionised our entire school system in attaining to this end. It may be desirable that before concluding 1 should briefly refer to the special provision to be made for experimental work in schools ; but rather by way of caution : for on this subject there has been much misunderstanding. Architects knowing nothing of the requirements have too frequently built and at the present time are building school laboratories which are mere slavish copies of those provided in colleges where technical education is given ; and most unfortunately, following the same example, some public authorities have declined to recognise laboratories unless provided with sinks innumerable and other elaborate fittings; consequently, not only has great expense been incurred unnecessarily but buildings have been erected altogether unsuitable for the elementary teaching proper in schools. Instead of being put on the common - place footing it should properly occupy, experimental work has therefore necessarily been regarded as a somewhat expensive luxury to introduce into a school. And this will ever continue to be the case until no doubt in the dim future governing bodies see that it is greatly to xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 271 their advantage to consult those of us who are really capable of advising in such matters. When we are directly appealed to and asked to act as professional advisers and architects are required but to carry into execution schemes arranged with and sanctioned by us, for which we are held primarily responsible, there will be some chance of more economical and practical provision being made. Undoubtedly we too are sure to make mistakes and like doctors we shall differ considerably among ourselves ; but we can scarcely fail to display some understanding of our business and to appreciate the relative advantages of the various suggestions made as well as judge of the suitability of the materials proposed. It is useless for architects to go about as they or their representatives often do at present, inspecting laboratory after laboratory, without ever properly grasping the meaning of what they see consulting one teacher after another, until bewildered by the apparent diversity of opinion with which they meet, they return home in despair and with the assist- ance of a clerk or draughtsman in the office do the wrong thing for the actual purpose in view. For work such as is contemplated in this article there must be ample room provided but otherwise there need be no very special arrangements made. Benches of the kitchen-table type, which need not even be fixed, suffice for nearly all purposes. These must be provided with gas but not with water, one or two long sinks made of wood elongated washing- tubs and conveniently situated being sufficient to meet all the requirements of a large class ; more are only provocative of endless trouble and untidiness due to constant spilling of water, besides which they engender a wasteful habit of squandering water which 272 PAPERS ON EDUCATION X v cannot be too severely deprecated : in fact, when the day comes that we shall have taught all children at school how to wash out flasks, test-tubes, etc., properly and with the minimum expenditure of water we shall have introduced a truly scientific procedure into our teaching as well as into household economy. In most schools, together with movable benches such as have been referred to, it will be desirable to provide one or more benches fixed against the wall of the room, having cupboards fixed in the space underneath. Four cupboards may conveniently be constructed in two tiers under the length of bench provided for a single worker ; a tray which will slide in and out may with advantage be fitted at the top' of each such cupboard. It is quite unnecessary to construct the bench tops of expensive hard wood any well- seasoned wood will suffice; but whatever the wood, it should be made impervious to water, acid, etc., by ironing in paraffin wax. As operations involving the production of un- healthy or unpleasant fumes need very rarely be conducted, a single draft closet is sufficient. This may conveniently be fixed behind a long narrow demonstration table placed on a raised platform at one end of the room. A considerable amount of wall space behind this table should be converted into a blackboard by pinning against it by means of a light wooden frame- work the specially prepared black canvas which is sold for this purpose. All free wall space should have upright battens affixed to it at regular intervals, to which shelves may be attached wherever necessary and hooks screwed in for hanging up things. As to apparatus, it should be gradually provided xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 273 to meet requirements as they arise ; every effort should be made to utilise ordinary articles medicine and pickle bottles, jam-pots, saucepans, etc. and to construct apparatus in the workroom ; for this latter purpose a carpenter's bench and tools, vice and files, a small lathe, an anvil and even a small forge should, whenever possible, form part of the equipment. Infinite injury is done at the present day, invaluable opportunities of imparting training are lost, by pro- viding everything ready made. But there are certain articles which must be provided notably centimetre - foot - rules, drawing- boards, T and set squares and balances. The best rule to provide is one made of steel, graduated on one face to millimetres and centimetres on the one edge and to inches on the other; if the inches are subdivided into twelfths, an opportunity is afforded of contrasting decimals with duodecimals. It is advis- able to have the rule graduated on its second face into inches and tenths and lower decimals and sub- divisions on the one edge, and into inches and 16ths, 32nds, etc., on the other. Such a rule is a perpetual object lesson ; its possessor cannot help visualising twelve inches and thirty and a half centi- metres as practically equivalent lengths. But even more fundamentally important, if possible, and altogether indispensable and essential as the primary weapon of heuristic instruction is a proper balance. There is no question that in the future the of efficiency in a school will be the extent to which suitable balances are provided and used. " Gott hat alles nach Zahlmass und Gewicht geordnet," are words which ever and again flash before my eyes, recalling the time, over thirty years 274 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xv ago, when I first saw them written on the wall of the chemical lecture theatre of the University of Leipzig. They express a truth but too rarely realised a truth which we should seek to impress in principle on all children as the foundation of thrift; the balance, in fact, is an all-powerful, indeed the only instrument which directly enables us to inculcate thrifty habits. For school use, there are no balances to compare with those made by Becker and Sons, of Rotterdam, That sold by their London agents, Townson and Mercer, of Bishopsgate Street, as No. 66, at a cost of 35s., is the one most to be recommended. Such balances are most conveniently placed on separate small shelves, supported on brackets attached to the walls ; when not in use, the balance must always be kept covered either by a light wooden case or by one made of stout cardboard and covered with bookbinder's cloth ; this is much better than an immovable glazed case with rising front, as it allows of far greater freedom in use. If properly used and looked after, a balance will last for years. To abandon a few of the worthless text-books with which scholars are now so overburdened will in itself be an advance and if an instrument by the use of which character is neces- sarily developed be substituted for even a single one of the conventional soul-destroying manuals now in use, we shall have still greater cause to congratulate ourselves. It will not do to use any kind of balance ; the common see-saw suffices for the demonstration of principles and so long as nothing more is in view no other instrument than a see-saw is needed. Nor is the balance to be used merely as a means of obtaining fairly accurate quantitative results. Mr. T. G. Rooper, xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 275 one of Her Majesty's inspectors of schools, in giving evidence recently before the Irish Commission on Manual Training in Primary Schools, referred to a balance which he had himself constructed at a cost of 2d., and spoke of the accuracy of the results he had obtained with it. This may well be, but such an instrument never does and never can inspire the respect which is paid to a well-finished sightly instrument by nearly all young children. The balance, let me again insist, is to be regarded as an instrument of moral culture, to be treated with utmost care and reverence. But probably when authorities have grasped and applied this fundamental article of the heuristic creed, it will no longer be necessary to urge that scientific method be taught in schools generally: attention will then be paid to the uniform development of all the intellectual faculties, because the, as yet, barely estab- lished art of education will have attained to the dignity of a true science. APPENDIX A ELEMENTARY SCIENCE PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY In preparing the accompanying Syllabus of a course of instruction in Elementary Science the Committee have been actuated by the wish to indicate both to teacher and to examiner what experiments can suitably be performed by beginners. A large proportion of the time given to the subject should be occupied by the pupils in performing actual measurements themselves ; demonstrations are not excluded but should occupy 276 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv a secondary place ; text-books, however, should be avoided as far as possible. This Course is intended for all boys and girls commencing the study of science. It represents, in the opinion of the Com- mittee, a suitable commencement for those who continue the subject and indicates the manner in which it may be made of true educational value to those who do not pursue it further. The first four sections of the Physics Syllabus, involving measurements of length, area, volume and mass, should under any circumstances be taken first ; they constitute a course of practical arithmetic and geometry exercises and give infinite opportunity for problems upon ordinary surroundings. The remaining sections of the Physics may be taken alone or simultaneously with the Chemistry Course and the age at which it should be commenced may be left at the discretion of the teacher. ^__ It is not intended that the teaching should be limited, either to the experiments here given or to the order in which the different subjects are stated. It is hoped that these experiments will be sufficient to indicate the lines on which the teaching should be based and to assist the teacher in inventing others. ELEMENTARY PHYSICS The graphic and experimental work in the following Syllabus is intended to serve as an introduction to physical science, bearing in mind its necessary co-ordination with general mathe- matical work. With this object in view, it is essential that the instruction should be given in a strictly logical order and the attempt be made to give a proof of each step taken, following as far as possible a proper order of sequence. In the mensuration exercises and, in fact, in carrying out all the work of the Syllabus, no formulae of any kind should be used. The exercises are arranged so that pupils may themselves discover the facts and be led to formulate definitions : and this they must be encouraged to do in every possible way, that they may become acquainted with some of the fundamental properties of matter and fundamental natural laws ; and that they may be led to understand the reasoning used in deducing definite con- clusions and generalisations from the results of their own observations and discoveries. xv THE HEUKISTIC METHOD 277 The apparatus required for the mensuration exercises is tracing-paper, a rule graduated to inches and tenths and to centimetres and millimetres, a pair of compasses, set and T- squares and a protractor. Although the mensuration course may be taken in an ordinary class-room, it is advisable to give such instruction in a laboratory, where the pupil is surrounded with apparatus and is in an atmosphere of measurement. The hydrostatics, heat and part of the mensuration should, as far as possible, be taken in a laboratory suitably fitted ; but a large number of the experiments can be done in an ordinary class- room. The fittings for a suitable laboratory are very simple. All that is wanted are tables 8 ft. by 4 ft., with gas laid on to the centre. At the sides of the room and near each table there should be a water supply. For the mensuration, hydrostatics and heat, the apparatus required consists of sets of scales weigh- ing from 500 gm. to O'l gm., a metre scale graduated to milli- metres, tin cans, tin or copper pots, glass tubing, blocks of wood, cylinders or cubes of iron, copper and other material. The apparatus should be provided in sets, if possible, one set for two pupils working together. 1 . Measurement of Length. Books, pens, pencils, floor, walls and all available materials should be measured in English and metric units. The straight- ness of a line should be tested by means of tracing-paper and comparisons of ruled lines made by means of scales and dividers. Triangles and other straight-lined figures may be drawn upon paper and their sides measured. Curved lines should be measured by means of threads and by rolling a disc along them ; the distance round cylindrical surfaces, such as that of a glass bottle, should be measured by twisting thread round them and the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference dis- covered. The use of the plumb bob and of the spirit-level having been explained, the character of perpendicular and inclined lines, squares, parallelograms, etc., should be discovered with their aid. 2. Measurement of Area. UNIT OF AREA. The square inch and square cm. should be drawn. Areas of squares and oblongs should be found by drawing upon paper and dividing into units, by drawing upon "squared" paper and counting squares or by cutting out in 278 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xv paper and weighing. The same methods can be adopted for finding the areas of triangles, parallelograms, trapeziums and polygonal figures, care being taken that the areas of the first three are reduced to area of equivalent oblongs, all formulae being carefully avoided. The principles of land surveying and the use of off-sets in the division of irregular areas into figures already understood should be explained and illustrated with examples to be drawn and worked by the student. AREA OF CIRCLE. Circles and their equivalent figures (equal to 3^ times square on radius) should be drawn upon paper, cut out and weighed ; or circular discs of paper may be weighed and compared with weight of unit of area of same paper ; or the drawing upon squared paper may be adopted. In this way the relations between area of circles to their diameter should be ascertained. SURFACE AREA OF SOLIDS. The surface area of common solids, as oblong blocks, cubes, cylinders, prisms, cones, etc., should be determined by wrapping round with paper and after- wards developing and measuring the areas of the paper by methods already used. 3. Measurement of Volume. To gain an idea of their dimensions, single units, viz., 1 c.c. or 1 cub. in. should be cut from soap or wood and a cubic decimetre or litre made from cardboard. The volumes of rectangular blocks, prisms and cylinders should be measured. The use of burettes and graduated vessels having been learnt, the volumes of irregular solids should be found by placing them in liquid in a graduated vessel. The volumes of various simple solids should be expressed in terms of the volume of their equivalent prism or cylinder ; thus the volume of a cone should be ascertained to be one-third the volume of a cylinder of same base and height and this can be done either by weighing or by use of graduated vessel. 4. Measurement of Mass. Units of mass and weight having been brought under notice, a lever should be constructed from a boxwood rule laid over a fulcrum and its laws discovered by suspending weights at different distances. The use and construction of the balance having been explained, the blocks, etc., previously measured should be weighed and their density found, as well as definite xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 279 volumes of water and other liquids measured and weighed. Graphic representations of densities should be constructed with the data thus obtained. Lastly, the construction and use of the spring balance should be studied and the difference between it and the balance made clear. 5. Densities and relative densities should be found and com- pared by weighing blocks or cylinders of different solids (wood and metal), the volumes of which can be calculated or found as above. A 2 oz. bottle having had a nick filed along the stopper, the weight of water which it contains should be ascertained, hence its volume in c.c. It should then be filled with other liquids and weighed and thus their density discovered. The volume of small solids as shot, nails, etc. should be found from the weight of water which they displace. 6. Measurement of Thrust and of Pressure, of Putt and of Tension. Distinction between Solids, Liquids and Gases. Attention should be directed to the elasticity and plasticity of solids by experiments upon india-rubber, steel and copper springs or rods, pieces of lead, putty, cork, etc. Experiments should be made on the flow of sand, pitch, treacle, water, etc., leading up to the discovery of the horizontal surface of a liquid at rest and to the distinction between solids, liquids and gases and the mobility of particles of gases shown by their diffusion. Fluid pressure should be expressed as " inches of water " or "Ibs. weight per unit area." The pressure of the gas in the laboratory should be measured in inches of water with a U-tube. Water or other liquids and mercury should be poured into different arms of U-tubes having the two arms of different sizes. Pressures at different depths under water should be measured with a U-tube containing mercury. The U-tube should now be used for determination of relative densities of liquid. Air should be proved to have weight by boiling water in a Florence flask, weighing, closing it while full of steam, allowing air to enter and again weighing. It should be proved, by using an air-pump, that air exerts pressure and the principle of the barometer should be explained. A siphon barometer, with the short limb adjustable, having been constructed, daily observa- 280 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv tions should be made and plotted on square paper. Boyle's law should be discovered for pressures greater and less than atmospheric pressure. The action of the syringe, the suction- pump and force-pump should be investigated. 7. Measurement of the Farce which a Liquid exerts upon a body immersed in it. A block whose volume is known should be weighed in air and in water ; the weight of water displaced should then be found by measurement and shown to be equal to the " up- thrust." This should be done with solids heavier and lighter than water, wholly and partly immersed in different liquids and thus the force exerted on a body immersed in a fluid made clear. The laws of floating bodies should be discovered by using a block of wood made to float at different depths by addi- tion of lead or a test-tube containing a paper scale and shot which is adjusted to cause floating at different depths. These principles should be applied to the determination of densities of solids and liquids and the relation between weight, volume and fraction immersed in the case of floating bodies should be shown to lead up to the use of the hydrometer. 8. Measurement of Temperature. Observations on the melting and boiling points of water having been made, the construction of the thermometer should be explained and the fixed points noted. Familiarity with the use of the thermometer in its various forms maximum, minimum, clinical, etc. should be gained and daily observations of temperature made, and plotted on squared paper. In order to study radiation, a vessel of water containing a thermometer should be coated with different substances lamp- black, tin-foil, etc. and the time taken to cool through various temperatures observed. In order to study absorption, the thermometer should be allowed to cool while supported in a vessel coated inside with various substances. Conduction should be illustrated by the melting of wax on bars of different metals of the same size. 9. Measurement of Quantity of Heat. Known weights of water at different temperatures should be mixed, the resultant temperature noted and the units of heat xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 281 gained and lost compared and hence the capacity for heat of the calorimeter is found. Different substances having been heated to 100 degrees by placing them in a test-tube in the mouth of a flask containing boiling water, they should be placed in water in the calorimeter, their heat capacity thus measured, and the equivalent mass of water determined directly by pouring in water at 100 degrees C. Pieces of dried ice should be placed in warm water and steam passed into cold water and the discovery made that heat is absorbed in producing changes of state. The terms " specific heat " and " latent heat " should be explained. 10. Measurement of Vapour Pressure. Experiments should be made on evaporation by finding the loss of weight from a dish of water day by day and the daily changes in weight of a bag of seaweed or a flannel roll. Observations should be made on condensation of vapour, on the distillation of water and of mixed liquids and on the use of the wet and dry bulb thermometer. 11. Measurement of Force in Ibs. or grams weight and their Graphic Representation. The relation between tension and extension should be dis- covered by stretching an india-rubber cord and a spring-balance should be graduated. 1 2. Resolution of Forces. Resultant and components : Parallelogram of forces. Ex- periments should be performed with the aid of a board provided with pulleys, having cords passing over them knotted at one end and having weights on the other. The direction of the cords should be marked off on drawing-paper placed behind them. All exercises should be worked practically in this way as well as graphically. 13. Equilibrium of Three Forces. Triangle of forces. Experiments should be performed with the board mentioned in 12, using three weights and cords. The magnitude of the weights may be given or the directions of the cords. Numerous experiments should be performed on triangle of forces, as with model of crane, where jib and tie are fitted with spring balances, two strings attached to balances 282 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv and tied to a weight, the angle between the strings being varied, simple roof truss, etc. The extension of this principle to the pull in a cord having a number of weights attached at different points and the two ends fixed to a bench and with spring balances between the weights, should be shown, thus introducing the " funicular polygon." 1 4. Equilibrium of Four or more Forces. Polygon of forces. This is a natural extension of the last- named principle and is worked experimentally in the same way. The model of the crane is used with the chain dividing the angle between the jib and tie. 15. Parallel Forces. Reaction at support of beams. The principle of the funicular polygon should be applied to finding the resultant of a number of parallel forces or the resolution of a single force into two parallel forces as at the supports of a beam. Experi- ments to illustrate the first of these can be performed with a lever supported on or by a spring balance and with weights attached at different distances and as to the second by a lever suspended by spring balances at each end, and with a movable weight. All experiments should be verified by a graphic construction. 1 6. Centre of Gravity. Experiments should be performed in balancing rods and circular, triangular and irregular plates of wood or cardboard. Triangular plates should be suspended by a string from each corner and the intersection of the strings shown to be the balancing point. Pieces of wood-board shaped to triangles, parallelograms, etc., should be placed on a board and the effect of inclining this ascertained. Similar experiments should be made with oblong blocks of wood, cylinders and cones. In this way the student should discover the position and properties of the centre of gravity. 17. Principle of Moments, Levers. Meaning and use of moment. Numerous experiments can be performed on wood levers, divided along one edge into inches and having a simple movable or fixed knife edge to xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 283 form a fulcrum. Weights can be attached by strings. A bell crank lever can be made with a spring balance at end of short arm, the long arm being graduated for weights at different distances from the fulcrum. The student should discover and prove the principle of moments, with varying loads and distances and with the different levers, first by neglecting the weight of levers, and then by considering their weight. 18. Simple Machines. Principle of work. Units of work. Meaning and use of words "agent," "energy," "power," "machine." Simple machines, as pulley blocks (one, two or three sheaves), differential chain pulley, screw jack, wheel and axle, windlass, can be fitted up to permit of raising load by weights (called the power) placed in an axle pan. The velocity ratio of each machine should be found by actually measuring the distance moved by the power and load and this should be done several times and in different ways. The power required to overcome different loads should then be found by experiment and the mechanical advantage and efficiency of the machines should be calculated. The results should be plotted upon squared paper in the form of curves. ELEMENTARY CHEMISTRY SYNOPSIS 1. The object of the course of instruction indicated in this Syllabus is to impart, not only information, but chiefly the knowledge of method. 2. It involves the study of : Air and nitrogen. Combustion and oxygen. Hydrogen and water. Chalk and lime. Carbon and its importance in organic substances. 3. The practical work consists in accurately describing given substances, and in quantitative experiments on the following subjects : (a) The alteration in weight of substances on heating. 284 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv (6) The measurement of the volume and weight of gases given off on dissolving substances in an acid or on heating. (c) The production of crystallised substances and the estimation of water of crystallisation. (d) The weight of carbon dioxide and of water produced by burning organic compounds. (e) Volumetric experiments in alkalimetry without the use of formulae. (/) The volumetric measurement of chalk in water. 4. All formulas and equations, all ideas of molecules and atomic weights, are avoided in this course and chemical names are only introduced in proportion as their meaning can be established. SYLLABUS While the main object of the course should be to train students to solve simple problems by experiment to work accurately and with a clearly defined purpose and to reason from observation the instruction given should eventually lead them to comprehend the nature of air, water, "fire" earth and food. 1. Candidates should be made familiar with most of the common substances occurring naturally (such as sand, flint and quartz, chalk, limestone and calc spar, clay and slate, gypsum, galena, hrematite and clay iron ore, iron pyrites, tin stone) and with the various metals and other substances in common use (such as the common acids, soda, salt, alum, whitening, lime, sulphur, sugar, starch, fats, oils, bone, different woods, charcoal, coke, alcohol, turpentine, etc.). 2. They should be able to describe the appearance and other obvious properties of such substances and, in the case of many, to state what they are principally used for and to give some account of their origin ; they should know if anything happens to those with which they are most familiar under ordinary conditions in contact with air or water or when burnt and be able to describe what happens in ordinary language, without, however, attempting to give any chemical explanation. 3. They should have determined the relative density of most of the substances mentioned. xv THE HEUEISTIO METHOD 285 4. They should have examined their behaviour with water and other liquids, including acids ; and have learnt how substances such as salt, soda and alum can be crystallised from water. 5. Different natural waters should have been evaporated and the presence of dissolved solid matter ascertained and its amount Purified water should have been prepared by distilla- tion. The appearance of air bubbles on heating water should have been noted and the amount of " air " dissolved in water approximately determined. 6. They should have made simple quantitative experiments on the behaviour of typical organic, mineral and metallic substances when burnt or strongly heated. 7. The study of changes such as attend the rusting of iron and the burning of ordinary combustibles should then have been entered on and a series of experiments made whereby they had been led to discover that the air is concerned in such changes but not as a whole that, in fact, it contains an active con- stituent ; the extent to which this constituent is present should have been determined and they should have been led to appreciate the general nature of the changes which attend its withdrawal. Attention should have been directed to the charac- ter of the products, to the resemblance which many of them bear to earths and to their behaviour towards water, acids, etc. In some cases, e.g., copper and lead, they should have ascertained the extent to which the active constituent of air is fixed when the substance is burnt, thus becoming familiar with the existence of compound substances formed from definite proportions of substances differing altogether from them in properties. 8. Attention having been called to the production in large quantities of the substances formed on burning various metals (iron scale, copper scale, litharge, red lead, zinc white), the attempt should be made to separate the active constituent of air known to be present in these by strongly heating them, such attempt being based on the previous observation that some earthy substances (e.g., chalk) lose in weight when strongly heated. 9. It having been previously observed that when metals such as iron and zinc dissolve in acids, a gas is given off which burns, this gas should now be studied with the object of finding out what happens when it burns. Having ascertained that it affords a liquid when burnt, they should < have compared this liquid 286 PAPERS ON EDUCATION X y with water which it resembles in obvious properties by as- certaining its density, freezing-point and boiling-point. Having thus discovered that water is formed on burning the gas in question, they should have been led to discover that oxygen is also concerned in its formation and to produce it from oxides such as those of lead and copper. They should then have made quantitative experiments from which they could infer the com- position of water by weight. The properties of water should have been contrasted with those of its components and the production of heat as a consequence of the association of the two gases and in other cases of association consequent on and attend- ing burning should have been thoroughly grasped in fact, at this stage, a full general understanding of the nature of com- bustion should have been arrived at and the evolution of a definite amount of heat, as a consequence of the formation of a definite amount of the compound substance, should have been made thoroughly clear to them. 10. Passing next to the study of earthy substances, chalk should have been chosen for examination, on account of its resemblance to substances formed on burning metals, such as zinc, etc., in air. It should have been carefully contrasted with lime, to bring out the fact that it is profoundly changed when burnt. The conversion into lime should have been studied quantitatively. Its behaviour towards acids should then have been examined and the discovery made that the gas which escapes is equal in amount to the loss which it suffers when burnt to lime ; this being suggestive of the conclusion that "chalk-stuff" is composed of "lime-stuff" and the gas in question, experiments should have been made to reproduce chalk-stuff from lime-stuff and the gas. The discovery of the composition of chalk-stuff in this manner should also involve the accidental discovery of the formation of chalk-stuff on exposure of lime-water to air and the consequent discovery of the presence of " chalk-stuff gas " in air. Similar experiments should have been made with washing- soda, involving the discovery that it contains water of crystallisa- tion nnd that it resembles chalk-stuff in composition. The definite manner in which it acts on acids should have been established by titration experiments, its use in softening water should also be referred to and examined into and experiments made to determine hardness by soap solution. 11. Attention should then have been directed to the study xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 287 of common organic materials sugar, starch, gluten (from flour) and white of egg being taken as typical examples. The presence of " coal-stuff " or carbon in all of these having been inferred from their behaviour when incompletely burnt, the presence of hydrogen and oxygen will be indicated by their yielding water when destructively distilled. 12. The formation on burning carbon of the gas previously obtained from chalk and found in the air having been dis- covered by experiments in which carbon had been burnt in oxygen and the product compared with the gases previously studied, its production from carbonaceous substances generally should have been observed. The composition of the gas should have been ascertained. The conversion of sugar entirely into this gas and water on combustion having been demonstrated, albumenoid substances should have been burnt and the discovery made of the presence in them of nitrogen in addition. EXPERIMENTS TO BE CARRIED OUT 1, 2, and 3. Examination of common substances by the eye and by simple tests requiring nothing more than very ordinary appliances e.g., scratching, powdering or hammering, wetting with water and determination of simple physical constants, as density, boiling-point, etc. (Great importance should be attached by the examiner to ability to satisfactorily examine and describe substances and this should be tested practically.) 4. Behaviour of common substances towards common liquids, e.g. water, spirit, turpentine, dilute acids. (Such experiments may well be carried out with drops of liquid on watch-glasses.) 5. Discovery of dissolved matter (solid) in natural waters. Distillation of water and other liquids. Collection of air given off on boiling water (by filling a two-gallon tin can provided with a delivery tube with water, and heating, etc.). 6. Effect of heat on substances generally. (Common sub- stances, other than metals, should be heated on platinum foil. Pieces of metals may be held in a flame or supported on charcoal, and organic substances may be held by a platinum wire.) The amount of ashes given by a few combustible organic substances a dried vegetable, wheat, dried meat and bone. Substances such as sand, chalk, etc., should be heated strongly in porcelain 288 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv crucibles and any change in weight ascertained. Weighed quantities of several metals e.g. copper, lead and silver should be heated in clay dishes (such as are made by Morgan and Co., of Battersea) if possible, in a muffle furnace, or over a blow-pipe flame and any alteration in weight, appearance, etc., noted. 7. Discovery that air is concerned in common changes, such as the rusting of iron, combustion, etc., and that its activity is due to one constituent. The proposal having been made to study the rusting of iron as an instance of a change of very common occurrence, a careful comparison should be. made between iron and iron rust, including the determination of their relative densities, as it is noteworthy that rust is appar- ently a light substance in comparison with iron. It being found that rust is considerably less dense than iron, in answer to the question, What does this suggest? it may be said that perhaps the iron loses something in rusting. The following are then appropriate experiments : a. A weighed quantity of iron borings or turnings or small French nails is wetted, allowed to rust, dried and weighed ; the mass is then broken up, wetted, exposed, dried and again weighed, this being done several times. 6. Clean French nails are corked up in a medicine bottle full of water. c. A muslin bag full of iron borings is exposed in air over water, this experiment being made several times. d. Iron (coarse powder or bright fine wire) is strongly heated in a tube through which air is passed, and any alteration in weight ascertained. e. Fine copper wire is similarly treated, a comparison ex- periment being made in which the copper is heated inside a sealed tube. /. A candle is burnt in air over water, then a jet of gas, a spirit or petroleum lamp, sulphur and phosphorus. g. Phosphorus is burnt on a tile under a shade. h. A small piece of carefully dried phosphorus is burnt inside a dry pear-shaped flask full of air shut in by a rubber stopper ; the flask is subsequently opened under water and the amount of water which enters is measured and compared with that which the flask will hold. The results of several such experiments are compared. By weighing the flask both before and after burning the xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 289 phosphorus proof is obtained that the heat which escapes is not material. i. A small stick of phosphorus is exposed in air over water. Iron turnings are subsequently exposed in the residual air from this experiment and phosphorus in like manner in the residual air from experiment e. k. Phosphorus is placed near to the end of a short tube packed with asbestos ; the tube having been weighed, air is slowly drawn through the tube and the phosphorus fired ; care must be taken to prevent the escape of fume. When the phosphorus is burnt out the tube is allowed to cool and is then weighed. N.B. The tube should be about in. wide and 6 in. long, drawn out at one end. Fibrous asbestos is carefully pushed in to form a respirator, then a piece of phos- phorus and then a ^ in. plug of asbestos. The air is sucked through by means of an aspirator with a screw clip and it is well to insert a wash-bottle between it and the tube. I. The gas left on allowing iron to rust in air is passed over heated copper. m. The extent to which finely divided copper increases in weight when fully burnt is determined. 8. The various solids obtained by burning metals (magnesium, zinc, lead, iron), in air their appearance their production on a large scale special behaviour of lead ; litharge and red lead, how produced and converted into each other ; their behaviour when heated strongly tested by the balance ; separation of gas on heating red lead ; discovery that this gas supports combustion and that it acts on copper as air does. ^Reproduction of air on mixing this active gas with the inactive gas (nitrogen) left on exposure of iron in air. Formation of an acid solution when the solid formed on burning phosphorus is dissolved in water explanation of the name oxygen. Preparation of oxygen from potassium chlorate ; combustion of various substances in it. 9. Dissolution of magnesium, zinc and iron by diluted muriatic acid or oil of vitriol the amount of gas given off on dissolving known weights of magnesium and zinc the amount of zinc dissolved by a known weight of acid the amount of salt formed. Combustion of the gas the formation of a condensible product of combustion collection of the liquid (the gas may be U 290 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xv burnt from a small clay-pipe jet close underneath a globular flask or retort, through which cold water is slowly circulated, so arranged that as the water condenses on the flask it drops off into a small beaker) comparison of its properties with those of water (i.e., melting-point of solid into which it is converted by freezing and its boiling-point) and its consequent identifica- tion as water. Hence the name hydrogen. Combustibility of hydrogen in oxygen but not in nitrogen withdrawal of oxygen from red lead and copper oxide by hydrogen and formation of water the amount of water formed from a given weight of copper oxide. The obvious properties of water and of the other oxides studied in comparison with those of their con- stituents. The explanation of combustion afforded by the fore- going experiments. 10. Comparison of chalk (whitening) with lime slaking of lime determination of the increase in weight solubility of chalk and lime ; preparation of lime-water. Loss" in weight when chalk is strongly heated quantities of about a gram may without difficulty be " burnt " in a small porcelain crucible over a good Fletcher burner and still more easily over a blow-pipe flame a French petroleum blow-pipe burner is sold by Townson and Mercer which is admirably adapted for this experiment or in a muffle. Action of acids on chalk the gas incombustible measurement of the amount given off comparison of its density with that of hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen deter- mination of the weight given off on dissolving chalk in acids. Exposure of lime in atmosphere of gas from chalk and acid its reconversion into chalk-stuff established by the behaviour of the product to acids, the change in weight which attends the conversion and by the behaviour of the product on ignition. Examination of the solid formed on exposing a considerable quantity of lime-water to the air e.g., its behaviour towards acids, determination of the extent to which it loses on ignition and of the amount of gas evolved on dissolving it. Examination of washing-soda conversion of the clear crystal into a white powder the loss in weight attending this change reconversion of the white powder into clear crystals by crystallisation from water separation of liquid from the crystals by distillation and its identification as water. Action of acids on soda examination and identification of the gas the amount given off titration of soda solution by acid solutions and discovery of the definite character of the xv THE HEUBISTIC METHOD 291 action separation of product from solution by crystallisation the weight of product formed. Production of chalk-stuff on adding soda solution to lime-water or to solution prepared from chalk and an acid proved by carefully comparing the product with chalk-stuff. Presence of chalk in natural waters its deposition on boiling effect of adding soap solution to lime- water measurement of the amount of soap solution required to produce a permanent lather in distilled water and natural waters before and after boiling. 11. Examination of vegetable and animal food materials, as indicated in syllabus separation of liquid by carefully heating sugar, etc., in test-tube provided with delivery tube and its identification as water. Combustion of carbon and of (a) paraffin, (b) sugar, as examples of compounds of carbon and hydrogen and of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen proof that only water and carbon dioxide are formed on burning sugar with copper oxide in a tube from which the air has been displaced by carbon dioxide having been given, the production of nitrogen on burning animal matter will be easily made clear. APPENDIX B BOTANY The questions set will be based on the assumption that the main object of the instruction has been to lead students to find out by their own observation the most important obvious facts relating to the nature and growth of plants and to treat their study as that of living objects. INTRODUCTORY COURSE 1. Students should be led to take particular notice of the commoner herbs, shrubs and trees, which they may have the opportunity of seeing and to describe them in ordinary language. 2. They should be induced to collect leaves and to carefully compare their shape, colour, markings and other characters, to measure them and trace their outline on paper, as well as make coloured drawings of them. The different ways in which leaves are attached, the scars left on falling and the buds in the axils 292 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv should also be noted. (Dried specimens of different leaves should be mounted in the note-books.) 3. They should be led to note in a diary kept for the purpose when different plants, shrubs and trees put forth and lose their leaves and when flowering takes place. 4. Whenever possible they should note the situation in which different plants and trees grow ; also the influence of situation on growth and time of flowering and the existence of evergreens as distinct from not evergreens. 5. In the case of trees they should be led to note the great difference in shape, due to the different arrangement of the branches, especially evident when they are without leaves, which makes trees good objects of study in the winter. The barks of different trees should be noticed and compared. (Such instruction is much facilitated by showing photographs and lantern slides of common trees ; and children may with great advantage be led to illustrate the descriptions in their note-books by blue prints which they have themselves made from paper negatives.) 6. A number of stems should be examined and the leaf scars and nodes noted, as also the difference in the length of the internodes. 7. The parts of a big bud such as that of the horse-chestnut having been made out, the presence in a bulb (hyacinth) of essentially similar parts should be noticed ; and it should be recognised that in tubers such as that of the potato the eyes are the buds. The gradual growth of buds as also of the hyacinth and potato should be watched, in order that the resemblance they bear to each other may be discovered. 8. Attention should be directed to the use made of different kinds of wood and by cutting pieces of such wood with a pocket-knife, boring holes in them, weighing and measuring regular slabs and so ascertaining the weights per cubic centi- metre or cubic inch (use may be made of such data in framing arithmetical exercises, e.g., calculations of the weight of planks of different sizes, floors, etc.) and carefully describing their appearance ; students should be led to correlate their use for certain purposes with their properties. (It should be noted that herbaceous flowering plants have wood too, although very little ; and that wood consists of nothing but pipes such as are met with in veins of leaves, stems, etc.) 9. Weighed quantities of sawdust or chips from different xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 293 wood should be dried in the water-oven and the loss on drying ascertained and should then be burnt and the amount of ashes rioted (this would be part of the Chemistry course). 10. The effect on the growth of trees and other plants of crowding together should be noted whenever opportunity offers in the case of trees and should be ascertained by trial with some suitable garden plant. Students should be led to inquire why this is the case. 11. In the case of leaves students should be led to realise that the leaf is but the flattened-out growth of the stem, as is especially evident in the lettuce and cabbage. 12. That however varied in shape, leaves are ordinarily flat, thin, veined and green they should be led to inquire why. 13. That the veins act partly as supports, as do the ribs of an umbrella, which is particularly obvious when skeleton leaves are prepared with the aid of a solution of bleaching-powder. 14. That the veins also act as pipes. 15. That the leaves are built up of cells. 16. That there are openings (stomata) in the surface layer of cells leading into the interior of the leaf. (The injection of fluid or the expulsion of air may be observed by dipping leaves Ranunculus ficaria or an onion leaf into water and blowing or sucking.) (Conclusions 14, 15 and 16 should be arrived at by students from their own observation with a microscope or hand lens.) 17. Fresh leaves should be put on the balance and counter- poised and the fact demonstrated that they grow lighter as water is lost ; they should also be dried in the water-oven and the amount of water lost ascertained ; the dried leaves should then be burnt and the amount of ashes they yield ascertained. 18. By observing roots, they should be led to see that they offer a large surface and many points of attachment, this being enforced by setting them to measure and estimate the total length of the roots of some common plant, such as geranium. 19. That the roots are covered with root hairs, which still further increase their power of coming into contact with the moist soil in every direction. By experiments with cuttings (geranium, etc.,) they should be led to discover that until new roots are formed, the cuttings cannot become plants capable of independent life. 20. That roots are cylindrical firm and slippery at their tips and that they therefore penetrate easily. 294 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xv 21. That the tips are provided with protective caps, which gives them still greater power of penetration. 22. By observing a few common flowers, they should be led to notice the difference between corresponding parts. 23. To realise that the calyx has a protective office. 24. That the corolla plays the part of a coloured banner, being attractive. 25. That all stamens bear pollen. 26. That although pollen is often found on the pistil, it does not bear pollen and the seeds develop from within it. 27. A considerable number of common fruits and seeds should be studied (such as acorn, chestnut, bean, pea, wheat, barley, oat, tropseolum, onion, date, cucumber, castor-oil, sun- flower) ; their appearance should be noted and described and their average weights ascertained. VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY 1. GERMINATION. Why do seeds "germinate" when sown in the ground ; in what way are the conditions under which such seeds are placed different from those under which unsown seeds are placed ? The answer to such a question would suggest that the following experiments should be made to solve this problem ; that four parcels of seed, barley or mustard, for example, should be kept (in a sufficiently warm place) close together, one of them (a) dry and exposed to light, another (6) also dry but covered over so as to be in the dark ; the remain- ing two, after thorough soaking in water, to be kept on muslin just above water, (c) being exposed to light, (d) being covered over. 2. Why do seeds germinate quickly at one time of the year and not at another 1 Comparative experiments on germination should be made in and out of doors in cold weather to answer such a question as this. Experiments should also be made, if possible, at somewhat high temperatures, so that it might be discovered that there is an upper limit of temperature as well as a lower one. 3. The shrunken appearance of germinated seeds having been noted, a weighed quantity of seed (barley) should be allowed to germinate until the young plant is an inch or so high and the germinated grain should then be dried in the water-oven and weighed. Similar experiments might be made with potato tubers. xv THE HEUEISTIC METHOD 295 4. The result should suggest the question What has become of a portion of the seed ? The student would know from the chemistry lessons that seeds consist of carbonaceous combustible matter and that in changes which take place in the air the air is very frequently concerned and would, there- fore, be prepared to expect the formation of the gas which is produced on burning carbonaceous matter. An experiment should therefore be made to ascertain if such is the case. 5. A further experiment should then be made in which seeds are allowed to germinate in air confined over water, in order to ascertain if air is concerned in germination. 6. The results of 4 and 5 should serve to suggest the question whether, as in burning carbonaceous materials, heat is not given out during germination. To test this a handful of steeped barley should be allowed to germinate (in a wooden box provided with a muslin bottom so as to allow air to penetrate), a clinical thermometer being placed within the mass and another near to the box to indicate the external temperature. 7. Attention should be directed to the difference in taste between germinated and ungerminated barley, and to the change which a potato undergoes during germination, and the question asked what the difference suggested. 8. An account should be given of the production of malt on a large scale, and of the use made of it by the brewer. The changes which go on should then be investigated. 9. Weighed quantities of finely crushed barley and malt should be dried in the water-oven and the amount of water lost ascertained. Weighed quantities of the same materials should be mixed, each with about twenty times its weight of water ; the mixtures should be frequently shaken or stirred and after several hours should be filtered. After once washing the residues they should be dried and weighed. 10. The question would then arise What was dissolved ? The presence of starch in raw grain should then be discovered by kneading flour in water and the starch should be separated and its conversion into a paste and its behaviour with iodine observed. 11. The taste of the extract from the malt having been noted, its behaviour to an alkaline cupric solution in comparison with that of starch should be studied. 12. Attention should then be directed to the fact that the brewer at first digests the malt with warm water and only 296 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xv boils the liquid after some time ; and this should suggest the experiment of trying the effect of boiling water on the malt. It would thus be discovered that the conversion of the starch into sugar takes place to a large extent gradually, on digest- ing the malt with water ; that therefore something is formed during germination which makes starch soluble by converting it into sugar. This should suggest the experiment of adding some cold water malt extract to a thick starch paste or potato mash and noting the gradual change in the behaviour of the mixture to iodine. A similar experiment might then be made, using a portion of the same malt extract but boiling it before mixing it with a starch. 13. GROWTH OF PLANTS. Attention having been directed to the size of a plant in comparison with that of the seed from which it grew and to the production of many seeds from one, the changes which attend growth should be followed. The growth of several quick - growing common plants (cress, tropaeolum, barley, pea) should be carefully watched and measurements made and every detail recorded. Finally the weight of produce of root, stem and stalk, leaf and seed should be ascertained, then the weight of dry matter and lastly the amount of ashes. (A careful distinction should be made between "growth" and "nutrition"; the seedling grows in the dark and at the end weighs less than the original seed, whilst a leaf may cease to grow and yet be capable of providing good substance for nutrition long afterwards. 14. Then the question would arise Whence does the increase come ? It is easy to understand that the mineral matter (obtained as ashes on burning vegetable matter) comes from the soil ; but does the combustible carbonaceous matter ? Does the soil contain carbonaceous matter ? Experiment shows that it does. Is this necessary, however, to the growth of plants? Experiments are therefore made to grow plants in water and wet sand free from carbonaceous matter. 15. The results suggest that the carbon may be derived from the air which is known to contain the gas formed on burning carbonaceous matter. Experiments to confirm this conclusion should be made. 16. Attention has been called to the recognised importance of light to plants, the effect of light should be studied by observing the difference between portions of plants exposed to light and portions protected from light, as in the case of celery, xv THE HEURISTIC METHOD 297 endive, etc., and experiments should be made. In like manner the difference between the growth of the hyacinth and potato in the dark and in the light should be studied. 17. The presence of starch in leaves having been demon- strated, the influence of light on its formation may be studied by covering up portions of leaves. 18. Experiments to test the connection between the forma- tion of starch and the presence of carbon dioxide may be made by growing plants in vessels containing and free from this gas and ascertaining whether starch is found. The evolution of oxygen should also be demonstrated. 19. Special experiments should be made to show the im- portance of water to plants and the importance of salts should be illustrated by a few simple sand-culture experiments. 20. Yeast, moulds and fungi. Attention having been directed to the use made of yeast by brewers, its actions on sugar solutions should be studied. Its mode of growth should also be investigated and the importance of certain food materials, including salts, should be fully recognised. Moulds and fungi should also be examined, so that a general idea of their nature, of the conditions under which they can live and of the general character of the effects they produce may be gained. Their destruction (" sterilisation ") by heat should be studied and the application of knowledge so gained to household economy (preservation of food) should be insisted on. By experiments such as suggested the student should have been led to realise that the plant is alive, inasmuch as (a) it respires oxygen, (6) it feeds, (c) it grows, (d) it moves (apparent on watching tendrils and coiling of nasturtium petioles), (e) it responds to stimuli (as shown by heliotropic and geotropic movements and the behaviour of the sensitive plant) and (/) reproduces its kind through seeds. At the close of such a course, moreover, there would be full opportunity of making clear the cycle of change from the mineral to the organic and back to the mineral, through which the study of plant-life carries us ; of their dependence on the sun's energy ; and hence of the important office they hold in the economy of nature in handing on the sun's energy. 21. In order to lay the foundation for the future study of systematic botany to encourage the systematic comparison of likenesses and differences, to familiarise students with the relative values of the differences which are manifest in com- 298 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xv paring plants and to lead them to understand how a short summary of the characteristic features of a family or group of related plants may be given students should be led to compare flowers such, for example, as the buttercup, primrose and willow and to point out in what respects they are alike and in what other they are different. They should then, in like manner, be led to examine and compare other typical flowers such as the wallflower, laburnum, hedge-parsley, dead-nettle, foxglove, dandelion, daisy, hyacinth, orchid, grass. APPENDIX C THE METHOD ADOPTED BY MESSRS. GORDON AND HELLER IN GIVING INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS The demonstrator usually made one visit to a school per fortnight and gave one lesson of three-quarters of an hour duration to each of Standards V, VI and VII, or to what- ever Standards there were in the school. The schools visited may be divided into two classes : first, those in which the assistant teachers had been through a course of training at Berners Street ; secondly, those in which the teachers were beginning the subject (Course 4) without previous knowledge of the methods to be used. In the case of those of the former class the demonstrator was free to teach the scholars alone, without considering the class teacher. The monitors of the class usually had charge of and were responsible for keeping the apparatus clean and in order. This was stored in a specially designed lecture table and cupboard combined, fitted with lead sinks and draining-boards, divided drawers, etc., which cost nearly .10 ; in many cases, however, such a table was not provided and the apparatus was kept in ordinary stock cupboards, the experimenting-table being im- provised by placing a blackboard across two dual desks. In many cases a hinged flap table folding down against the wall was found most convenient for experimental work by the scholars. The demonstrator usually spent a few minutes questioning the class as to the work accomplished during the previous fort- night and dealt with the difficulties that had occurred, taking care to emphasise the exact position the experiments already xv THE HEUKISTIC METHOD 299 made had left the scholars in ; he then invited suggestions as to what would be the next point to elucidate. Very good sugges- tions were often made but as a rule the class had to be led to the consideration of the next question to be answered. As soon as it was clearly understood what was to be the particular object of inquiry, two or four boys would get the apparatus out, fit it up and make the necessary weighings. Perhaps other boys would carry through the experiment to the finish. There was seldom any necessity for the demonstrator to handle the apparatus at all and the fact that the demonstration experiments were performed by the boys themselves ensured the closest atten- tion of their fellows. A living interest in what was going on and a condition of enthusiasm was thus aroused, which was reflected in the whole subsequent work of the class. Between the demonstrator's fortnightly visits there were, as a rule, three intermediate lessons, which were utilised in repeating the last lesson, for back work and in writing up notes ; advantage was often taken of writing lessons and composition lessons for note-book work. In many schools one or two experiments were kept always going on a table in a corner of the room and a few boys usually not more than four were always engaged at experi- mental work, so that in the course of the fortnight every boy in the class would have performed the chief experiments connected with that portion of the work under consideration. In the second class of school, in the case of a teacher un- familiar with the work who was, perhaps, at first not willing to take the extra trouble involved in keeping the boys at experi- mental work, it often happened that the class lost interest and results were unsatisfactory. Apparatus was supplied to the school at the beginning of the year's work, everything that was required for the work being provided and due allowance made for breakages. Did the occasion arise, apparatus was loaned from the central laboratory to schools likely to use it with advantage, so that work was never allowed to stand still for want of apparatus. At annual inspections sufficient additional apparatus was sent to schools to enable fifty boys to be at work at once. XVI SUGGESTIONS FOE A COUESE OF ELEMENT- AEY INSTEUCTION IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE ALTHOUGH the Committee is ostensibly charged to report as to methods of teaching chemistry, chemistry pure and simple is not what is generally required in schools : therefore the Committee must be prepared to take into consideration and make recommendations for a course of instruction, preliminary to the natural science course proper, which in their opinion affords the most suitable and efficient preparation for later natural science studies. After the most careful consideration of the question during at least ten years past ; after long holding the opinion that chemistry as usually understood is not the most suitable science subject for school purposes : I am now of opinion that a course which is mainly chemical is not only the best but also the only one possible if we are to secure all the objects aimed at in introducing science teaching into schools. Those objects are essentially : to train boys and girls to use their brains ; to train their intelligence ; to make them observing and reasoning beings, accurate observers and accurate thinkers ; to teach them to experiment and that, too, always with an object more frequently than 300 xvi BETTISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 301 not with what may be termed a logical object not for mere descriptive purposes ; to gradually inculcate the power of " doing," on which Charles Kingsley has laid so much stress and which undoubtedly is the main factor of success in life. It can scarcely be gainsaid that, through chemistry more than through any other branch of natural science, it is possible to give precisely that kind of "practical" training so requisite at the present day, because the student is able to ascertain ~by experiment what are the exact facts and thus to arrive independently at an explana- tion, whereas in the case of other sciences, more often than not, the explanation, of necessity, has to be given by the teacher. Chemistry as usually taught loses greatly in educa- tional value because pupils are told, more often than not, that " such and such is the case," instead of being taught how it has been found out that such is the case ; indeed, that which has to be proved is usually taken for granted. Practical chemistry has hitherto, as a rule, been interpreted to mean the preparation of a few gases, etc., and the analysis of simple salts. Much useful information may be and is occasionally imparted during the performance of exercises of this kind but the tendency undoubtedly is for analysis to degenerate into a mechanical drill ; and looking at the question from the practical point of view and considering what is the general outcome of such teaching, probably we are bound to agree that the results thus far obtained are usually unsatisfactory. The difficulty, however, is to devise a course sufficiently simple in conception the cost of which is not too great when it is carried into practice ; but with respect to this item of cost the Committee has to make clear to parents and teachers 302 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi the claim of natural science to a fair and propor- tionate share of the total expenditure, which certainly has never yet been granted to it. By the introduc- tion of such studies into the school course, a set of faculties are trained which it is all -important to develop but which hitherto have been allowed to remain dormant, if not to atrophy, through neglect which, all competent authorities admit, cannot possibly be developed by any amount of attention to literary and mathematical studies. It is often not sufficiently clearly stated or understood that the advocates of natural science studies have no desire to displace any of the traditional subjects from the school , course ; that all that they ask for is a fair share of the child's time, attention and brains a share proportionate to the effect which such studies can demonstrably produce in developing the mental faculties of the individual : that, in fact, natural science claims to co-operate and in no sense puts in an appearance as a rival. STAGE I. Lessons on Common and Familiar Objects The first stage of instruction must be one of simple object lessons but these should have an intimate relation to the child's surroundings and should be made the pegs on which to hang many a tale. Probably the most satisfactory and practical mode of commencing is to get children to draw up lists of familiar and common objects under various heads, such as Natural objects. Things used in building construction. Things from which household furniture is made or which are in daily use. Things used as clothing. xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 303 Food materials. The children should be induced to describe these from observation, as far as possible ; to classify them according to their origin into mineral and animal and vegetable or organic ; and occasion should be taken at this stage to give by means of. reading lessons and demonstrations as much information as possible about the different things, their origin, how made and their uses. It is obvious that in this, way a great deal of geography and natural history (Naturkunde) might be taught in an attractive manner. Geikie's Science Primer on Physical Geography is the type of book which may be worked through with great advantage at this stage. STAGE II. Lessons in Measurement This stage should be entered upon as soon as children have learnt the simple rules of arithmetic and are able to add, subtract, multiply and divide and to use decimals. Lineal measurements may be first made, using Both an English footrule with the inch subdivided in various ways and a metric rule subdivided into millimetres. In this way the relation of the two scales is soon insensibly learnt. Measurements of rectangular figures and the cal- culation of their areas may then be made. After this the use of the balance may be taught and the relation between the English and French systems may be learnt by weighing the same objects with the two kinds of weights. Use may then be made of the balance in determining the areas of irregular figures by cutting out rectangular and 304 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi irregular figures from the same cardboard or thin sheet metal and weighing these, etc. Solid figures are next studied : a number of cubes made from the same wood having been measured, their volumes are then calculated and the results thus obtained are compared with those which are obtained on weighing the cubes. The dimensions and weights of cubes made from different woods or other materials are then ascertained and thus it is observed that different materials differ in density. The study of the relative density of things generally is then entered upon. The ordinary method is easily learnt and used by children, a suitable bottle being provided by filing a nick down the stopper of a common two-ounce narrow- mouth bottle ; it may then be shown that the same results are obtained by the hydrostatic method of weighing in air and water and it is not difficult to lead children to understand this latter method after they have determined the heights of balancing columns of liquids such as turpentine, water and saturated brine, of which they have previously ascertained the relative density. These hydrostatic experiments are of value at a later stage in considering the effects of atmospheric pressure. By determining the dimensions of a cube and the weight of the water which it will displace, an oppor- tunity is afforded to point out that if the results are expressed in cubic centimetres and grams respectively, there is a practical agreement between the numbers and hence, to explain the origin of the metric system of weights and the relationship between its measures and weights ; the irrationality of the English system may then be explained. The relative densities of a large number of common xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 305 substances having been ascertained, the results may be tabulated and then the value of the data as criteria may be insisted on ; as an illustration of their value, quartz, flint, sand and gravel pebbles may be selected : the children having determined their relative densi- ties, the agreement between the results may be pointed out and the identity of the material explained. By drawing perpendiculars corresponding in height to the densities of various substances, a graphic repre- sentation is obtained which serves to bring out the value of the graphic method of representation. A very valuable exercise to introduce at this stage is based on the well-known fact that in certain con- ditions of the atmosphere things appear moist: a muslin bag full of seaweed may be hung up under cover but freely exposed and may then be weighed daily at a given time ; simultaneously the state of the weather, direction of the wind, the height of the barometer and the state of the wet and dry bulb thermometer may be noted ; on tabulating the results, especially if the graphic method be employed, the variations and their relationship will be noticeable. Familiarity with the thermometer having thus been gained this instrument may be used to examine melting ice and boiling water; the construction of both the Centigrade and Fahrenheit thermometers may then be explained and the effect of heat on bodies made clear. The density of ice and of water at various temperatures may then be determined, a Sprengel tube which is easily made being used for warm water ; the bursting of pipes in winter, the formation of ice on the surface of water, etc., may then be explained. Afterwards, simple determinations of the heat capacity of a few metals, etc. and of the latent heat of water and steam x 306 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xvi may be made in accordance with the directions given in a book such as Worthington's Practical Physics, STAGE III. Studies of the Effect of Heat on things in general ; of their behaviour when burnt As it is a matter of common observation that heat alters most things, the effects of heat on things in general should be studied ; in the first instance qualitatively but as early as possible, subsequently, quantitatively. Bits of the common metals may be heated in the bowl of an ordinary clay pipe plunged into a clear place in any ordinary fire or in such a pipe or a small iron spoon over a gas flame. The difference in fusibility is at once apparent. In the case of metals like iron and copper it is noticeable that although fusion does not take place, a superficial change is produced ; the gradual formation of a skin on the surface of fused lead and tin is also easily perceived. Observations like this become of great im- portance at a later stage and indeed serve to suggest further experiments : this is a point of special im- portance. From the beginning of this stage great attention should be paid to inculcating habits of correct observation ; the effect should first be recorded by the pupil, the notes should then be discussed and their incompleteness pointed out and they should afterwards be rewritten. The fusibility of substances which are not affected when heated in the tobacco-pipe may be tested by heating them with a Fletcher gas blow-pipe on charcoal ; and by heating little bits of wire or foil in such a flame it is easy for children to discover the changes which metals undergo when burnt, xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 307 especially in cases such as that of zinc or copper or iron. The further study of the effect of heat should be quantitative and may well commence with water. It being observed that water disappears on heating, water may be put into a clock glass or glass dish placecl on a water-bath (small saucepan); it evaporates and it is then observed that something is left. A known quantity of water by weight or volume is therefore evaporated and the residue weighed. This leads to the discovery that water contains something in solution. The question then naturally arises, What about the water that escapes? so the steam is condensed and the distilled water evaporated. The conception of pure water is thus acquired. An experiment or two on dissolution using salt and sugar may then be introduced, a water-oven or even an air-oven (a small Fletcher oven) kept at a known temperature being used and the residue dried until the weight is constant. Eain- and sea- water may next be examined ; the results afford an opportunity of explaining the origin of rain and of accounting for the presence of such a large quantity of dissolved matter in sea-water. Then the various common food materials may be systematically studied, commencing with milk ; they should first be dried in the oven, then carbonised and the amount of char determined, then burnt and the percentage of ashes determined. A small platinum dish, 15 to 20 grams in weight, is required for these experiments ; a gas muffle furnace is of the greatest use in burning the char and in oxidising metals. In addition to the dis- cipline afforded by such experiments, a large amount of valuable information is acquired and the all-important fact is established that food materials generally are 308 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi combustible substances. Afterwards mineral sub- stances are examined in a similar manner, such as sand, clay, chalk, sulphur, etc.; then metals such as lead, copper, tin and iron may be studied ; the increase in the weight of these latter is in striking contrast to the inalterability of substances like sand and salt and the destruction of vegetable and animal substances. Chalk, from which lime is made by burning, is found to occupy a middle position, losing somewhat in weight when strongly heated. The exceptional behaviour of coal among mineral substances and of salt among food materials, is shown to be capable of explanation inasmuch as coal is in reality a vegetable -and salt a mineral substance ; but sulphur remains an instance of exceptional behaviour requiring explanation. It is not exceptional in being combustible as metals like magnesium and zinc are combustible but in affording no visible product. The smell of burning sulphur, however, serves to suggest that perhaps after all there is a something formed which is an invisible substance possessed of an odour and then follows quite naturally the suggestion that perhaps in other cases where no visible or perceptible product is obtained as on burning charcoal, for instance there may nevertheless be a product. Whereas, therefore, in Stage I the pupil will have learnt to appreciate the existence of a great variety of substances and will have gained the power of describing their outward appearance more or less fully; and in Stage II, having learnt how to measure and weigh, will acquire the habits of deter- mining by measurement certain properties of sub- stances and will thus be in a position to express in exact terms the kind of differences observed ; in Stage III the pupil will be led to see that profound changes xvi BKITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 309 take place on burning substances and that these changes involve something more than the destruction of. the things burnt. The foundation is thus laid for the study of change, i.e. chemical studies proper. STAGE IV. The Problem Stage Many of the changes observed in the course of the experiments made in Stage III might be examined and their nature determined but the best to take first is a very familiar case, that of the rusting of iron. PROBLEM I. To determine what happens when iron rusts. The pupil must be led in the first instance to realise that a problem is to be solved and that the detective's method must be adopted and a clue sought for. It is a familiar observation that iron rusts, especially when wet ; what happens to the iron, why does it rust, is the iron alone concerned in the change ? No information can be gained by looking at it per- haps the balance which has brought to light so much in Stage III may be of service, so the iron is allowed to rust in such a manner that any change in weight can be observed. A few grams of iron filings or borings are put on to a weighed saucer or clock glass along with a bit of stiff brass or copper wire to be used as a stirrer ; the iron is weighed, then moistened and exposed under a paper cover to keep off dust, preferably in a warm place; it is kept moist and occasionally stirred. After a few days it is dried in the oven and then weighed. The weight is greater. Something from somewhere has been added to the iron. Thus the clue is gained. Where did this something come from ? The fact that when a tumbler, for instance, is plunged mouth downwards into water the 310 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xvi water does not enter and that on gradually tilting the tumbler to one side something escapes viz. air at once affords a demonstration of the presence of air in the space around us. The iron rusted in this air but was kept moist, so it may have taken up the some- thing from either the air or the water. To ascertain whether the air takes part in the rusting, some iron borings are tied up in a bit of muslin and the bag is hung from a wire stand placed in a (jam) pot full of water and a so-called empty (pickle) bottle, which in reality is full of air, is inverted over the iron ; in the course of a few hours, as the iron rusts, the water is observed to rise until it occupies about one-fifth of the jar (determined by measuring or weighing the water) ; the something added to the iron during rusting appears therefore to come from the air. The all- important fact is thus discovered that the rusting is a change in which not the iron alone but also the air is concerned. The experiment is several times repeated, fresh iron being used with the same air and the same iron put in succession into fresh portions of air the same result is always obtained : whence it follows that whatever it is in the air which takes part in the rusting, the air as a whole is not active. The changes previously observed to take place when iron, copper, lead, zinc, etc., were heated in air, are then recalled ; as the metals were found to increase in weight, it would appear probable that in these cases of change also the air was concerned. These results at once suggest the question, What is air ? So much having been learnt by studying the change which iron undergoes in rusting, other changes which happen in air therefore are next studied. PROBLEM II. To determine the nature of the changes xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 311 which take place on burning substances in air. The use of phosphorus is introduced by reference to a match. Phosphorus is then burnt under a bell jar over water and the result noted : the disappearance of some of the air again shows that the air is concerned. The fact that phosphorus smokes when taken out of the water in which it is always kept suggests that some change is going on, so a stick of phosphorus is exposed in air as in the previous experiment with iron : soon one-fifth has disappeared and the phosphorus then ceases to smoke. The quantitative similarity of the two results suggests that iron and phosphorus behave alike towards air and vice versa; it also serves to confirm the idea that some constituent of the air, present only to the extent of about one-fifth, is active. But nothing is to be taken for granted, so iron is exposed in the phosphorus-air residue and phosphorus in the iron- air residue : as no change occurs there is no room left for doubt. Eecalling the experiments in which various metals were burnt in air in order to de- termine whether in these cases the same constituent of the air was concerned in the change, air from which the active constituent has been removed by means of iron is passed through a heated tube containing bits of the metals : no change is observed, so it is evident that as a rule, if not always, one and the same constituent of air is concerned. The experi- ments with iron and phosphorus, although they show that the air is concerned in the changes which are observed to take place, do not afford any information whether or no the water which is also present is con- cerned in the change. Phosphorus is therefore burnt in a dry pear-shaped flask closed with a rubber stopper : on removing the stopper under water some water enters; 312 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi by measuring this and the amount of water which will fill the flask the same result is obtained as in the previous cases. To be certain whether in this case anything enters or escapes from the flask it is weighed before and after the phosphorus is burnt. There is no change in weight. But does nothing escape ? Yes, much heat: whence it follows that heat is not material that, although some of the air disappears, it is merely because it has become affixed to or absorbed by some- thing else. This has been proved in the case of the rusting iron and the burnt metals. To obtain indis- putable evidence in the case of the phosphorus this is burnt in a current of air in a tube loosely filled with asbestos to retain the smoke : the weight is found to increase. The observation that the phosphorus ceases ~to burn after a time suggests the introduction of a burning taper into the residue left by iron, etc. ; it is found to be extinguished. Then a candle and subse- quently a gas flame may be burnt in a bell jar full of air over water. Reversed combustion may then be demonstrated in order to fully illustrate the reciprocal character of the phenomena. Thus it is ascertained that although all ordinary cases of combustion are changes in which the air is concerned, not the air as a whole but a particular constituent is active ; and it is beyond doubt that the same constituent is always active but active under different conditions ; it is realised also that the production of heat is the consequence of the union of the substance burnt with^the active substance in air. The experiment of exposing phosphorus in air affords the opportunity of demonstrating the evolution of heat even in a case where no visible combustion occurs, as the phosphorusis^^^ays observed to melt. At this stage careful note should be taken of the xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 313 appearance of the different products of combustion and of a change such as that which occurs when the product from phosphorus is exposed to the air. PROBLEM III. To separate the active from the inactive constituent of air. It now has become of importance to get this active constituent of the air by itself and the question arises whether it cannot be separated from one of the metals or other substances with which it has been found to combine. The pupil is therefore told to collect information about the different substances formed by burning metals, etc. whether they can be obtained in sufficient quantity to work with, etc. Iron rust and iron scale are easily obtainable and so is copper scale ; zinc is burnt to produce zinc white, which is used as paint; lead is also burnt on a large scale and in this case it appears that one or other of two substances is formed litharge at a high temperature, red lead at a lower temperature. This peculiarity of lead suggests the study of the two products in the hope of discovering the clue to a method. Weighed quantities of the litharge and red lead are heated ; it is observed that only the latter changes in appearance and that it loses weight. But what does it lose ? It was formed by merely roasting lead in the air and the something which it loses must therefore have been derived from the air. When the red lead is heated in a tube a gas is given off which may be collected and tested how ? with a taper or glowing splinter as it is to be supposed that the gas will support combustion if, as is to be expected, it is the active constituent of air. The discovery of the active constituent of air is thus made ! If air consist of this gas and that which remains after exposing phosphorus or iron in air, then by adding to such residual air as 314 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvi much of the gas from red lead as was withdrawn, air should be re-obtained ; this is found to be the case. The names of the two gases are now stated for the first time and an easy method of preparing oxygen is demonstrated such as that of heating a chlorate but without any explanation. The conclusion previously arrived at, that probably in all the cases previously studied of changes occurring in air the oxygen is the active substance, may now be verified by burning or heating in oxygen the substances which had been burnt in air. The comparison of the densities of the two gases with that of air should then be made. So much having been learnt of the chemistry of air, the study of the pressure exercised by air may next be taken up and the common pump, the force pump, the barometer and air currents may be discussed and explained. Nowadays the charts given in the daily papers and the Ben Nevis and Glycerin barometer readings quoted in the Times make it particularly easy to explain the barometer. The pupils should be led to make barometer curves. PROBLEM IV. To determine what happens when chalk is burnt to lime. The discovery of the composi- tion of the air in the course of experiments made with the object of determining the nature of certain changes naturally suggests that the attempt should be made to ascertain the composition of other things by studying the changes which they undergo. Chalk is known to give lime when burnt and experiments made in Stage III have indicated that chalk loses something when burnt the idea that an invisible something is given off is especially probable after the experiments with red lead have been made : so it is decided to heat chalk strongly ; but before doing this chalk and lime xvi BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE 315 are examined comparatively. Chalk is observed not to be altered by water; on shaking it with distilled water and evaporating some of the filtered liquid in a weighed dish, very little residue is obtained so it is established that it is but very slightly soluble in water. Lime is slaked, weighed quantities of lime and water being used ; the retention of a considerable amount of water, even after exposing the slaked lime in the drying oven, shows that the slaking involves a definite change in composition that slaked lime is lime and water. The solubility of the lime is next determined and found to be considerably greater than that of the chalk. It is found that chalk is but very slightly altered in weight when heated over a gas flame and that it is only when it is strongly heated that it is converted into lime : so the chalk is strongly heated in an iron tube in a Fletcher blow-pipe furnace : gas is more or less freely given off ; subsequently it is found that the chalk has become lime. The gas is tested with a taper, which it extinguishes, so it cannot be oxygen but may be nitrogen ; its density is therefore compared with that of nitrogen and found to be greater, so evidently it is a peculiar gas and may be called chalk gas. If chalk consist of this gas and lime, it should be possible to reproduce chalk from them ; so the gas is passed through a small weighed tube containing lime the tube is found to get heavier. But lime and chalk are so much alike that it is difficult to say that chalk is formed: perhaps dissolved lime will act similarly; the gas is therefore passed into or shaken up with lime-water. The precipitate which forms looks like chalk and probably is but this remains to be decided. The discovery of this behaviour of chalk gas is important as affording a 316 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvi means of again comparing the gas from chalk with nitrogen. In working with lime-water it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing that a film forms on its surface ; by exposing a quantity of the lime-water a considerable amount of the precipitate is obtained : its resemblance to chalk having been established and the possible presence of chalk gas in air is suggested ; this and the precipitates previously obtained are collected, dried and then introduced into pieces of narrow hard glass tubing, connected to wash-bottles containing lime- water and on heating strongly by means of a blow- pipe flame, while air is sucked through to carry forward any gas into the lime-water, the white precipitates are again obtained, so no doubt remains that the original precipitates were chalk. Incidentally the discovery is thus made that air contains something besides oxygen and nitrogen, viz., chalk gas. It being thus established that chalk consists of two things, lime and chalk gas, at this stage it is pointed out how firmly these two constituents hold to each other in the chalk. The absorption of the gas by the lime its entire disappearance in fact is commented on. Accurate determinations of the loss of weight on heating crystallised chalk (calc spar) should at this stage be carried out before the class, if not by the pupils, so that the numbers may be quoted and that it may become impressed on them that the proportions in which the lime and chalk gas are present is constant. Their attention may be recalled to the oxides previously studied, it being pointed out that on inspection these afford no indication that they contain oxygen : that here again the gas entirely loses its individuality on entering into union or combination. That oxides contain their constituents in fixed propor- xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 317 tions may be demonstrated experimentally by oxidising finely-divided copper and determining the increase in weight, lime being used as drying agent. In this way the characteristics of compounds are elucidated. Then the comparison may be made with air and the fact made clear that it behaves as a mere mixture. Still no reference should be made to elements. PROBLEM V. To determine what happens when organic substances are burnt. The experiments thus far made have shown that phosphorus and a number of metals burn in the air because they combine with the oxygen, forming oxides, heat being given out as a consequence; but that chalk when burnt is split up or decomposed into lime and chalk gas, this result being a consequence of the heating alone, the air having nothing to do with it. It remains to ascertain what happens when organic substances are burnt as these give no visible product beyond a little ashes. As in all cases when vegetable or animal substances are burnt a certain amount of " char " is obtained, which then gradually burns away, charcoal or coke is first studied. It having been discovered that the oxygen in air is the active cause of burning in many cases, it appears probable that the air is concerned in the burning of charcoal, coal, etc. As when once set fire to these continue to burn, the charcoal is at once heated in oxygen : it burns, but no visible product is formed ; it therefore follows that if the charcoal is oxidised the oxide must be an invisible gas. How is this to be tested for? What gases are already known to the pupil ? How are these distinguished ? Oxygen is excluded. Is it perhaps nitrogen and is not perhaps the nitrogen in air merely used-up oxygen, as it were, produced by the burning of 318 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvi organic substances ? Or is it perhaps that gas which was found in the air along with oxygen and nitrogen, which turned lime-water turbid ? This last being an easy test to apply is at once tried ; as the lime- water is rendered turbid, to leave no doubt a sufficient amount of the gas is prepared and passed into lime- water and the precipitate is collected : it is found to give off chalk gas when heated and when the loss it suffers on heating is determined it is found to be the same as that suffered by the precipitate prepared from chalk gas. Thus the discovery is made that chalk gas is an oxide of carbon and that chalk consists of at least three things. ^_ It may be objected that to make the experiment in this manner takes too much time ; but to this it may be answered that such experiments are precisely similar to those made in actual practice and that they exercise a most important influence in teaching the pupils to take nothing for granted, never to jump at conclusions and to rest satisfied if they progress surely, however slow the advance may be. The char from a number of organic substances may now be burnt in oxygen and the gas passed into lime-water ; chalk gas is found in every case to be a product and hence the presence of a common constituent carbon in all is established. In burn- ing substances such as sugar, it is scarcely possible to avoid noticing the formation of a liquid product, so it is evident that chalk gas is not the only product of their combustion or carbon their only constituent. Food materials generally having been found to contain "carbon," as they are obviously in some way destroyed within the body and it is known that air is necessary for life, the question arises, What becomes xvi BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE 319 of food and why is air necessary for life ? Is the food, perhaps, in large part " burnt up " within the body, thus accounting for the fact that our bodies are always warm ? The characteristic product of com- bustion of carbonaceous substances is therefore tested for by breathing into lime-water. The discovery thus made affords an opportunity for a digression and for explaining how plants derive their carbon from the air. PROBLEM VI. To determine what happens when sulphur is burnt. From the results of the experi- ments with carbon, it appears probable that the disappearance of sulphur when burnt is also really due to its conversion into a gaseous oxide, so it is kindled and introduced into oxygen : if it be burnt over water in a bell jar in a spoon passing through the stopper (a rubber cork), the water is seen to rise ; if, on the other hand, it be burnt in a dry flask closed by a rubber cork carrying a gauge-tube, as suggested by Hofmann, 1 the volume is seen to be almost unchanged after combustion. It follows, therefore, that the sulphur and oxygen unite and form a soluble product. Sulphur is next burnt in a tube in a current of oxygen and the gas is passed into water; a solution is thus obtained having the odour of the gas and sour (acid) to the taste. The fact that carbon and sulphur both non-metals behave alike in yielding gaseous oxides suggests that a comparison be made of their oxides : so the acid solution is added to lime-water ; a precipitate is formed which redissolves on adding 1 By burning carbon also in this way a most effective demonstra- tion is given of the fact that no loss or gain of matter attends the change and that only heat escapes ; the results in the case of carbon and sulphur are particularly striking, as the products are gaseous and invisible. 320 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi more of the sulphur gas solution ; on the other hand, on adding the lime-water to the acid liquid, this latter after a time loses its characteristic smell. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the sulphur gas does in some way act upon the lime. The discovery that the addition of more of the sulphur oxide leads to the dissolution of the precipitate which it first forms in lime-water suggests trying the effect of excess of the oxide of carbon on the lime-water precipitate ; this is done and the discovery is made that the precipitate gradually dissolves. The solubility of the new sub- stance may then be determined by passing the gas into water containing chalk in suspension, filtering and evaporating. This leads to the observation that on heating the liquid a precipitate is formed, which is soon found to be chalk. An opportunity is thus afforded of explaining the presence of so much " chalk " in water ; of demonstrating its removal by boiling and by means of lime-water ; and the effect it has on soap. The observation that the oxides of both carbon and sulphur combine with lime suggests trying whether the one will turn out the other, so the solution of the sulphur oxide is poured on to chalk : effervescence is observed and on passing the gas into lime-water a precipitate is obtained. The production of this effect by the acid solution suggests trying common vinegar a well-known acid substance. This also is found to liberate chalk gas and the discovery of an easy method of preparing chalk gas is thus made. The oxide formed on burning phosphorus, having previously been found to give an acid solution, is tried and it is found that it also liberates chalk gas. As a good deal of vinegar is found to give very little chalk gas, the question arises, Are there not acids to xvr BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 321 be bought which will have the same effect and are stronger and cheaper ? On inquiry it is found that sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol, muriatic acid or spirits of salts and nitric acid or aquafortis may be bought and that these all act on chalk. The behaviour of chalk with acids affords a means of testing the lime- water precipitate obtained in working out Problems IV and V. In this manner the pupil is led to realise that certain agents may very readily produce effects which are only with difficulty produced by heating that the chemical agent may produce very powerful effects. The ready expulsion of the oxide of carbon from the chalk suggests that other substances not yet studied, such as the metals, when treated with acids may behave in a special manner which will afford information as to their nature. At this point, prior to making the experiments with the acids, an explana- tion may be given of the names oil of vitriol, spirits of salts and aquafortis ; the processes by which they are made may be described and illustrated, without, however, any attempt being made to explain them from the chemical point of view. The sulphuric acid should be made from green vitriol and its behaviour on dilution should be demonstrated as well as its use as a drying agent. PROBLEM VII. To determine what happens when m&tals are dissolved in acids. Iron, zinc, lead, tin, copper and silver may be taken. On pouring diluted oil of vitriol on to iron or zinc, the metal dissolves with effervescence; the gas is collected and when tested is found to burn. Thus a new gas is discovered, differing from all which have previously been studied, inasmuch as it is combustible ; in order not to interrupt the study of the action of acids on metals, Y 322 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvi however, its further examination is postponed for a while. Resuming the experiments with metals, lead, tin, copper and silver are found not to be acted upon by diluted oil of vitriol. Muriatic acid, in like manner, dissolves iron and zinc and also tin with effervescence ; the gas which is given off in each case exhibits the same behaviour as that obtained from iron or zinc and diluted oil of vitriol. Lead, copper and silver are not appreciably affected. Aquafortis is found to dissolve not only iron and zinc but also copper, lead and silver and to convert tin into a white substance to attack all the metals, in fact, thus justifying its name. The gas which is given off as the metal dissolves is observed to be coloured ; when it is collected over water, however, it is seen to be colourless but to become coloured on coming into contact with air oxygen and nitrogen are, therefore, added to portions of the gas over water. In this manner, not only is a new gas discovered but also a test for oxygen ; and opportunity is afforded of here calling attention to the fact that air behaves exactly as oxygen, that the oxygen in air appears to be unaffected by its association with nitrogen that, in fact, it is uncombined. From these experiments it is obvious that metals and acids interact in a variety of ways. Finally, the dissolution of gold and platinum by aqua regia may be demonstrated. PROBLEM VIII. To determine what happens when oxides are acted on ~by acids. In the course of the previous experiments a number of oxides have been prepared by burning various metals in air ; these are found to be unchanged by water. The discovery that acids act on metals suggests a trial of the effect which xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 323 acids will have on their oxides ; so the oxides of zinc, iron, copper and lead are submitted to the action of the three acids previously used. Sulphuric acid is found to dissolve zinc oxide, iron rust and copper oxide but no combustible gas is evolved ; excess of the oxide may be used and the filtered liquid concentrated ; the crystals which separate may be examined and compared with those obtained by dissolving the metal in sul- phuric acid, etc. Litharge apparently is not changed by sulphuric acid but red lead is, although not dissolved. Muriatic acid being used, all the oxides are found to dissolve and in the case of red lead a greenish yellow gas is given off possessing a most disagreeable smell ; this is noted as a case for study. The product from the lead oxides is observed to crystallise out from the hot liquid on standing, so the undissolved original product is boiled up with water and the solution is filtered, etc. Attention is thus directed to the differ- ence in solubility of the products. Next, aquafortis is used ; again all are dissolved, except the red lead, which, however, is obviously altered. In the case of the lead oxides the product is again less soluble than those afforded by the other oxides but more soluble than the product obtained on using muriatic acid. The pupil has already been led to realise that of two sub- stances capable of acting on a third, such as chalk gas and sulphur gas, which both combine with lime, one may be the stronger and may turn out the other, sulphur gas turning out chalk gas from chalk. A comparison of the three acids with the object of ascer- taining which is the strongest is therefore suggested the metal or oxide is dissolved in one of the acids and the others are then added. No positive result is obtained in the case of zinc, iron or copper ; but the solution 324 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi of lead in nitric acid is precipitated by muriatic and by sulphuric acid ; the precipitate caused by the former is found to dissolve in boiling water and to crystallise out in exactly the same way as the substance obtained from lead oxide and muriatic acid. The sulphuric acid product is found to be almost insoluble in water and also in muriatic and nitric acids ; these observations make it possible, by examining the behaviour towards muriatic and nitric acids of the products of the action of sulphuric acid on the lead oxides, to establish the fact that the product is the same whether lead be dissolved in nitric acid and sulphuric acid be then added or whether either of the oxides be jtreated with sulphuric acid. It is further evident that those acids which give difficulty soluble or insoluble products act with difficulty if at all on the metal. Other metals besides those mentioned may be now studied and, a solvent being found, the acids which do not dissolve the metal may be added to the solution. In this way, for example, the chloride test for silver is discovered. In experimenting with acids the pupils can hardly fail to stain their clothes and their fingers. The observation that acids alter colours serves to suggest experiments on the action of acids on colours, especi- ally those of leaves and flowers. The use of litmus, methyl-orange, cochineal, etc., may then be explained. As various oxides have been found to " neutralise " acids, the study of their effect on the colours altered by acids is suggested. Lastly, a few experiments with vegetable and animal substances, sugar, etc., may be made, to demonstrate the corrosive action of oil of vitriol and aquafortis. PROBLEM IX. To determine what happens when the gas obtained ly dissolving iron or zinc in sulphuric xvi BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE 325 or muriatic acid is burnt. The gas has been observed to burn with a smokeless, odourless flame. To ascertain whether, as in all other cases of combustion previously studied, the oxygen of the air is concerned in the combustion, a burning jet of the gas is plunged into a dry cylinder full of oxygen, in which it is not only seen to continue burning but it is also noticed that drops of liquid condense on the cylinder above the flame ; this immediately suggests that the product is a liquid. The jet is found to be extinguished in nitrogen, so evidently when the gas burns it forms an oxide. The experiment is repeated and the gas burnt in a bell jar full of oxygen over water : the water rises as the combustion proceeds, proving that the oxygen is used up. To collect a sufficient quantity of the product for examination, the dried l gas is burnt at a jet underneath a Florence flask through which a stream of cold water is allowed to circulate : the neck of the flask is passed through the neck of a bell jar and the flask and bell jar are clamped up in an inclined position, so that the liquid which condenses may drop into a small beaker placed below the rim of the jar. What is the liquid ? It looks very like water and is without taste or smell. Is it water ? How is this to be ascertained ? What are the properties of water? The knowledge previously gained here be- comes of importance. It has been observed that frozen water melts at Centigrade, that water boils at 100 and that one cubic centimetre weighs one gramme at 4 C. ; so the liquid is frozen by the ice-maker's mixture of ice and salt, a thermometer being plunged into it so 1 The importance of drying the gas is realised without difficulty, as previous observations have shown that the air is moist and as the gas is given off in presence of water ; lime may be used. 326 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xvi that the solid ice forms on the bulb : the melting-point is then observed. Subsequently, the boiling-point is determined, a little cotton -wool being first wrapped around the bulb of the thermometer. Lastly, the density of the liquid may be determined. It is thus established that the gas yields water when burnt : the name of the gas may now for the first time be mentioned and explained. The results thus obtained leave little doubt that water is an oxide of hydrogen ; but in order to place this beyond doubt it is necessary to exclude nitrogen altogether. How is this to be done ? Eed lead is known to consist of lead and oxygen only ; it readily parts with at least a portion of its oxygen ; so dried hydrogen is passed over red lead, which is then gently heated. Again a liquid is obtained which behaves as water, so there can be no doubt that water is an oxide of hydrogen. Water is not obtained on merely mixing oxygen and hydrogen ; it is only produced when combustion takes place. To start the combustion a flame is applied to a small quantity of a mixture of the two gases : a violent explosion takes place. An opportunity is here again afforded of calling attention to the entire change in properties which takes place when the compound is formed. On heating red lead in hydrogen, lead is obtained, although on heating it alone the oxide loses only a portion of its oxygen ; and the " reduction " takes place very readily ; evidently, there- fore, hydrogen is a powerful agent. This observation suggests further experiments. Will it not be possible to remove oxygen by means of hydrogen from other oxides which are not altered on heating ? and will not other combustible substances besides hydrogen remove oxygen from oxides ? PROBLEM X. To determine what happens when xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 327 hydrogen and other combustible substances are heated with oxides. Zinc oxide, iron rust and copper oxide are now heated in a current of hydrogen: the first remains unaltered, the other two are seen to change, a liquid being formed which it cannot be doubted is water; the copper oxide evidently becomes reduced to copper. Is the iron rust similarly reduced to the metallic state ? How is iron to be tested for ? Iron is attracted by the magnet and when it dissolves in diluted oil of vitriol hydrogen is evolved. Applying these tests, no doubt remains that the iron rust is deprived of its oxygen. Litharge and copper oxide may then be mixed with soot or finely powdered charcoal and heated in tubes ; gas is given off which renders lime-water turbid and metallic lead or copper is obviously obtained. It is thus established that some but not all oxides may be deprived of their oxygen by means either of hydrogen or carbon. Opportunity is here afforded of explaining the manufacture of iron. Several dried combustible organic substances sugar, bread and meat may now be burnt with copper oxide in a tube the fore part of which is clean and which is kept cool : liquid is seen to condense while " chalk gas " is given off; the liquid has the appearance of water and sufficient may easily be obtained to ascertain whether it is water. The presence of hydrogen in organic substances is thus discovered ; its origin from water may now be explained and the double function of water in the plant and animal economy may be referred to viz. that it both enters into the composi- tion of the animal and plant structure and also acts as a solvent. The combustion of ordinary coal gas, of alcohol, of petroleum, of oil and of candles, may then 328 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi be studied and the presence of hydrogen in all of these noted. PROBLEM XL To determine whether oxides such as water and chalk gas may be deprived of oxygen by means of metals. It being found that hydrogen and carbon withdraw the oxygen from some but not from all metallic oxides, it follows that some metals have a stronger, others a weaker, hold upon or " affinity " to oxygen than has either hydrogen or carbon ; the question arises whether any and which metals have so much greater an affinity to oxygen that they will withdraw it from hydrogen and carbon. Copper and iron have been found to part with oxygen but zinc and magnesium did not, so these four metals may be studied comparatively. Steam is passed through a red-hot copper tube full of copper tacks : no change is observed. The experiment is repeated with an iron tube charged with bright iron nails : a gas is obtained which is soon recognised to be hydrogen and on emptying out the nails they are found to be coated with black scale. Zinc and then magnesium are tried : like iron, they are found to liberate hydrogen. Chalk gas is next passed over red-hot copper and is found to remain unchanged but on passing it over red-hot iron or zinc a gas is obtained which burns with a clear blue smokeless flame : this gas is not absorbed by milk of lime but on combustion yields chalk gas, so it evidently contains carbon and is a new combustible gas. Like hydrogen, it is found to afford an explosive mixture with oxygen. Finally, magnesium is heated in chalk gas : it is observed to burn and the magnesium to become converted into a blackish substance unlike the white oxide formed on burning it in air. But it is to be expected that this oxide is produced to remove xvi BKITISH ASSOCIATION COUBSE 329 it, as it is known from previous experiments to be soluble in muriatic acid, this acid is added : a black residue is obtained. What is this ? Is it not probable that it is carbon ? If so, it will burn in oxygen yielding chalk gas. So the experiment is made. These experiments in which hydrogen is obtained from water and carbon from chalk gas afford the most complete " analytic " proof of the correctness of the conclusions previously arrived at regarding water and chalk gas, which were based on " synthetic " evidence ; taken together, they illustrate very clearly the two methods by which chemists determine composition. As hydrogen and carbon form oxides from which oxygen may be removed by means of some metals but not by all, the question arises, which has the greater hold upon or affinity to oxygen carbon or hydrogen ? As it is the easiest experiment to perform, steam is passed over red-hot charcoal : a combustible gas is obtained which yields water and chalk gas when burnt, so evidently the hydrogen is deprived of its oxygen and this latter combines with the carbon, forming the combustible oxide of carbon. Will not carbon partly deprive chalk gas of its oxygen ? The experiment is made and it is found that it will. These results afford an opportunity of calling attention to and explaining the changes which go on in ordinary fires and in a furnace. PROBLEM XII. To determine the composition of salt gas and the manner in which it acts on metals and oxides. It has previously been demonstrated that spirits of salt or muriatic acid is prepared by acting on salt with oil of vitriol and passing the gas which is given off into water ; the solution has been found capable of dissolving various metals and oxides, chalk, lime, etc. : as water alone does not dissolve these 330 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi substances the effect is apparently attributable to the dissolved gas, so it becomes of interest to learn more of this gas in order that its action may be understood. It is first prepared ; its extreme solubility in water is observed and also the fact that as it dissolves much heat is given out ; and it is noted that although colourless and transparent it fumes in the air. How is its composition to be determined ? Is there any clue which can be followed up ? Eeference is made to the previous observations and it is noted that its solution dissolves various metals with evolution of hydrogen ; water alone has no such effect. Is this hydrogen derived from the water or from the dissolved gas ? The gas alone is passed over heated iron turn- ings and the escaping gas is collected over water : it proves to be hydrogen, so evidently salt gas is a com- pound of hydrogen with something else. How is this something else to be separated from the hydrogen ? Do not previous experiments suggest a method ? Yes, they have proved that hydrogen has a marked affinity to oxygen and now it is recollected that on treating muriatic acid with red lead a substance rich in oxygen a greenish-yellow, gas is obtained. The experiment is repeated on a larger scale and the gas is examined. If it is contained together with hydrogen in salt gas, perhaps salt gas will be obtained on applying a flame to a mixture of the two gases just as water is from a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen : the mixture is made and fired and the result leaves little doubt that salt gas does consist of hydrogen in combination with the greenish-yellow gas chlorine. Whence is this chlorine derived from the salt or the sulphuric acid ? The notes are again consulted and it is seen that xvr BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE 331 a solution of silver in nitric acid gave a characteristic precipitate with muriatic acid but not with sulphuric, so salt solution is added to the silver solution and a precisely similar precipitate is obtained, leaving little doubt that the chlorine is derived from the salt. It is now easily realised that the iron and zinc displace the hydrogen of the dissolved hydrogen chloride. What happens when the oxides are acted on ? In addition to the metal they contain oxygen, which is known to combine readily with hydrogen, forming water ; is water formed ? Zinc oxide is therefore heated in hydrogen chloride ; a liquid is obtained which behaves exactly as a solution of hydrogen chloride in water. When the action is complete and all that is volatile has been driven off by heat, a solid remains very like fused common salt doubtless zinc chloride, since it is to be supposed that as the hydrogen has taken the place of the zinc the chlorine has taken the place of the oxygen. What, then, is the action of hydrogen chloride on chalk? It evidently not only separates the chalk gas from the lime but also dissolves this latter. What is formed ? Dry (unslaked) lime is therefore heated in a current of hydrogen chloride. It behaves just as zinc oxide, yielding a liquid product evidently a solution of hydrogen chloride in water, as it dissolves zinc with evolution of hydrogen and the residue is like that of zinc chloride. The important discovery is thus made that lime also is an oxide that chalk, in fact, is a compound of two oxides ; the resemblance of lime to zinc oxide and magnesium oxide is so striking that the conclusion is almost self-evident that lime is probably a metallic oxide and it may be here pointed out that this actually is the case. The gradual dis- 332 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi covery of the composition of chalk in the manner indicated is an especially valuable illustration of chemical method and serves to show how chemists are often obliged to pause in their discoveries and to await the discovery of new facts and methods of attack before they are able to completely solve many of the problems which are submitted to them. The solids obtained on dissolving zinc oxide and lime in muriatic acid and boiling down the solution, when all the water is driven off, are white solids like fused salt. But on exposure they gradually become liquid. In so doing they increase in weight and evidently behave like sulphuric acid. Probably water is absorbed from the air : no change takes place when they are kept over sulphuric acid or dry lime. In this way two new desiccating agents are incidentally discovered. PROBLEM XIII. To determine the composition of washing soda. The study of this substance is of importance as introducing the conception of an alkali. The preparation of washing soda from salt is first described. On heating the crystals they melt and give off " steam " ; the experiment is made in such a way that a quantity of the liquid is obtained sufficient to place beyond doubt that it is water. The water is found to be easily driven off on heating the crystals in the oven and to constitute a very large proportion of ' the weight of the crystals. The conception of water of crystallisation is thus gained. On heating the dried substance to full redness in the platinum dish, no loss occurs. The residue dissolves in water and " soda crystals " may again be obtained from the solution, so that heat does not affect it. Perhaps acids which have been found to act so powerfully in other cases will afford some clue on trial this is found to xvi BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE 333 be the case : a colourless, odourless gas is given off, which extinguishes a burning taper. Is this perhaps nitrogen or is it chalk gas ? The lime-water test at once decides that it is the latter. So it is determined that washing soda, like chalk, is a compound of chalk gas but with what ? With an oxide ? The dried substance is heated in hydrogen chloride : chalk gas is given off as before and a liquid which is soon re- cognised as water saturated with hydrogen chloride. The residue dissolves in water and separates from the concentrated solution in crystals exactly like salt : in fact, it is soon recognised to be salt ; evidently, there- fore, that which is present in salt along with chlorine is present in soda crystals along with oxygen, chalk gas and water. The preparation of the metal sodium from soda is then explained. Acquaintance being thus made with compounds of chalk gas with two different oxides, the question arises, which oxide has the greater affinity to the chalk gas ? Will lime displace sodium oxide from soda or vice versa ? On adding lime-water to soda solution, a precipitate of chalk is formed. What does the solution contain ? Lime-water contains lime in combination with water ; is the sodium oxide present in combination with water ? Soda is boiled with milk of lime (in an iron saucepan to avoid breakage) until it no longer affects lime-water ; afterwards the liquid is poured off and boiled down. The product is very unlike soda: it is very caustic and when exposed to the air becomes liquid. If it is a substance analogous to slaked lime, it should com- bine with chalk gas and be reconverted into soda ; this is found to be the case. Caustic soda is thus discovered. Chalk and lime are known to neutralise acids ; both soda and caustic soda are found to do so 334 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi and their effect on vegetable colours is found to be the reverse of that of acids. At this stage the origin of the name alkali is explained and it is pointed out that the oxides which have been studied may be arranged in two groups of alkali-like or alkylic and acid-forming or acidic oxides, the former being derived from metals, the latter from non-metals. The produc- tion of salts by the union of an oxide of the one class with the oxide of the other class is then illustrated by reference to earlier experiments. The point is now reached at which the results thus far obtained may be reconsidered. The student has been led in many cases to make discoveries pre'cisely in the manner in which they were originally made ; and it is desirable that at this stage, if not earlier, the history of the discovery of the composition of air and water, etc., should be briefly recited. It is then pointed out that a variety of substances have been analysed and resolved into simpler substances air into oxygen and nitrogen, water into oxygen and hydrogen, etc. ; that these simpler substances thus far have resisted all attempts to simplify them further and are hence regarded as elements. A list of the known elements having been given, the diverse properties of the elements may be illustrated from the knowledge gained in the course of the experiments. The fact that when elements combine compounds altogether different in properties from the constituents are formed also meets with manifold illustration. Too little has been ascertained to admit of any general conclusion being arrived at with regard to the proportions in which elements combine but it is clear that they may combine in more than one proportion, since two oxides of carbon have been discovered and in the only cases studied xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 335 viz. copper oxide and chalk the composition has been found not to vary. The existence of various types of compounds has been recognised and a good deal has been learnt with reference to the nature of chemical change. But, above all, the method of arriving at a knowledge of facts has been illustrated time after time in such a manner as to influence in a most important degree the habit of mind of the careful student. New facts have been discovered by the logical application of previously discovered facts : the habitual and logical use of facts has been inculcated. This is all-important. It has become so customary to teach the facts without teaching how they have been discovered that the great majority of chemical students never truly learn the use of facts ; they consequently pursue their daily avocations in a perfunctory manner and only in ex- ceptional cases manifest those qualities which are required of the investigator ; their enthusiasm is not awakened and they have little desire or inclination to add to the stock of facts. It must not for one moment be supposed that the object of teaching chemistry in schools is to make chemists. Habits of regulated inquisitiveness, such as must gradually be acquired by all who intelligently follow a course such as has been sketched out, are, however, of value in every walk of life ; and certainly the desire to understand all that comes under observation should as far as possible be implanted in every one. STAGE V. The Quantitative Stage The quantitative composition of many of the sub- stances which have previously been studied qualitatively should now be determined in some cases by the 336 PAPEES ON EDUCATION X vi teacher in face of the pupils, so that every detail may be observed and all the results recorded ; in other cases by the pupils. The composition of water is first determined by Dumas' method ; this may easily be done and fairly accurate results may be obtained in the course of a couple of hours. The results obtained by Dumas and subsequent workers should then all be cited and attention having been drawn to the extent to which such experiments are necessarily subject to error, the evidence which the results afford that hydrogen and oxygen combine in certain fixed and invariable propor- tions to form water is especially insisted upon.' The composition of chalk gas is next determined ; this also is easily done, as impure carbon * (lampblack) may be burnt and the hydrogen allowed for. Again, attention is directed to the results obtained by skilled workers and the evidence which they afford that chalk gas never varies in composition. The composition of copper oxide has already been ascertained ; it may be redetermined by reducing the oxide in hydrogen : in fact, in determining the com- position of water. The lead oxides may be reduced in a similar manner, the oxide obtained by igniting white lead as well as red lead and the brown oxide obtained by acting on red lead with nitric acid being used. In this way it is ascertained that the brown oxide is the highest oxide; the loss in weight which this oxide suffers when ignited may then be determined. Tabulating the results thus obtained, after calculat- ing with what amount of the particular element that quantity of oxygen is associated which in water is 1 Electric light carbon is a better material. xvi BRITISH 'ASSOCIATION COUESE 337 combined with one part by weight (unit weight) of hydrogen, numbers such as the following are obtained: 1 part of hydrogen is combined with 8 parts of oxygen in water 3 ,, carbon ,, ,, 8 ,, ,, chalk gas 31 -5 ,, copper ,, 8 ,, ,, copper oxide 103-5 lead 8 lead oxide (litharge) 51-8 8 (brown). These clearly illustrate the fact that elements combine in very different proportions and the results obtained with the lead oxides afford also an illustration of combination in multiple proportion. The amounts of silver and lead nitrates formed on dissolving silver and lead in nitric acid are next determined by evaporating the solutions of known weights of the metals in porcelain crucibles on the water -bath and then drying until the weight is constant ; accurate results may easily be obtained and these two exercises afford most valuable training. The nitrates are subsequently evaporated with muriatic acid and the weights of the products determined. What are these products ? Does the metal simply take the place of the hydrogen in hydrogen chloride as zinc does when it dissolves in muriatic acid ? If so, the products are silver and lead chlorides and it may be expected that the same substances will be obtained that the same increase in weight will be observed when, say, silver is combined directly with chlorine as when it is dissolved in nitric acid and the solution is precipitated with muriatic acid or salt. Silver is, therefore, heated in chlorine and is found to increase in weight to the same extent as when it is dissolved in nitric acid, etc. ; a given weight of silver precipitated by salt is also found to increase to the same extent as when it is directly combined with chlorine. The composition of silver chloride having z 338 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvi thus been ascertained, the amount of chlorine in salt is determined. The composition of salt being as- certained, purified dried washing soda is converted into salt and also the amount of chalk gas which it contains is determined : from the data, the composition of sodium oxide may be calculated. In like manner the composition of lime may be ascertained by con- verting chalk into chloride by igniting it in hydrogen chloride and then determining the chlorine in the chloride ; the same method may be applied to the determination of the composition of the oxides and chlorides of zinc, magnesium and copper. Discussing these various results, and comparing the quantities of oxygen and of chlorine which combine with any one of the metals examined, it is seen that in every case about 3 5 '4 parts of chlorine takes the place of eight parts of oxygen. Combination in re- ciprocal proportions is thus illustrated and by consider- ing the composition of chalk and washing soda it may be shown that this applies equally to compounds of two and to compounds of three elements. As 35*4 parts of chlorine is found in every case to correspond to eight parts of oxygen, it is to be expected that hydrogen chloride contains one part of hydrogen in combination with 35-4 parts of chlorine; a solution containing a known weight of hydrogen chloride is, therefore, prepared by passing the gas into a tared flask containing water and the chlorine is then determined. It being thus clearly established what are equivalent weights of elements, the conception of equivalents may be further developed by exercises in acidimetry carried out by the pupils themselves. The proportions in which washing soda and hydrogen chloride interact may be determined by mixing solutions of known xvi BETTISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 339 strength until neutralisation is effected ; if the solution be evaporated and the chloride weighed, the results may be used in calculating the composition of hydrogen chloride ; they serve, in fact, as a check on the con- clusions previously arrived at as to the composition of washing soda and hydrogen chloride. Solutions of sulphuric' and nitric acid may be similarly neutralised and, the amounts of sulphate and nitrate formed having been ascertained, the equivalents of the acids may be calculated on the assumption that the action is of the same kind as takes place in the case of hydrogen chloride. Determinations of the strengths of acids, etc., may then be made. In a similar manner the volumetric estimation of silver may be taught and the percentage of silver in coinage and other alloys deter- mined. Such a series of quantitative exercises as the fore- going, when carried out before and to a considerable extent ly the pupils, undoubtedly affords mental dis- cipline of the very highest order and is effective of good in so many ways that the value of such teaching cannot be over-estimated. The failure to grasp quanti- tative relationships which examiners have so frequently to deplore is without question largely, if not alone, due to students' entire ignorance of the manner in which such relationships have been determined. Moreover, the appreciation by the general public of the principles on which quantitative analysis is founded would certainly be directly productive of good in a multi- plicity of cases. 340 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvi STAGE VI. Studies of the physical properties of gases in comparison with those of liquids and solids. The molecular and atomic theories and their application. A series of quantitative experiments on the effect of heat on solids, liquids and gases should now be made, which should be followed by similar experi- ments on the effect of pressure ; the similar behaviour of gases and the dissimilar behaviour of liquids and solids is thus made clear. The condensation of gases is then demonstrated and explained ; also the conversion of solids and liquids into gases and the dependence of boiling-point on pressure and temperature. Regnault's method of determining gaseous densities is studied and the method of determining vapour densities is illustrated. The molecular constitution of a gas is now discussed ; the phenomena of gaseous and liquid diffusion are studied and a brief reference is made to the kinetic theory of gases ; then Avogadro's theorem is expounded and applied to the determination of molecular weights ; and eventually the atomic theory is explained and the manner in which atomic weights are ascertained is brought home to the pupils. The use of symbols must then be taught. Finally, the classification of the elements in accordance with the periodic law should be explained. It is all-important that at least a large proportion of the experiments in each of the stages should be made by the pupils ; but even if this were not done and the lessons took the form of demonstrations, much valuable instruction might still be given. The majority of pupils probably would not proceed to the fifth and sixth stages ; but those who perforce xvi BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE 341 must terminate their studies without gaining any knowledge of chemical philosophy should unfailingly be led to make a few simple quantitative experiments : for example, to determine silver volumetrically ; and the method of determining the composition of water and chalk gas should be demonstrated in their presence. And it may be added that if only the examples in Stages I and II and Problems I to V of Stage III were thoroughly worked out, most important educational training would be given and much valuable informa- tion as to the nature of common phenomena would be gained. The complete course would undoubtedly take up considerable time but so does a satisfactory mathe- matical or classical course of study and it is absurd to suppose that useful training in science is to be imparted in a few months. If instruction be given in the manner suggested at all generally, it will be necessary, however, to modify the present system of testing results. Pupils could not be expected to pass at an early age examinations such as are at present held and awards would have to be based chiefly on an inspection of the classes at work and of note-books and on viva wee questioning. But all are agreed that the present system of payment on results tested by a terminal examination is a most unhealthy one and that a more rational system must be substituted for it. I may suggest that if members of the staff of science colleges, such as are now established in so many towns, could be appointed supervising inspectors, whose duty it would be to advise teachers in schools and occasion- ally to inspect the teaching in company with the permanent inspector, it would be possible to secure the assistance of a body of men who are in touch with 342 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi scientific progress and conversant with the improve- ments which are being effected. A man who " once an inspector is always an inspector" of necessity must get into a rut and will escape from the wholesome leavening and rousing influence which is always more or less felt by those whose office it is to follow the march of scientific progress. It should also here be pointed out that the great majority of the experiments and exercises described may be carried out with very simple apparatus and with slight provision in the way of special laboratory accommodation. In but very few cases is there any production of unpleasant smells or noxious fumes. It is, in fact, a mistake to suppose that an elaborately fitted laboratory is in every case essential for successful teaching : much might be done in an ordinary school- room provided with a demonstration bench for the use of the teacher, a draught closet over the fireplace, a sink, a raised table for balances (raised so that the teacher might see what was going on), a cupboard for apparatus and a long narrow bench provided with gas-burners at which, say, twenty pupils might stand ten a side. At present the Science and Art Depart- ment will not recognise " practical chemistry " unless it be taught in a laboratory fitted up in a certain specified manner and their regulations are such as to enforce the provision of expensive laboratories in all cases where it is desired to obtain the grant. If greater latitude in fittings were allowed, more attention being paid to the character of the work done and less to the tools with which it is accomplished, probably much less money would be wasted by inexperienced school authorities in providing special laboratories and there would be much greater readiness displayed xvi BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE 343 to enter on the teaching of experimental science. The course which has been sketched out is one which doubtless might well be modified in a variety of ways according to circumstances. Thus many simple exercises in mechanics, in addition to those directly mentioned, might be introduced into Stage IT, and the mechanical properties of common materials might be somewhat fully studied at this stage in districts where engineering trades are largely established and where such knowledge would be specially valuable. In like manner the physical effects of heat on substances might be studied in Stage III instead of Stage VI. And there are other chemical problems and simple exercises besides those described which might be substituted for some of them or included in the course. Probably, however, it would be found undesirable, if not impossible, as a rule, to continue the teaching of chemistry proper much, if at all, beyond the stage indicated in this scheme. Other subjects will have a prior claim should it ever be deemed essential to include in a comprehensive scheme of school education the elements of the chief physical and biological sciences ; it certainly is of primary importance to introduce at as early a period as possible the con- ception of energy and to explain the mechanical theory of heat, so that later on it may be possible to discuss the efficiency of heat and other engines ; and until the laws of the electric current are understood, the subject of chemical change can never be properly considered. In many cases, where it is convenient or desirable to continue the chemical studies, it probably will be advantageous as a rule that they have reference to 344 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvi specific (local) requirements e.g. to agriculture in schools in agricultural districts ; to food materials and physiology in the case of girls especially, etc. But in any case more consideration must be paid, in the future, in schools where chemistry is taught, to educa- tional requirements the teaching must have reference to the requirements of the general public ; and it must be remembered that the college, not the school, is the place for the complete study of a subject. XVII EXERCISES ILLUSTRATIVE OF AN ELEMENT- ARY COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN* EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE THE scheme put forward in the report presented last year by the Committee sufficed to indicate the kind of instruction likely to inculcate habits of observing correctly, of reasoning from observation and of setting new questions and obtaining answers thereto by experiment and observation : habits which it is now generally admitted are of great consequence in the struggle for existence and which cannot be acquired except through training in the methods of experimental science. Nevertheless, it has been felt that detailed directions how to proceed were necessary for the use of the less experienced teachers and that even those who fully sympathise with the proposals already made would welcome the more complete display of the system. I have therefore obtained the permission of the Committee to append the following suggestions to their report, in amplification of certain parts of the scheme already published. It is obviously impossible to sketch more than a small portion of a complete programme of instruction ; the portion now offered is that appropriate to the 345 346 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xvn earliest stage in which quantitative studies can be engaged in : its study can be commenced by children of fair intelligence when 9 or 10 years old. It is an essential feature of the scheme that it has reference to common things, the object being to lead children to engage in the rational study of the objects which are daily brought under their notice. Time to be devoted to Experimental Studies and Mode of Teaching. Frequently during the past year the question has been put to me, " How much time is to be devoted to such science teaching ? " and complaint has been made of the difficulty of dealing with large classes of children, of keeping them employed and of providing the requisite space and appliances. The question as to time will ever continue to be put until the fundamental fallacy which hitherto has retarded the progress of experimental teaching in schools is discarded, viz. that sufficient training in a scientific subject can be imparted in the course of a terni or two. This undoubtedly is the view enter- tained in the majority of schools girls' schools in particular. It is well known, for example, that of the many hundred students who each year present themselves at the London University Matriculation examination, the vast majority have had but a few months' coaching in chemistry, mechanics or physics, although they have had lessons in arithmetic and like subjects during the whole period of their school career. It was long a superstition that to pass in chemistry all that was necessary was to have read some one of the small text-books and a very large proportion of matriculants have doubtless had only such preparation. The fact is that our schools hitherto have been all but xvii BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE II 347 entirely in the hands of those who have had a purely classical or mathematical training and who have gained their knowledge by reading; teachers thus trained cannot realise that the useful effect of science teaching is only attained when the instruction is carried out on entirely different lines : , they cannot realise that accurate experimenting is the essential feature in the system ; that knowledge gained by mere reading is and can be of little use, as in acquiring it the mental faculties which it is desired to exercise never become trained. It must be recognised by all who have charge of schools that, in order to secure the due development of those faculties which science teaching alone can affect, the instruction must be imparted from the very beginning and during the entire period of the school career. If this be done, many of the difficulties hitherto encountered may disappear. Probably it will be found advantageous, at least in the earlier stages, rather than disadvantageous, to devote but a short time during any one lesson to actual experimental work. There is no doubt that far too much is usually attempted ; that too many facts are brought under the student's notice in the course of the lesson, the result being a blurred mental picture destitute of sharp outlines. After considerable experience I am satisfied that it is difficult to proceed too gradually it may almost be said too slowly. The following two sets of instructions are given by way of illustration ; it is not pretended that they are complete nor is it suggested that the exercises should be worked through either exactly in the order in which they are stated or completed by all pupils ; the teacher 348 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvn must determine which are suitable for the particular set under instruction. Studies of Water and Common Liquids 1. Make every effort to elicit from the pupils by question and answer all that they have noticed with regard to water. Induce them to take advantage of any opportunities the neighbourhood affords of ob- serving water and its effects. Let them ascertain the area covered by the school-house roof and the amount of water which falls on it when it rains ; institute systematic observations of rainfall . and embody the data in arithmetical exercises. Call attention to the different yearly rainfall in different parts of the country and point out the influence of hills and mountains : let outline maps be coloured, so as to indicate the different rainfall of different districts. 2. Call attention to the geographical distribution of water, etc. ; also to the work which it does in nature (cf. Geikie's Physical Geography, Huxley's Physiography, etc.), illustrating this part of the subject especially at an inland school by lantern photographic slides of ships, sea-coasts, Niagara Falls, etc. 3. Call attention to the disappearance of water, i.e. the drying up of rain, the drying of clothes, etc., and lead the pupils to notice that this takes place most quickly in hot weather and in warm places ; then let them pour water into a clock glass placed either over a saucepan in which water is boiled by a gas-burner (or petroleum or spirit lamp, if gas be not available), or in a small gas cooking-stove ; they will see that the water evaporates, leaving a certain amount of residue. [At this stage experiment on the extent to which water xvii BRITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE II 349 evaporates out of doors and indoors Vnder different conditions and at different times of the year by exposing water in weighed glass (crystallising) dishes about 4 inches in diameter and weighing at intervals. Also call attention to the fact that in certain states of the weather things become damp and that moisture is sometimes deposited on the windows in cold weather; then let the condensation be noted of a liquid indis- tinguishable from water which occurs, for instance, when a closed flask filled with water and ice is exposed in a room. Let some seaweed enclosed in a muslin bag be hung up out of doors where it cannot be wetted by rain and have it weighed daily. At the same time have the temperature, direction of the wind and char- acter of the weather noted. Later on have the dry and wet bulb thermometer read daily. Have the changes in weight of the seaweed and the dry and wet bulb thermometer readings represented by curves. Lead the pupils to contrast and discuss the results.] The experiment should then be repeated with a known quantity of water and a weighed glass dish, so as to determine the amount of residue ; the character of the residue should be noticed. Discuss the origin of the water and point out whence the residual matter may have come. Next, if a well water was taken, let a local river or pond water be examined in a similar way, then rain water and, if possible, sea water. 4. Let an ordinary 2-oz. narrow-mouth stoppered bottle, having a nick filed down the stopper, be filled with each of the waters and weighed; and let the operation be repeated several times with each water, so that the experimental error may be ascertained ; it will be found that the different waters, sea -water excepted, have practically the same density. At this 350 PAPERS ON EDUCATION X vn stage, arithmetical exercises relating to the weight of known bulks and vice versa of water, the quantities of dissolved solids present in given bulks of various waters, etc., may advantageously be set; these should be solved practically by actual measurement in as many cases as possible. 5. Next ask, " But what becomes of the water when driven off by heat ? " If it have not been noticed that water collects (condenses) on some object near at hand, let a cold object be held over boiling water, then let water be boiled in a glass flask connected with a glass condenser. Afterwards have water distilled in larger quantity from a tin (2 -gallon) can. The density of the distilled water should then be determined and its behaviour on evaporation. Data would thus be ac- cumulated rendering it possible to explain the drying up of water under ordinary conditions, the origin of rain, the differences between waters from various sources and the method of separating water from the associated foreign matters will have been brought home to the minds of the pupils. 6. As the water is heated to boiling in the flask, if attention be paid to all that occurs, it will probably be noticed that bubbles separate from the water, rising up through it and escaping at the surface ; frequently the bubbles adhere for a time to the flask. Let the experiment be repeated in such a way that the some- thing which escapes from the water can be collected and measured ; for example, a 2 -gallon tin can having been filled with water, insert into the neck a rubber cork through which a bent delivery tube is passed, place the can over a burner, introduce the upturned end of the delivery tube into a basin of water and insert a small jar over it. Heat to boiling. An air- xvn BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE II 351 like substance will gradually be driven off but it will be noticed that after the water has been boiling for some time it ceases to give off gas ; let the amount of gas collected be measured and have the experiment repeated several times. As the gas does not continue to come off on boiling the water, it would seem that it is not a part of the water there is so little of it but merely something dissolved in the water ; it is like air, as the water had been in contact with air may it not be air? Let the boiled water be poured out into a galvanised iron pan and after it has been exposed to the air for several hours let it be again boiled. The water which previously no longer gave off gas will probably now yield as much as before. It will thus be discovered that water dissolves air as well as the solid matters with which it comes in contact and the presence of air in water will be recog- nised. This knowledge will be of value later on when the existence of animals and plants under water comes to be considered. 7. Attention having thus been directed to the solvent action of water, let special experiments be made on its solvent action, using salt, sugar, suet, washing soda, alum, tea and coffee, field or garden soil, clay, chalk or limestone, gypsum, etc. ; known quan- tities of the filtered solutions should be evaporated to dryness and the residues dried (conveniently in a small gas cooking-oven) and weighed. Opportunity will be afforded to call attention to the separation of some of the substances from solution in definite shapes, i.e. crystals ; show these under the microscope as well as home-made cardboard models of some of them. Let larger crystals of alum be grown and call attention to sugar crystals. Natural crystals of calcite, gypsum, 352 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvn pyrites, quartz, fluorspar, etc., would be appropriately shown at this stage. The question may then be put, " Does the water which passes through the body dissolve anything ? " By evaporating urine and determining the amount of dried residue it would be found that a good deal of matter passes away from the body in solution. 8. Having directed attention to the different be- haviour of different waters with soap, let determinations be made of the amount of alcoholic soap solution required to produce a lather in distilled and other waters. Directions for performing the soap test are easily obtained from a book on water analysis 'and the operation is one of extreme simplicity. 9. Other liquids should now be compared with water, such as methylated spirit, turpentine, petroleum, salad oil, vinegar and perhaps the common acids muriatic, nitric and sulphuric also. The noticeable differences between these and water appearance, odour, taste in dilute solution having been registered, their relative densities should be determined; also their behaviour towards water and towards each other, their behaviour when heated on the water -bath in comparison with that of water, their behaviour when burnt, their behaviour when boiled together with water in a flask attached to a condenser and their solvent action in comparison with that of water should be ascertained. 10. Having given an account of the origin, etc., of the various liquids examined and having alluded to the presence of alcohol in beer and wine, demonstrate the separation of alcohol from beer by distillation ; then describe the production of alcohol by fermentation and carry out the experiment, first with sugar and yeast, xvn BEITISH ASSOCIATION COUESE II 353 then with malt ; explain that yeast is an organism : either show it under the microscope or enlarged photo- graphs of it. Make several mixtures of alcohol and water and let the relative density of each be deter- mined ; then exhibit a table of relative densities of spirit solutions of various strengths. Let a measured amount of beer be distilled, have the distillate made up with distilled water to the bulk of the beer taken and let its density be determined ; reference being then made to the table of relative densities, the strength of the alcoholic distillate could be ascertained and thus the amount of alcohol in beer would be determined. 11. The behaviour of water when heated may now be further studied. Attention having been called to the thermometer as an instrument which enables us to judge degrees of heat, water should be heated and the gradual rise of the mercury column of the thermometer noted, as well as the steady position which it assumes when the water boils. In the same way boiling water should be allowed to cool and the fall of the mercury column noted ; further cooling should then be effected by means of ice, so that opportunity might be given for the stationary position to be observed which the column eventually takes up and maintains so long as unmelted ice is present. Having specially directed attention to these " fixed points," describe the construction of the thermometer. Next let a quantity of water be distilled from a flask or can having a thermometer in its neck and let the steady position of the mercury throughout the distillation be observed. Also let water be frozen by means of a mixture of ice and salt ; the " tempera- ture " of the freezing mixture having been ascertained, the thermometer bulb should be inserted into the water which is being frozen (in a test tube), so that 2 A 354 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvn the ice may form around its bulb ; the temperature should be noted during freezing and also during the subsequent melting of the ice. Do this out of contact with the refrigerating mixture. 12. Let the relative density of ice be determined, i.e. after showing that although " lighter " than water ice is " heavier " that turps, let a cylinder partly filled with turpentine be counterpoised and after the temperature has been lowered by immersing the cylinder in ice water, note the position of the turps, then introduce a few pieces of dried ice, note the rise of the turpentine thereby determining the volume of the ice and subsequently weigh in order to ascertain the weight of ice introduced. Have the result thus obtained checked by subsequent observation of the bulk of water which is obtained when the ice melts. The expansion of water on freezing having thus been observed, the bursting of pipes in winter may be explained ; and attention may also be directed to the destructive effects on rocks produced by the freezing of water ; the extent to which ice floats may be dis- cussed and arithmetical problems may be set which will lead the pupils to realise the extent to which the volume changes when water changes its state. 13. Let the relative density of water and the other liquids be determined at C. and at a higher tempera- ture that at by weighing and that at the higher temperature by observing the expansion of the liquids in bulbs with graduated stems of known capacity let curves be constructed showing the relation between temperature and volume. 14. Let spirit, turpentine, petroleum and vinegar be distilled ; the temperature during distillation being observed, the gradual rise especially in the case of xvn BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE II 355 spirits and petroleum will be noted. Fractionally distil several times some quantity of spirit and of petroleum ; let the relative density of each separate fraction be determined and let the water separated from the spirit be characterised by freezing it and determining the melting-point of the ice and the boiling- point of the liquid which is obtained when the ice melts. 15. Having directed attention to the fact that heat is " used up " in melting ice and boiling water, let determinations be made of the amounts, following Worthington's Practiced Physics, for example. Studies of Chalk and other Common Solids. 1. Call attention to the use made of lime in building and its production from chalk or limestone ; slake a lump o lime ; exhibit specimens and pictures of chalk cliffs or quarries and limekilns if not to be seen in the district. Point out on a geological map those parts of the country in which chalk occurs and those where limestone is met with. Explain how chalk is supposed to have been formed ; show pictures of the forms which are present in it if possible, micro- scopic slides. Explain that whitening, which is purchasable everywhere, is but laevigated chalk, describe its preparation and let chalk and sand be separated by Isevigation. 2. Let the conversion of chalk into lime be studied quantitatively. For this purpose 3 to 5 grams of dried whitening should be weighed out in a small platinum dish and heated to full redness in the covered dish during an hour over a Fletcher-Argand-Bunsen burner : the dish is then removed from the burner ; after about ten minutes, when cold, it is weighed ; 356 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xvn it is then again heated, say for half an hour, etc. ; usually there is no further loss. Several experiments should be made in this way, so that it may be noted that practically the same percentage of loss is incurred and the same amount of lime obtained in each case ; and similar experiments should be made with chalk from different localities (Note A). 3. At the conclusion of each experiment, the residue should be carefully moistened with distilled water and the effect noticed ; usually the lime slakes, becoming hot some limes, however, slake very slowly and the heating is imperceptible. The excess of water should then be driven off by heating in a water-oven until the weight no longer diminishes. 4. In comparing the solvent action of the various liquids previously studied, it will probably have been noticed that chalk is dissolved by acids for example, vinegar or muriatic acid with effervescence ; such an acid may therefore be used, if necessary, in cleaning out the dish at the conclusion of the experiment if any of the solid adhere to it. Then, having made it clear that the effervescence is due to the escape of an air-like substance or gas, which is conveniently termed chalk-gas, let the amount of gas which is given off when the chalk is dissolved in acid be determined. For this purpose, the simple apparatus shown in Fig. 1 may conveniently be used. From 1'5 to 2 grams of the chalk is weighed out on a small square of tissue paper, which is then folded up at the sides and dropped into the bottle A, from which the tube B has been removed ; a little water is then added (about 5 cubic centims.) and the chalk is shaken out of the paper; about 5 cubic centims. of nitric acid is now poured into the tube B, which is then carefully replaced in xvn BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE II 357 the bottle A. The cork having been inserted, connection is established by means of the flexible tube C with the bottle D. The side tube E having been so adjusted that the end e is on a level with the water in the bottle D, the measuring cylinder H is so placed that any water which runs from e may be collected in it FIG. 1. and the bottle A is then carefully tilted so that the acid may gradually run out of the tube B into A ; gas is at once given off and expels water from D. As the water sinks in D the side tube E is lowered so that its orifice remains about on a level with the water in D. The water is then measured. Several experi- ments should be made and the results should be 358 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvn compared by calculating the volume of gas which would have been obtained, supposing, say, 100 grams of the chalk had been dissolved. 5. In this way it is ascertained that chalk-stuff is characterised by (1) yielding between 56 and 57 per cent, of lime, which increases by about 33 per cent, when slaked; and (2) by yielding about 22,000 cubic centims. of chalk-gas per 100 grams when dissolved in acid. 6. Comparing lime with chalk, it is found that if the chalk be thoroughly burnt no gas is evolved on dissolving the recently slaked lime in acid ; this result serves at least to suggest that the gas which is given off when chalk is dissolved in acid is perhaps expelled during the conversion of chalk into lime. The loss in weight which occurs is therefore determined and when it is ascertained that it is very nearly the same as that which chalk suffers when burnt, no room is left for doubt that the same substance is dispelled by heating and by dissolving the chalk in acid. The experiment is very easily carried out in a small bottle or conical flask provided with a tube to contain acid and closed by a cork through which pass a narrow tube bent at a right angle and a small drying tube full of cotton wool. The chalk is weighed out on thin paper and dropped into the flask, a little water is poured on to it and the acid tube is then introduced, after which the cork is inserted. The bent tube is closed by a small stopper. On tilting the flask, acid escapes and attacks the chalk ; the spray is prevented from escaping by the cotton wool. When the action is at an end, air is sucked in through the narrow bent tube to displace the chalk- gas ; finally the loss in weight is determined. Such an apparatus gives admirable results. xvii BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE II 359 7. Marble may then be examined in a similar way ; as it is found to behave both on heating and when dissolved in acid much as chalk does, it may be pre- sumed to consist of chalk -stuff. Next, limestones should be taken ; the result obtained with them may be lower owing to their containing clay, etc. ; but this is to a large extent rendered evident by insoluble matter left on treating with acid. Let the percentage of chalk-stuff in the limestones be calculated from the results which they afford, assuming the results obtained with chalk to be practically those afforded by pure chalk-stuff. Lastly, direct attention to the occurrence of crystals (calcite) in limestone rocks, to stalactites, etc, ; show specimens and have them examined : the results will show that they also consist of chalk-stuff. 8. Having pointed out that chalk consists of shells, etc., of sea-animals, coral and shells of various kinds oyster, cockle, limpet should be given for examination ; all these will be found to give results from which it may be inferred that for the most part they consist of chalk -stuff. Egg-shell and lobster or crab shell, in like manner, will be found to yield lime when burnt and to behave much as chalk does towards acid ; but the presence of a certain amount of " animal " matter will be evidenced by the blacking on heating and the insolubility of a certain proportion in acid. 9. Ordinary bone, gypsum, clay and rocks other than chalk or limestone rocks are next given for study, in order that it may be discovered that the behaviour of chalk-stuff is peculiar and characteristic and that there are many varieties of natural solids. Rough estimates of the amount of chalk in soil may be made by determining the amount of chalk-gas evolved on treating the soil with acid. 360 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvn 10. In a hard- water district, the residue from the water will probably look more or less like chalk ; its behaviour when heated with acid and when strongly heated should therefore be determined and local boiler or kettle scale should then be studied as chalk was previously. 11. In this manner, a large number of data will be accumulated which render it possible to discuss the origin of chalk, to explain the presence of chalk-stuff in water and its withdrawal from water by animals, etc. The study of chalk in the manner indicated would make it possible for the student (1) to comprehend the principle of the method followed by chemists in characterising substances whereby they are led to discover distinct forms or species ; (2) to realise not only that there are compounds but also that such substances have a fixed composition ; and (3) the entire difference in properties between a compound and its constituents would have been brought out most clearly by comparison of chalk-stuff with its constitu- ents lime and chalk -gas. The chalk studies, in fact, should serve to incite the student's curiosity and should lead to further inquiries being undertaken as to the composition of other substances and the characters of their constituents and as to the nature of other changes ; and with regard to the method of undertaking inquiries into the composition of other substances, the important results obtained in the case of chalk by studying the changes which it undergoes would serve to illustrate the importance of studying change as a means of determining composition. It cannot be denied that only well-informed, xvn BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE II 361 thoughtful teachers could give useful instruction in accordance with the foregoing schemes ; but this is scarcely an objection. The amount of special training required to carry out the experimental portion would not, however, be great ; and there is no reason why such instruction should not be given in schools where there is no special science teacher engaged although the services of such a teacher would undoubtedly be necessary if instruction in accordance with the more complete scheme embodied in the report presented last year by the Committee were carried out in its entirety. The suggestion that it will probably be found advantageous at least in the earlier stages, rather than disadvantageous, to devote but a short time during any one lesson to actual experimental work (cf. page 346) would be realised in practice if the experimental science lesson were associated with the measurement or practical arithmetic and drawing lessons ; and it is difficult to imagine that this is not possible. Suppose a set of twenty-four pupils to be at the disposal of a teacher during an entire morning or afternoon, in a properly appointed room of sufficient size, and that they are set to work to carry out the experiments with chalk, described on page 355. Several say six might be told off to weigh out in platinum dishes the necessary quantities of whitening and having then placed the dishes on Fletcher burners or in a muffle, they would return to their places ; at the end of an hour they would remove the dishes and after leaving them during ten minutes to cool would weigh them. To determine whether any change took place on further heating, they would reheat the dishes during say half an hour, at the expiration of which time, as soon as 362 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvn the dishes were cool, they would weigh them again. As soon as the first set of six had weighed out the chalk, a second set of six might be set to work in a precisely similar way if the necessary apparatus were available ; if not at some other exercise involving the use of the balance. The nature of the experiments which each set were engaged in performing should be made known to the whole class and all the data should be written up on a blackboard. Each pupil should write out an account of the experiments and of the results ; opportunity would thus be given to compare the results of the six or twelve separate experiments. At the next lesson the two remaining sets of the class would carry out the same experiments. Each pupil would thus have the advantage of performing one or other of the ex- periments and of knowing what results had been obtained by a number of fellow-students. If necessary, two pupils might be set to perform one experiment, care being taken that they took equal parts in it ; and thus the whole class of twenty-four might complete the experiment or experiments in a lesson. Those of the class who at any time were not actually engaged in carrying out the experiment might be occupied in other ways, e.g. in measuring distances, in drawing figures of stated dimensions, etc., in de- termining areas, in determining relative densities, in working out arithmetical problems or in writing out notes and answers to questions. It would not be difficult as the class progressed to devise an infinite number of problems and exercises the data for which were derived from experiments performed by the class. If only one such lesson were given per week, a single teacher and an assistant might deal with 240 xvii BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE II 363 pupils or with half that number if each class had two lessons per week a much better course ; working on a similar plan, much useful work might be done even in the course of two hours. With regard to the appointments for such work, the schoolroom should be provided with simple working benches in addition to the ordinary desks and forms. A narrow table might be placed across one end of the room preferably on a raised platform at which the teacher could sit and on which the balances could be placed ; the teacher would then be able to supervise the weighing and secure that due care were taken of the balances. A narrow bench (of deal, into which paraffin had been " ironed," so as to waterproof it) might be fixed against and along the wall at either side of the room. This should be fitted with simple cupboards and drawers for apparatus and if possible with gas taps ; and at a suitable distance from the wall and above the table there should be a bar, carried by brackets affixed to the wall, from which various apparatus, small scales, etc., could be suspended. A simple draught arrangement should and might easily be fitted at each working place, so that no unpleasant or noxious fumes need escape into the room. At the other end of the room it would be desirable to have a demonstration table and behind this, against the wall, a draft closet at one end of a bench at the other end of which was a capacious sink. It would be well also to have a sink within the closet, which could be made use of, for instance, in washing out a sulphuretted hydrogen apparatus. A muffle furnace at the side of the ordinary stove would be a most valuable adjunct. 364 PAPEES ON EDUCATION XVII The cost of carrying out experiments such as have been suggested remains to be considered. The chief item is undoubtedly the balance. Useful work may be done at a very early stage of the measure- ment lessons with scales costing five or six shillings, as suggested by Professor Worthington ; but their use for quantitative chemical work such as is comprehended in the foregoing scheme is entirely to be deprecated. The acquisition of the habit of weighing carefully and FIG. 2. exactly is in itself a discipline of the utmost value, to which every boy and girl should be subjected. It is all important, therefore, that a fairly good balance should be used and that the utmost care iii its use should be enjoined. When not in use the balance should be covered over with a cardboard box. Becker's No. 51 (Fig. 2) and No. 67 balances, to be had from Townson and Mercer, the English agents, are to be strongly recommended, the former being probably the more suitable as the pans are carried by " bowed " wires, giving more room for manipulation, when, as in xvn BRITISH ASSOCIATION COURSE II 365 determining relative densities by the hydrostatic method, a bridge to carry a glassful of water is placed across the scale-pan. No. 51 costs 1 : 17: 6; No. 67 2 : Is. A suitable set of weights (No. 31), from 500 grams downwards to centigrams, costs 18s. 4d. Even if six balances were provided and such a number would suffice for a large class the cost would be but 18. A convenient size of platinum dish to use is one about inch deep and 2 inches wide, weighing, with a light cover, about 20 grams. At a normal price of platinum such a dish would cost about 25s., so that a considerable number might be provided for an outlay of 10. Such dishes last a long time when pro- perly used, and are still of value when damaged (Note A). A water oven for drying would cost about 1 ; one of Fletcher's small air ovens for drying costs 17s. 6d. Fletcher's Argand Bunsen burners, with tripod, are to be recommended as superior to the ordinary burners for school work. The smaller size costs 2s. ; the larger 3s. Suitable black rubber tubing for use with these burners, -| inch in diameter, costs about 9d. per foot. A pair of iron crucible tongs costs Is. The apparatus for measuring the gas evolved on dissolving chalk in acid would cost about 7s., including a 500 cubic centim. measuring cylinder. Glass basins about 3 inches in diameter cost 4d. each ; clock glasses, 6 inches in diameter, 5s. per dozen. 50 cc. burettes cost 3s. 6d. each. It is unnecessary to refer to the cost of the few remaining articles required for the suggested experi- ments, as they are well known. An expenditure of 50 would certainly cover the cost of apparatus 366 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xvn required by a class of, say, twenty-four ; and this would suffice for the use of several such classes. NOTE A. The unfortunate rise in the price of platinum, which makes the purchase of any number of platinum vessels for school use out of the question, has led me to make a number of experiments in the hope of substituting silver ; but, as was to be expected, this has proved to be impossible. I find, however, that porcelain may be used, provided that the heating be effected in a muffle furnace. Small thin hemispherical porcelain capsules may be obtained from the dealers, about the size of the platinum dishes specified, which are more suitable than porcelain crucibles for the experiment. Such dishes may also be used in studying the effect of heat on organic substances, the char being burnt in the muffle furnace. XVIII THE TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN order that children may acquire scientific habits, they should be led to look around them and take note of all the various objects which present themselves to view ; lists of such objects having been prepared, their several uses having been as far as possible understood and much simple information as to their origin, etc., having been imparted by reading lessons and practical demon- strations, a stage will be reached at which the children can themselves begin to determine the properties of common objects, generally by measurement. The measurement lessons in the first instance may be of the simplest kind. Much may be done with the aid of a boxwood scale divided into tenths of an inch on the one edge and into millimetres on the other ; with the aid of such a scale, children may learn to measure accurately and may be taught the use of decimals and the relation between the English and the metric system. Obviously such work might well form part of the arithmetic lesson and there can be no doubt that " practical arithmetic " lessons would often be far more easily mastered and be more interesting than are the dry problems of .the books. It is easy also to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by these lessons to impress useful information. 367 368 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvm Measurement lessons may take the form of lessons in weighing. I am of opinion that the disciplinary .effect of teachingjAildren to weigh exactly cannot be overestimated ; it matters little what is weighed, provided that the weighing be clone as accurately as the balance at disposal permits. Prof. Worthington, in his invaluable book Physical Laboratory Practice (Rivingtons), has advocated the use of a simple balance costing only 4s. However suitable this may be for demonstrating certain principles in physics, its use is entirely to be deprecated, in my opinion, for the purpose I have in view ; I would urge most strongly that a far better instrument be procured, such as one of Becker's (of Rotterdam ; English agents, Townson and Mercer) balances, costing, with suitable weights, about 3. In using such a balance, care has to be taken in releasing the beam and in bringing it to rest again ; the pans must not be allowed to swing from side to side but must be made to move gently up and down ; the weights must be lifted on and off the pans with pincers, not touched by the fingers, so as to preserve them untarnished ; and the weighing can and, in fact, must be made with considerable exactness. Finding that so many precautions have to be taken and being severely reprimanded if careless in using such a balance, the child acquires a wholesome respect for the instrument and soon becomes careful and exact. Weighing with the four-shilling pair of scales can afford no such discipline ; their use in no way serves to correct the tendency to quote a schoolboy phrase to " muck about," unfortunately inherent in youth ; a tendency which can, I believe, be more successfully counteracted by proper measurement lessons than in any other way. The objection made to the purchase xvm TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 369 of so costly a balance for school use, I hold to be quite unwarrantable ; schools have no hesitation in charging for the use of books and a charge of half a crown a year would more than cover their cost, if it were not possible to provide weighing appliances as part of the school furniture. I have been told that you cannot trust boys to use so delicate an instrument as that I advocate ; and probably you cannot, if you wait until they have grown past control : but I believe that the difficulty will not arise if the instruction be given to children when quite young. Having learnt to measure and weigh exactly, the children may be set to examine things generally. One of the best exercises that can be devised consists in weighing and measuringj-ectangular blocks of different^ kinds of wood and then reducing the results so as to ascertain the weights of equal bulks : in this way the child is led to realise that in the several varieties different amounts of the wood-stuff are packed into the same space ; that some woods are denser than others. The relative densities may then be calculated, taking the lightest as standard ; and also their densities, i.e. the quantity of wood-stuff' in the unit of volume, choosing several different units both of mass and of volume. The data thus obtained may be made use of in many ways, e.g. in setting arithmetical problems as to the weights of planks, etc., of various sizes ; and lessons may at the same time be given as to the uses and characters of the different woods, the trees from which they are obtained, etc. In a similar manner, common liquids may be studied comparatively with the aid of a simple " density " bottle, constructed by filing a nick down the glass stopper of an ordinary 2 oz. narrow-mouth bottle, which may also be used in 2 B 370 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xvm determining the relative density of solids of irregular shape. Children are thus put in possession through their own efforts of a series of numerical data whereby various materials may be characterised and can be led to understand that it is possible to convey exact information by quoting these numerical data. It is almost superfluous to point out that when the use of the balance has been learnt, a stage is reached at which the study of levers and other simple mechanical powers may very properly begin ; and that the determinations of densities of liquids serve as an appropriate introduction to Hydrostatics. Measurements of another kind, which afford most valuable training, are those effected with the aid of a thermometer. It is most important that the use of this instrument should be generally understood especially by women. It is astonishing how few people know the temperature at which water boils ; and how mysterious an instrument to most is the clinical thermometer. Practice having thus been acquired in making measurements and considerable knowledge having been gained of properties of common materials, I would advocate the quantitative study especially by girls of the effect of heat on vegetable and animal food materials and subsequently on earthy substances and metals : such exercises would serve as an appropriate introduction to the study of chemical change, which at this stage should be entered on more particularly with the object of developing the reasoning powers. I propose to give two examples by way of illustration the one relates to the discovery of the composition of air ;' the other to the discovery of the composition of chalk. In. considering air, it is the practice with niost xvm TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 371 teachers, I believe, to explain, and in some cases demonstrate, how oxygen may be prepared and how brilliantly many substances burn in it ; air is then stated to be a mixture of oxygen with nitrogen in certain proportions and certain proofs of this statement are advanced. Although much interested in the statements and delighted at witnessing the firework displays which attend combustion in oxygen, the young student is not much the wiser for such lessons : a certain amount of " prepared food " has been put into his or her mouth but no understanding acquired as to how it has been prepared or whence it came. I advocate an entirely different course : I would not say one word as to what air is or as to its having any- thing to do with combustion but would lead the scholar to discover that air is concerned in many common changes which apparently occur spontaneously and to understand how the discovery that this is the case is made. Having directed attention to the manner in which animal and vegetable substances gradually decay and are destroyed when burnt to the rusting of iron, etc., I would propose that such changes should be experimentally investigated and suggest that as iron rusts so readily when moist, the rusting of iron should be first examined ; then would come the question, " But how is this to be done ? " Having become so habituated to the use of the balance and to express facts by numerical data, the student would appreciate the advice, " Let us see whether the balance will not aid us ; let us endeavour to ascertain whether the iron gains or loses in weight during rusting." A clock glass or saucer is therefore weighed ; some iron borings or nails are put upon it and the weight ascertained ; and as iron is known to 372 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvm rust more rapidly when wet, the borings or nails are wetted and set aside to rust. After several days the rusted iron is dried in an oven and weighed: it is found that the weight has increased, whence it follows that something from somevjhere has been added to the iron. Thus a clue has been gained and following the example of the detective in search of a criminal this clue is at once followed up. "Where did the some- thing come from ? It might be the water : but is there no other possible 'offender?' Yes the iron rusted in air." This suggests the experiment of exposing wet iron in air in such a way as to ascertain whether the air is concerned in the rusting. Some borings are tied up in a piece of muslin and the bag is hung from one end of a piece of stout wire, bent round at the opposite end so as to form a foot ; the wire is set upright in a dish full of water and a large pickle jar is inverted over it, the mouth of the jar in the water. *The iron is thus shut up over water along with air. Gradually the iron rusts and concurrently the water rises in the jar showing that the air is concerned, as no rise is observed in a comparison experiment without the iron. But after a time the water ceases to rise ; measurement shows that only about one-fifth of the air disappears. Clearly, there- fore, the air is concerned. The experiment is repeated and the same result obtained ; fresh iron is put into the residual air and still no change results : hence it follows, that although the air plays a part in the rusting of the iron, the air as a whole is not active but only one-fifth part of it, which serves to suggest that the air is not uniform but has parts. Consider the importance of the lesson thus learnt; the number of discoveries made by a few simple quantitative xviii TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 373 experiments ; the insight into exact method which is gained by a thoughtful worker. To pass to my second example the discovery of the composition of chalk : how is this to be effected ? I would call attention to what is known about chalk by people generally what it is like, where it occurs and what it is used for and ask whether there is no well - known fact connected with chalk which will serve as a clue and enable us to apply our detective's method. One of the great uses of chalk is for making lime, which is got by burning chalk. Is there anything known about lime which shows that it differs from chalk ? Yes, when wetted, it slakes and much heat is given out, whilst chalk is not altered by wetting ; when the experiment is made quantitatively, lime is found to increase about 33 per cent in weight on slaking. Let us then study the conversion of chalk into lime by burning and as our unaided eyes tell us nothing, let us call in the aid of a balance. A weighed quantity of chalk is strongly heated and is found to grow lighter ; after a time, no further loss is observed and when this is the case, the loss amounts to, say, about 43 per cent; on repeating the experiment, the same result is always obtained and therefore it cannot be an accident that the loss amounts to only about 43 out of every 100 parts of chalk. What conclusion are we to draw ? Evidently that the stuff composing chalk consists of lime-stuff plus something else which is driven off when the chalk is burnt. What is this something can't we catch it as it is given off? [We can, but the experiment is difficult, requiring special appli- ances, owing to the higher temperature required to burn chalk in a close vessel.] If not, is there no 374 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvm other clue which can be followed ? Yes, there is. It is to be supposed that at an earlier stage in the experiments attention will have been directed to the way in which discoveries were made in early times : to the fact that various substances were found to act on each other, giving new substances ; and that when a new substance was discovered its action on the previously known substances was studied. That in this way various acids were discovered ; and that it was found out that these were powerful solvents of metals, earthy substances, etc., of chalk, among other substances. What happens to chalk when thus dissolved in an acid ? The experiment is tried and it is found that an air-like substance or gas escapes as the chalk dissolves. How does lime behave with acid ? It is found on trial to dissolve but no gas is given off. May it not be then that the gas which is given off when chalk becomes lime is also given off when chalk is acted on by acid ? Let us find out how much gas is given off in this latter case. A weighed quantity of chalk is dissolved in acid and the gas measured, a simple apparatus being used, like that figured in the last. British Association Eeport (that shown on p. 357); it is found, when several experiments are made, that, on the average, about 22,000 cubic centimetres of gas are given off per 100 grams of chalk chalk is thus shown to be characterised not only by the percentage of lime which it yields but also by the amount of gas which it affords when dissolved in acid. What is the weight of the gas that escapes ? The experiment is carried out [by means of a very simple apparatus] and the all -important discovery is made that the weight of the escaping gas is just about what xvm TEACHING OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD 375 was lost on burning chalk. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the gas thus studied is " the something" which is given off when chalk is burnt. If so, perhaps it may be possible to reassociate this gas with lime and produce chalk. Lime is therefore exposed in an atmosphere of the gas and the increase in weight determined ; it is eventually ascertained that the lime increases in weight to the extent required on the assumption that it is reconverted into chalk and on examining the product it is found to behave as chalk both when heated and when dissolved in acid. Thus the problem is solved and it is determined that chalk-stuff consists of lime-stuff and chalk-gas : I employ these terms advisedly and advocate their use until much later a stage is reached when systematic nomenclature can be advantageously made use of. In talking about chalk, it may be pointed out that chalk is believed to consist of skeletal remains and shells of sea animals and when the composition of chalk has been ascertained the suggestion comes naturally to examine shells. When their behaviour on burning and towards acid is studied quantitatively, results are obtained which place it beyond doubt that they consist essentially of chalk -stuff. The chalk studies thus become of very great importance and may be made to cover a wide field. It is not to be denied that there are difficulties connected with such teaching as that I am advocating but it is a libel on the scholastic profession to assert that the difficulties are insuperable. I am sure that in this case the old ever-true saying may be quoted : " Where there's a will there's a way." Sucli teaching has not yet been given simply because there has not 376 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xvm yet been the will to give it ; because its value has not yet been appreciated. But there must be less class teaching, more in- dividual attention ; an adequate proportion of the school time must be devoted to the work ; and properly trained, sympathetic teachers must be called in to give such instruction. When scientific method is taught in schools, there will inevitably be a great improvement in school teaching generally ; it will be carried on in a more scientific manner and new methods will be introduced. Indeed, I have already learnt ^from a headmaster in whose school experimental science teaching is receiving much attention, that the leaven- ing effect on the teachers of some other subjects in the school is quite remarkable and that they are clearly being led to devise more practical modes of teaching. Photography and the lantern, also, are modern weapons of great power, which often enable us to clothe the dry bones of otherwise unattractive subjects with pleasing drapery. And here the parent can often intervene with great effect. XIX HOW SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED TO BE USEFUL THERE is but one way of studying science properly that is, to come personally into contact with the facts. And my first duty as a lecturer is to warn you against merely attending lectures for the purpose. Lectures only become of real value when those who hear them know a good deal of the subject already. I am satisfied that if freely indulged in during early studies they are, as a rule, productive of much harm. The knowledge of method and the discipline afforded by laboratory studies are factors of primary importance which meet with no consideration in a lecture**eourse. Attendance at lectures may almost be said to be a fashionable craze of the day they are certainly frequented by many as a mild and moral form of entertainment, affording opportunity of indulging in intellectual dissipation in a manner which is peculiar to this country. And, still more remarkable, per- suading ourselves into the belief that we have learnt something, after attending them, we offer ourselves up for examination with an ardour which the Chinese can scarcely rival ; and examiners pocket their consciences and write complimentary reports on the results. Still 377 378 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xix more serious is the fact that in the eyes of School Board and other authorities controlling the education of our country the qualifications of a teacher are certificates, more certificates, as many certificates as possible to paraphrase the sailor's wish even though these may have been gained by mere attendance at short courses of lectures : such is our inability to dis- tinguish between shadow and substance. If we are to do our work at home properly and to carry on our fair share of the business of the world in competition with foreigners not forgetting our American cousins, who promise to be by far the most serious among our competitors in the future sounder views as to what constitutes true education must prevail. To this end we must seriously study the problem. Our School Boards must cease to wrangle perpetually over the question whether or to what extent religious dogmas shall be taught in our schools and must occasionally find time to show some slight interest in matters pertaining to sound education, thereby setting an example to their weaker brethren upon whom no elective responsibilities rest. At the outset we must order our studies primarily on utili- tarian grounds, for we cannot allow our character as practical Englishmen to suffer much longer under the reproach that our system of education in schools of whatever grade, while the most unpractical possible, also shows the most complete disregard of the value of theory. Ruskin. did not exaggerate when he wrote : " Modern ' Education ' for the most part signifies giving people the faculty of thinking wrong on every conceivable subject of importance to them." Be it remembered that all branches of natural science are based on facts slowly and patiently xix HOW SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED 379 accumulated by experiment and observation, truth having been sifted from error but gradually and often- times with great difficulty ; arid it is unreasonable to suppose that the results of the prolonged labours of innumerable inquirers can be properly brought home to and usefully assimilated by untrained workers in a few short hours. Experience shows that they are not. Those among us who have occupied the always disappointing and oftentimes very painful office of examiner all know this perfectly well and are bound to admit that our system of examinations is farcical, if not fraudulent, in the majority of cases, as a means of encouraging the acquisition of useful know- ledge by which I mean knowledge that can be used. Knowledge alone is not power ; but the knowledge how to use knowledge is. As Huxley puts it, " The great end of life is not knowledge but action." No one would attempt to learn carpentering or cooking or dressmaking by attendance at lectures, although occasional lectures might be very useful to students of such subjects. Indeed, what kind of a carpenter would a man be who had attended lectures in which a full set of carpenter's tools had been exhibited and the use of each hurriedly defined and illustrated but whose practical knowledge had been gained by merely whittling pieces of wood with his pocket-knife ? Yet it is precisely on these lines that popular lecture courses are usually conducted ; and elementary " practical " courses in chemistry, for example, have hitherto had about as much connection with the study of the subject from the practical side i.e. the side of practice as my ideal carpenter's course, in which he 380 PAPEES ON EDUCATION X ix spends his time in " whittling some," has to carpentry as practised by carpenters. You must go direct to the bench and work hard there, if you wish to learn that which will be of use to you. But you must be careful neither to attempt too much nor to be in too great a hurry to learn. Again, to quote Huxley, " What men need is as much knowledge as they can assimilate and organise into a train for action ; give them more and it may become injurious." Lecturers almost invariably fail to take into con- sideration the rate at which mental digestion takes place ; only observant teachers know how marvellously slow a process it is. University Extension lecturers are among the greatest sinners in this respect not only the young fledglings who try their 'prentice hands at the work but also the old hands ; the greatest sinners are often the popular favourites, simply because the public enjoy a performance which is full of incident. So long as lectures are regarded as a form of rational amusement this is all well and good ; when it becomes a question of education, the case is altered. I notice that it is customary in University Exten- sion courses to preface the syllabus itself an invention of the enemy with a list of text-books. To those about to begin the study of science, I would, however, say in the words of Punch Don't ! Don't look at a text-book; avoid most of them as you would poison. Their methods are as a rule detestable and destructive of all honest effort towards development of powers of self-helpfulness ; the worst offenders usually being such as are written by those who have " felt a want " in connection with some particular examination. Leave xix HOW SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED 381 it to those who are not called on to do work in the world to learn up facts. Let your efforts be to learn how to accomplish something. If I were to give you a list of " text-books " it would be somewhat as follows : First I should strongly advise you to read Herbert Spencer's Essay on Education (Williams & Norgate), costing Is. lid., so that you may have clear ideas on the subject of education. It is a book that every one should study and from which much may be learnt as to why scientific habits and knowledge are of such extreme use to us in our daily life. Then you should read the essays and lectures on scientific and sanitary subjects by the celebrated naturalist-divine, Charles Kingsley. From these you will without effort gain much instruction in scientific method far more than from any dozen modern text- books besides much healthy and sound advice and information of practical and moral value. Next would come a liberal course of detective literature, beginning perhaps with Edgar Allan Poe's " Murder in the Eue Morgue " and other such stories in his Tales of Mystery and Imagination; then passing on to Gaboriau in the original French, if possible and later writers of repute in this province of literature. Study such looks do not merely devour them as exciting stories, until you clearly understand their method ; and seek to criticise them, for they are often full of faults. If you also read Ru skin's Sesame and Lilies with appreciation at this stage you will be further strengthened in pursuing your studies in the proper spirit : especially the advice he gives as to reading should be followed ; and Carlyle, studied in moderation, 382 PAPERS ON EDUCATION x,x will here be of service in aiding you to form your character. Then read as much as you can of the lives and doings of discoverers, explorers and inventors of searchers after truth generally. In fact, your object should be to awaken within yourselves the spirit of the discoverer, the spirit of the explorer, the spirit of the inventor and of the investigator ; to gain some inkling of their motives and methods. If you are to progress you must understand how progress has taken place. You must learn how knowledge is gained if you are to learn how to use it and you must approach its study in the proper moral attitude. Nearly all the failures of students are due to disregard of this. There is but one technical work that I would recommend all to master at an early period in their chemical studies that is Black's tract on Magnesia Alba, published in 1755, of which a reprint is now procurable from Clay, of Edinburgh, price Is. 6d. It is probably the most perfect and philosophical statement of the work done in the course of an original inquiry ever written and must serve as a model for all time. Now to apply this doctrine to your work. Follow- ing the anti-scientific practice which has arisen from putting new wine into old bottles from attempting to teach science by old-fashioned and even discredited literary methods and, it cannot be denied, from laziness and the desire to do things with as little trouble to ourselves as possible, when we lecture to beginners we more often than not begin by dogmatising and then offer questionable proof of the correctness of our dogmas. At the outset of a chemical course, for instance, xix HOW SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED 383 the University Extension lecturer, in good old-fashioned style, usually thinks it necessary to define chemical as distinct from physical change, instead of allowing such ideas to grow up gradually and naturally, as Topsy did : forgetting that his hearers are entire strangers to such words as " chemical " and " physical." Taking two pieces of wire, he shows that one may be made red hot without alteration while the other takes fire and burns brilliantly as does this piece of magnesium giving off clouds of white smoke, a mere ghostly skeleton of a brittle white earthy substance remaining. Not satisfied with demonstrating facts, he usually proceeds to fling a complete explanation at his hearers, telling them that the magnesium which most of them have neither seen nor heard of before except perhaps in connection with Crystal Palace fireworks or the mild laxative citrate of magnesia enters into combination with the oxygen of the air (of which again they know nothing) to form a chemical compound, oxide of magnesium. Almost immediately afterwards probably the various laws of chemical combination definite, multiple and reciprocal will be stated in the form of Euclidian propositions and enforced by quotations of examples all entirely strange to the listeners. In five minutes almost information is imparted which it has taken fifty years to acquire. And so throughout the course : the attitude of the lecturer, when not that of the showman, is always that of papal infallibility. The cause of true science has suffered infinite injury in this country at the hands of such teachers and of the system which makes their existence possible. They have, indeed, been false prophets ! The students who follow such courses become mere prigs some few, it is found, can retail more or less 384 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xix of the information imparted to them to an examiner provided always that he lose no time in interrogating them but they cannot make any effective use of it. Many, doubtless, are entertained, if riot interested at the time ; a few, perhaps, are attracted, but if so, they start with entirely false conceptions of the aims and methods of science and rarely recover their proper mental balance. The injury that is done when those who have been instructed in such a manner themselves seek to teach is incalculable. As have many others, I have long protested against the system and it is fairly generally admitted to be a wrong one. But yet we do little to get " forrarder," the fact being that the deadening effect of our methods of training is such that we teachers too often go forth to our work mere machines, with the spirit of inquiry and adventure crushed out of us slavish imitators of a long series of misguided predecessors, ever taught to follow with unquestioning obedience. And yet we English pride ourselves on our individuality, forsooth ! What is the result ? Our nation is gradually being beaten in every quarter, in every field. When this occurs in athletics, Punch and the public not only note the fact but the former advises as to the one and only remedy against future failure for this week, speaking as Brother Jonathan, he remarks, " Say, John, you'd better go into training again " ; and the lesson will be taken to heart. But in the case of the matters which I have been discussing, there is no question of going into training again; we have not yet even begun to train properly. The nation does not know enough to under- stand how faulty is our system and how absolutely we court failure by adhering to the old " classical " methods which experience shows to be unfit methods of teaching xix HOW SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED 385 classics even. And when, half perceiving this, we seek to change, we jump straight from the frying-pan of blank ignorance into the fire of technical education, where, as a rule, we find but our old foe the dogmatic teacher in thin disguise and consequently are no better off'. Let me now be constructive. At the beginning of a course I would give no definitions whatever would say nothing about the differences between changes ; but having directed attention to the constant occur- rence of change, would suggest that changes should be studied, in order, if possible, to discover their nature, for the study of change is the business of the chemist and no wider nor simpler definition of chemistry can be given. The method is in no way novel : it is the historical method that used in days when examinations and text-books were not and used in principle by every explorer. For instance, I would call attention to the rusting of iron a crime against Nature done by Nature's hands which man has constantly to deplore. Students who have already enlisted in that new force of science detectives which in the future is to render such service to our country, well read in Edgar Allan Poe and other writers of works on scientific method, will naturally in the first instance study the victim the rust ; moreover, finding themselves placed in a better position than their colleagues in the police force, inasmuch as they can have before them at the same time, if not the actually victimised iron, at least what they know to be the twin sample, as well as the rust, they will carefully contrast the unaltered with the altered substance. Having previously been well drilled in the practice of elementary physical measurements, they will require 2 c 386 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xix little telling to determine among other things the relative density of each in order that they may be able to insert indisputable numerical data in place of vague statements in the report they ultimately draw up following the practice of the ordinary police detective, who is not content to describe the victim as tall or short but takes his photograph nowadays and measures him and states the actual height in his report to headquarters. It is then ascertained that the rust is specifically much lighter than the iron, whence arises the idea that perhaps something is given up by the iron in rusting. How- is the clue thus opened out to be followed ? Surely by contrasting the weight of the rusted with that of the unrusted iron. Iron nails or tacks or borings or turnings, free from grease, are therefore weighed out in a saucer, for instance ; as it is well known that iron rusts only when wet they are then wetted ; after some time, when rusting has taken place, any water adherent to the rusting iron is removed by baking it. On again weighing, a considerable increase is noted. Thus it is discovered that something from somewhere becomes added to the iron during rusting. A very definite clue to the mystery is thereby gained. As water is so necessary to rusting, is not perhaps the water the active agent in rusting ? How can this be tested ? Surely by shutting up iron, say in a bottle, along with water. When this is done little alteration is noticed, so that water alone cannot be the cause of rusting. What other associates has iron during rusting ? Surely air. A little consideration suggests that iron should be shut up along with air over water. This is done and it is observed that as the iron rusts the air disappears but never to a greater extent than about one-fifth. xix HOW SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED 387 In this way not only is it discovered what happens to iron in rusting but students find out that the air plays a part and an interest is awakened in air. They then at least easily appreciate, if they do not naturally ask the question Is it perhaps concerned in other common changes which take place under such conditions that air may take part in them ? In cases of burning, for example ? Such are then studied and it is soon discovered that the air is concerned ; but again only to the extent of at most one -fifth. Ultimately, on investigation, all changes which go on in air are found to be changes in which one particular constituent of the air is concerned and sooner or later students learn to know this active substance as oxygen. Working in such a manner, nothing is stated or taken for granted ; step by step everything is discovered and the discoveries which are made are obviously of a most important character. Thus it is not only ascertained how iron rusts but the nature of air is disclosed and the purpose it serves made clear ; and the nature of fire that it is the outcome of the union of certain substances is also in a measure displayed. Let me assume that you have gone thus far and let me illustrate the manner of working out another example the action of acids on metals. Among the common substances to which attention is directed at the outset for, of course, the teacher does and must ever guide the work of the student, while ever on guard to avoid stating in advance the solution of the problem under consideration will have been the acids, such as oil of vitriol, only too well known from police-court reports of vitriol-throwing, if in no other way ; aquafortis, used by the jeweller in distinguishing 388 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xix spurious gold; and muriatic acid or spirits of salt, used by the zinc worker, among others, in preparing his soldering fluid. After studying the corrosive action which these acids exercise on various metals, students will desire to know what happens when they dissolve metals in acids how should they find out ? The last thing to do is to tell them, the only possible greater sin being to chalk up equations having no real meaning in their eyes in explanation of what goes on for in my opinion, at this stage, no students in our new force should have the least conception of the meaning of symbols, formulae and equations ; they should gain several good -conduct stripes for other work of more immediate importance to the force at large before being allowed to enter on such a beat. Taking metals such as zinc and iron and perhaps magnesium and acids such as vitriolic and muriatic, they would dissolve these metals in the diluted acids, economising always by taking, in the first instance, definite small quantities of acid and metal for "waste not, want not " should be the maxim inculcated from the very beginning in all such work, as it is of the essence of all truly scientific practice. But in order again to be in a position to report in the most definite possible and unmistakable terms to headquarters, the young detectives should be led to ascertain than which nothing is easier exactly how much gas is given off in each case both by definite quantities of each metal and an excess of acid and definite quantities of acid and an excess of metal. They would thus discover that the amount of gas varied with the metal but not with the acid ; and other interesting quantitative relationships would also be xix HOW SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED 389 disclosed, throwing light on the origin of the gas and the nature of the changes. Proceeding next to examine the gas given off in each case, having collected sufficient, they would test it. How ? How had gases been previously tested ; what gases had been examined ? Only those from air and of these it was known that only one allowed ordinary combustibles to burn in it. Testing the gas from each metal and either acid in this way, in each case it is found that it burns. The gas therefore is evidently different from both constituents of air. " What more can be done with it ? " asks the inspector. To which the answer should come, " Surely, sir, as all burning things we have studied have burnt at the expense of the oxygen in air, this gas probably does so likewise ; and if so, it may be expected to give some product. We ought to find out how it burns and what is formed from it." " Good ! I leave you to set to work and follow out this clue. No better suggestion could be made," says the inspector. They soon find that the new gas will not burn in azote the inactive part of air but will readily enough in oxygen. On arranging an experiment to see what happens when it burns in air, in which the gas is burnt from a jet placed inside a clean bell jar full of air standing in a dish containing water, it is noticed that, as the gas burns, the water gradually rises proving that the air is used up, as was to be expected. At the same time the cool upper surface of the jar becomes " bedewed." " Hallo ! " remark the young investigators, " evidently there is a liquid product formed. We must get more of this and see what it is." Some of them may have at some time noticed that when a clean kettle full of cold water is first put 390 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xix over a gas flame, liquid condenses on its surface and may suggest that by burning the gas they are studying just under a flask kept full of cold water, they will be able to collect enough of the liquid for examination. Having fitted up an apparatus which enables them to constantly generate the gas, they burn the gas and at the end perhaps of half an hour have collected suffi- cient liquid for examination. It looks like water. Is it water ? How can this be found out ? Surely by comparing it with water ; but how ? Well, what do we know of water? We know that it freezes in winter and boils when made hot enough ; that the ice melts at a particular temperature and that the water boils at a particular temperature. Some water is therefore frozen around the bulb of a thermometer affixed by means of a loose cork near to the bottom and in the axis of a small test tube, the freezing being done by means of the penny iceman's mixture of ice and salt ; when the water is frozen, the tube is detached by slightly warming it externally, leaving a cylinder of ice attached to the thermometer. The temperature at which the ice melts is then noted. Then, taking the liquid to be compared with water, this is in a similar manner frozen around the thermometer bulb and the ice is then allowed to melt, taking care to collect the liquid from it in a test tube held under it; the melting-point agrees with that found for water. Next, a little cotton-wool is wrapped around the thermometer bulb and the thermometer is held in the axis of a test tube in which a small quantity of water is briskly boiled. A similar experiment is subsequently made with the liquid from the gas. The two boiling-points agree. There can be no doubt, then, that w r ater is produced xix HOW SCIENCE MUST BE STUDIED 391 when the inflammable gas burns and as the gas gives rise to water when burnt in oxygen that water in some way contains these two gases. The gas may in future if we are prepared to talk Greek as English- men very often are be termed hydrogen, which means water producer. Just consider what an important discovery is thus made and how much is learnt in making it. But who could imagine that the study of what happens when the zinc worker dissolves some spelter in spirit of salt would have led to the establishment of so remarkable a fact as that water is composed of two gases hydrogen and oxygen. It is just in this way, however, that important discoveries are almost always made. I trust the examples quoted will suffice to make my meaning clear that you will see that instruction given on such lines must have the effect of raising the intelligence of the student and developing habits of self- helpfulness. That students so taught will not only gain knowledge of facts but also of method of scientific method which is of far more importance. That they will learn to work with a purpose and to devise experiments calculated to afford definite information as to certain clearly defined issues ; to work cautiously and exactly ; to observe carefully as well as to make use of their observations ; and to be logical and guarded in their judgments. After such an introduction, lectures may be some- times attended and text-books occasionally consulted with safety and profit but always after the attempt has been made to discover the facts in the workshop as there will no longer be any danger that dogmatic conclusions will be accepted without inquiry. 392 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xix Such a method ma) 7 , of course, be adopted and, I believe, with profit in popular lectures even. What I have wished to point out is that you must never be satisfied with lectures alone if you wish to do more than spend your time pleasantly that attendance at lectures alone may do you harm instead of good and may even lead you to copy the bad example of the frog in the well-known fable. As I said at the beginning, the student of any branch of natural science must go to the bench and work hard there. Now that we have Polytechnics here, there and everywhere, no difficulty can arise in gaining access to a laboratory ; and if teachers can but be kept free from the clutches of the examination demon, or even if the demon will mend his ways and become an honourable, useful, retiring member of society, there is no reason why rational courses of instruction in all subjects should not be open to the public to an extent to meet all requirements. XX JUVENILE EESEAECH DR. ARMSTRONG, in introducing the subject of "Juvenile Kesearch," said that the method of which he was an advocate was referred to by some who professed to follow it as a new method, although, in fact, it was very old. In proof, he quoted a passage from the preface to Priestley's Collected Works, published in 1790 (see p. 20). On the present occasion he desired to deal with the teaching of what was commonly called Elementary Physics. This subject was included with chemistry in the scheme put forward by the Committee of the British Association which reported in 1888-1890 on the teaching of science in schools and it is now generally recognised that exercises in physical measure- ment must, to some extent, precede the study of chemistry. Schemes were now in the hands of teachers which were in many ways admirable guides and yet there could be little doubt that even the best of these had been drawn up far too much from a professional academic point of view, under the influence of mathematical bias without sufficiently considering what young children really could do with advantage, 393 394 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xx what it was most desirable that they should do and above all that such work must be carried out on heuristic lines. There was great danger indeed that exercises in physical measurement would be worked in too mechanical a manner at word of command much as were the conventional examples in mathematical text -books and that children would not be led to appreciate the true value of such work ; consequently the training would not be productive of the desired effect. It was a fundamental mistake not to let children begin experimenting at an early age and not to have faith in their intelligence and reasoning powers. In any case, they must be set to work with an object at something which they could grasp the meaning of and which was of some interest to them ; and they should be guided entirely from the point of view urged so eloquently by Priestley. At the present juncture, however, criticism was of no value unless constructive : the only way to discover how the work could be properly and best done was to solve the problem by experiment. Dr. Armstrong proceeded to give an account of physical experiments made during the past two years by three young children, respectively about 7, 10 and 1 2 years old, when they began ; the plan followed throughout had been to carry on the work as though it were an investigation. In reading a little book by the late Henry Drurnmond, The Monkey that would not Kill a charming story of an irrepressible monkey whose doings led his successive masters always to seek to put an end to him they came across the statement that the monkey was thrown into the sea, xx JUVENILE RESEARCH 395 tied to a stone which he could not lift and that while under water he was able to lift the stone and walk to the shore, because the stone ivas lighter in water than in air. When the children asked if this could have been the case, they were advised to try for themselves. A balance being at hand and knowing how to weigh, they weighed a heavy stone in air and in water and so discovered that the statement in the story-book was true. It was then agreed to continue the work and that each child should write an account in copper-plate style, describing what was done. [At the demonstration the youngest child, 9^ years old, briefly described the monkey's doings, speaking to lantern slides, as the pictures were cast on the screen. He also weighed a stone before the audience, using a balance placed on a drawing-board supported between two tables ; a pail full of water was placed below the board and the stone was hung from one pan of the balance by means of a fine wire which passed through holes in the base of the balance and the drawing-board.] To see if other things besides stones lost weight in water, two ebony cubes and a ^ Ib. iron weight were similarly weighed ; and diagrams were then drawn and coloured showing the extent to which each object lost weight. It was evident that the loss had more to do with the size than with the original weight. The cubes could be measured but the stone and weight could not : so the bulk was determined of each object by lowering it into a tilted kettle full of water and catching the water which flowed from the spout ; it was then noticed that the weight of the displaced water and the loss in weight which the object suffered in water were very nearly the same. As very large 396 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xx drops fell from the kettle, a more delicate apparatus was arranged by fitting to an inverted bell jar, supported in a tripod, a bent tube drawn out to a moderately fine point. Two jars of different size were used. The results were very irregular. This led to the youngest child carrying out a long series of experi- ments to ascertain why the same object did not regularly displace the same amount of water through the jet. Eventually it was established that the amount displaced was the same, provided the jet was clean but only then (through the effect of grease, etc., on the surface tension of water) : thus a most important lesson in the value of cleanliness was most thoroughly learnt and impressed. In making these experiments, it was noticed that when the jar was full, water having just ceased to overflow from the jet, quite a considerable amount of water could be added before water began again to issue from the jet. The amount required in the case of each jar and when a variety of jets were used was found by running in water from a burette. [The experiment was done by the youngest boy.] The amounts were very different : but one jar was much wider than the other. This led to the comparison of the areas of the circular sections of the different jars. Eventually the area of the water surface in each jar was ascertained. Dr. Armstrong dwelt on the fact that, being intro- duced in such a way, a definite object being in view, this exercise was entered on with full understanding and appreciation of its value. When children are set in the ordinary way to find the area within a circle by means of squared paper, although they do so, it may be often, with considerable interest, probably xx JUVENILE KESEAECH 397 it rarely strikes them that such an exercise has any particular application. As the monkey was thrown into the sea, it remained to ascertain how sea -water changed the weight of things it was certainly different from ordinary water. So at the first opportunity, on visiting the sea-side, the balance was taken and a number of pebbles were weighed in sea-water as well as in ordinary water : they not only lost in weight but to a greater extent than in ordinary water. Finally, to drive proof fully home, a canvas bag was made and into this stones were put until the youngest child could no longer lift the bag; when this was carried into the sea by the elder children, the youngest found that he could easily lift it under water. A lesson for life was thus learnt and in the course of learning it much training of value had been received. [The second child a girl read out the account she had written of this part of the work.] The question "Why does sea -water have more effect than ordinary water in diminishing weight ? " was next considered. While the boy was engaged in, as he put it, " struggling with the bell jars," the second child a girl undertook the examination of sea-water. As sea-water tastes salt, perhaps there is salt in it. A measured bulk was evaporated and the residue weighed ; and the density of the water i.e., the weight in grams of 1 c.c. was determined. Then 10 gallons of sea- water were procured from the Great Eastern Eailway Company ; this was boiled down in a porcelain dish, at last almost to a paste. The solid was filtered off and the remaining liquid concentrated. After washing the solid with a little cold water, it was dissolved in water and again crystallised. In 398 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xx redissolving the solid it was found that a relatively small quantity of a slightly soluble substance was present (gypsum) ; this was collected and weighed. The first washings from the salt, when concentrated, gave crystals of another substance, Epsom salts. The final mother liquor, on evaporation, gave a substance which rapidly attracted water when left in the air. The recrystallised salt was carefully compared with common salt in a variety of ways. It was thus discovered that sea -water contained a number of different substances. At this point the two younger children, who had been for a time working at different subjects, came together again, while the eldest pursued the course of inquiry opened up by the observations made with sea- water. His work was prefaced by a summary of a story in Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book " Why the Sea is Salt." Knowing that the sea is fed by rivers, which in turn are fed by springs, etc., he boiled down considerable quantities of the waters locally available and actually separated from Thames water enough salt to recognise and even taste it. Having obtained a con- siderable quantity of solid from the water used locally for drinking and knowing that this came from wells in the chalk, he was led to compare the solid with chalk ; and from this point he was subsequently led on to study chalk fully. The younger boy and girl had meanwhile entered on a course of experiments suggested by another story that of the Three Giants, in Stead's series of Id. Books for the Bairns, the three giants in question representing the powers of running water, of steam and of air in motion. [The pictures in the book were shown as lantern slides and the girl gave a clear account xx JUVENILE EESEAECH 399 of their meaning.] These experiments, like the earlier ones, had largely to do with the determination of the properties of water. Dr. Armstrong explained that throughout the work the greatest attention had been paid to the develop- ment of a good literary style writing, spelling, composition, having all been most carefully looked after. The children were also encouraged to draw diagrams and photographs were freely used in illustration of their work. XXI "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" IT will be desirable, in the first place, to be clear what domestic science is or may be ; probably no two of us woul'd give the same definition. Those who are really aware of what is implied in the word science will need no explanation of the meaning that may be attached to the term ; and to those who are not, it will be impossible to convey one usefully. It cannot well be done by talking ; true understanding can only be gained from actual experience, for it is necessary to be in some measure trained scientifically to have done scientific work to appreciate scientific method, at all events at its full worth. The term " scientific " implies so much more than the mere possession of knowledge ! it implies the power of using knowledge with nous or understanding ; in fact, mere knowledge counts for very little, nous for everything. On this account I should much like to see the word science abolished, at all events, from elementary teaching and nous or knowingness substituted. I believe the change would be of great advantage politically; nous is such a simple harmless word, almost Saxon in its brevity, with no suspicion of Greek or Latin in it to the ordinary ear and it might well pass muster unnoticed. 400 xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 401 The general public would not object to pay for nous ; they do, quite properly, for science ; in fact, for anything having a name with a classical ring about it. This is perhaps a consequence of our extreme de- votion to classics ; it would be wicked to suggest that the training penetrates but skin deep and that the prejudice that the word science has some fearsome, irreligious, ultramundane, hidden meaning is never tempered by the attempt to divine its true significance. When it is understood that the object of teaching domestic science is to secure the development of nous or understanding in matters domestic, no objection can or will be taken to the statement that it is a subject to be studied by all girls and in which all women must be adepts in the near future, as it is the necessary precursor of successful household management. Science in the ordinary acceptation of the term a thorough acquaintance with and appreciation of the facts and fancies pertaining to any particular branch of know- ledge is no more necessary to the average girl than to the average boy but it will always be open to the girl with innate capabilities to cultivate such knowledge when she has successfully mastered those elements of scientific method which should be within the ken of every member of the community. Kuskin, who knew little of scientific method and despised it accordingly but who nevertheless often unwittingly displayed marvellous scientific intuition, has gracefully said of woman " It is of no moment to her own worth of dignity that she should be ac- quainted with this science or that but it is of the highest importance that she should be trained in habits of accurate thought." No clearer statement of woman's requirements could possibly be wished for or made 2 P 402 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxi it is only necessary to read thought as implying and covering action. But there can be no doubt that Euskin meant that woman should be trained in habits of accurate action, as thought without consequent action is of no avail. It may be permitted to a man to suggest that perhaps the failure to train woman in habits of accurate thought is a cause of many of the shortcomings of our weaker sex ; and that we should be less behind the times if those whose slaves we are made greater demands upon us and set us a brighter example if the women of England did but see their opportunity if they did but understand how real is the danger ahead and spur us on to arm ourselves betimes against the enemy, whose advance guard is already upon us and who clearly will grant no quarter in the future to such as are guilty of ignorance of the laws and workings of Nature. Training in domestic knowingness must come before training in household management if the latter is to be effective. I use the expression household manage- ment advisedly in place of domestic economy. No one in this country does or can think of economy in connection with the word domestic common experi- ence shows the two conceptions to be altogether in- compatible. If a more rational name were given to the subject it might also be taught in a more rational manner than is at present possible. Shakespeare was not often in the wrong but he certainly was in saying " What's in a name ? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." A name is every- thing when it involves not merely a definition but a programme. The point of this introduction is that if you ask xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 403 me what you are to teach and how you are to teach, I would say anything and in any way, provided it lead to the development of nous in connection with household affairs. I would urge you, however, not to attempt too much but to remember always that you are seeking to form habits and not to impart mere knowledge. No one is a stronger advocate than I am of practical teaching of teaching which has direct reference to the life work of the pupil and I think the most un- mitigated selfish twaddle is often talked of the value of learning for its own sake ; no learning is of any use which cannot be made use of. But when I say life work of the pupil, I mean the whole of it the whole occupation during waking hours. I altogether deprecate the mixing up in school of training in method with training in practice. To mix up cooking with the study of the effects of heat, as is done in some of the schemes now in use, appears to me most undesir- able. The effects of heat should be studied in such a manner and with the aid of such examples that when cooking is undertaken a clear conception should be at once formed of the part the heat plays. The necessary subjects in a course intended to give training in domestic knowingness appear to me to be 1. Measurement work Undertaken chiefly with the object of constituting the habit of measuring. 2. The study of water In so far as is necessary to understand its uses. 3. The study of the effects of heat Chiefly on water, involving the study of the changes in the properties of water produced by heat changes. 4. The study of air More particularly in relation 404 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxi to the part it plays in ordinary changes and in the combustion of fuel and food. WEIGH ! WEIGH ! ! WEIGH ! ! ! It is now customary to devote much time to exer- cises involving linear measurements and the measure- ment of areas, using squared paper. It is easy to exaggerate the importance of such work and, as I have before pointed out, there is a growing danger that the exercises will assume the stereotyped form of the conventional arithmetic book ; it is good up to the point of teaching accuracy in determining dimensions and it is most useful in connection with the arithmetic and geography teaching; but it is dry stuff and of slight ulterior value in comparison with weighing an operation in which young children take the greatest delight, although they soon tire of exercises in mere linear measurements. And they are right, as they nearly always are. To weigh, you must get up and move about ; but the rule is a stick ; the balance moves and shows that it is all but alive in doing its work ; action promotes action. Moreover, in weighing, all the elementary rules and operations in arithmetic are visualised including decimals and easily learnt. Weighing also is the basis of household thrift. I therefore always contend that weighing should be so constantly resorted to as to become an absolute habit something should be weighed almost every day. No twaddle should be taught about the principles of the balance let academically-inclined examiners and inspectors form a class among themselves for the dis- cussion of all such tweedledum and tweedledee matters : the balance should be used. Fancy the state of per- fection we shall arrive at when all cooks weigh out xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 405 the ingredients of their concoctions ; when the loss in weight which the joint suffers in roasting, boiling or baking is determined and consequently some thought is exercised in such operations ; when the coal put on the fire or the gas burnt is weighed at least meta- phorically and the relation between quantity used and effect produced is constantly before us as it must be if we are ever to put a stop to the criminal waste of coal and of almost everything going on at the present time. We cannot do this by any number of book lessons or teachers' solemn warnings spoken once or twice in that indeterminate period yclept a blue moon ; habits antagonistic to wastefulness must be engendered and inculcated in some practical way. I believe the balance to be our one chance. The great success which has attended German manufacturing industry in modern times is largely a consequence of the intro- duction of what I would call the Spirit of the Balance into the works. But the balance must be used from the infant in arms and kindergarten stages upwards. I am moved to make this statement by " A Science Syllabus for a Secondary School," which recently came under my notice. It is true that it is for those poor things known as boys, who apparently may be called upon to suffer almost anything short of rational treatment in these days ; but as I am not sure that girls are not also likely to suffer somewhat similar treatment, I am anxious to put forward a protest and appeal on their behalf while there is yet time. The syllabus I refer to provides that, in the first year, boys of an average age of 1 lj are to be inducted into Nature Study ; but linear measurements are to be begun towards the end of the year. In the second, 406 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxi the measurement of areas is to be introduced. The measurement of volume and of weighing are not to come until the third year, when the boys are of the mature average age of 13^-. Such rapidity of progress is truly awful ! But, joking apart, it is imperative that it be realised that we shall never make any progress if we move ahead at such slow rates and that we must take higher views of the powers latent in our British boys and girls and seek to educate them not into being, for they are there into active expression. The point is one of such importance, one on which the development of youthful intelligence is so absolutely dependent, that I will ask you to pardon me if I dwell somewhat more fully on it. Nature Study, as I have said, is advocated by the author of the syllabus in question as a suitable subject to be taken in the first year by boys of the average age of 11|-, his argument being that "boys of this age are unable to undertake the systematic study of either physics or chemistry and nature study seems to be best fitted to train them in observation and in such abstract reasoning as they are capable of." Two points deserve attention in this sentence the first is the implied slur on the power of children to reason. Years ago, when rational methods involving some exercise of thought were advocated, we were always met with the statement " Oh, but children cannot reason." The libel has not been republished of late and I had thought that we had lived the prejudice down indeed that the truth was beginning to dawn if not to prevail Those who know children it is to be feared they are but few in number will fearlessly assert, I believe, that childhood is the time when the xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 407 reasoning faculties are most easily called into action and when the powers of imagination are most acutely and spontaneously exercised. The extent and character of our reasoning power is necessarily limited by our opportunities and bounded by our experience, except in so far as imagination carries us outside experience ; children cannot be expected to deal with matters entirely outside their experience, suddenly introduced to their notice ; but if the way be properly prepared, there is no difficulty in leading them to master what are commonly regarded as abstruse problems. My belief is that we simply do not know what young people are capable of and that we must not allow ourselves to be hampered by preconceived opinions. Then as to the value of Nature Study as a pre- liminary subject, surely this is much exaggerated. It is important that there should be no misunderstanding on this point. We cannot do too much to inculcate a love of Nature and to cultivate the aesthetic sense ; but how difficult this is, especially in towns. Were it not that flowers help us, it would be almost im- possible ; and it is necessary to realise that in the case of children the picking of the flowers is often the chief enjoyment : the aesthetic sense comes later. In the future we shall derive more aid from photographs from lantern pictures and from enlargements ; but probably it will be some time ere Turing's dictum is fully appreciated that " Photography to the teacher is almost as great an invention as printing." Too many schools still sail under bare poles ; their walls are blankly hideous. The kind of Nature Study advocated for schools is very poor kind of fun after all, looked at from the point of view of encouraging a love of Nature. And 408 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxi when, as it usually does, it develops into that rank and pretentious hybrid Physiography, it becomes a shallow fraud as a means of training. Huxley never did a worse day's work that when he put forward his lectures in the form of a text-book; as lectures and when delivered by him they were doubtless admirable but as a book they are doing infinite injury to rational teaching. You cannot study Nature unless by scientific methods. You must observe, compare, measure and weigh ; and to do all these requires training. Thus, the opening sentence of the syllabus I have before referred to reads : " The school and its surroundings. Examination of wood and stone, of soil and gravel, comparison of soil with gravel of playground." The examination can be nothing more than word painting unless measurements of some kind are made. The main difference to the boy between garden and play- ground would be that he got severe gravel rash and tore the knees of his trousers when he fell on the latter. Why not then face the difficulty at once and let any kind of measurement that is necessary be made ? Such work would be no more difficult to a child and far more interesting than mere weather charting. To accord relative density a place along with weighing in a third year course for boys of 13^- and to qualify it with the bracketed remark " (relative density is taken as the boy has at this period reached proportion in arithmetic)" is to reduce boys to a state of prehistoric helplessness. My friend Professor Perry would say and prove that at such an age the boy should already be far advanced in the calculus. In his recent vigorous address, as President of the Electrical Engineers, he has protested, as I am now doing, against the terrible conservatism of teachers in xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 409 holding back their pupils. Why not let the boy or girl learn to weigh, as well as to measure volume, as soon as a balance can be handled ; and why not familiarise them from the outset with the con- ception of density the amount of stuff in a thing rather than with that of relative density ? Why wait also until the fourth year course to trot out the sacred principle of Archimedes ? How can we expect to retain our maritime supremacy if we don't teach boys to understand why ships float until they are of an age at which formerly they were thought to be capable of leading cutting-out expeditions ? For further information I would refer you to Captain Marry at, who might well be consulted by teachers as to what boys can do, for his stories are not entirely the product of his imagination but are based on solid fact. To come down from the clouds, the point I wish to make is that for the purposes of an elementary course it is unnecessary and even undesirable to spend much time on the measurement and consideration of mere lengths and areas ; that it is desirable to proceed almost at once to the measurement of weights and volume. Areas can, if necessary, be treated fully as part of the arithmetic and geometry course but should as far as possible be dealt with incidentally. Begin with solids cubes of course. Determine their linear dimensions, study the properties of the square and find the area of the cube face. Determine the volume of the cube by a displacement method. Weigh the water it displaces and let it be seen that the weight in grams is practically the same as the volume in centimetre cubes. Although I say do all this, I mean, of course, don't do it yourselves ; but make the children do it all. 410 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxi Next determine the weight of the cube and from the weight and volume, infer the density the quantity of stuff in a cubic centimetre. Then, if you will, pay Archimedes the compliment of following his example weigh the cube in water ; you will be happy ever afterwards, as you can then determine the volume of any solid, whatever its shape, and so infer the density in grams per c.c. (not the relative density) of the stuff of which it is made. Determine the density of ordinary coins of copper, silver and gold and if there be a child in the class born with a silver spoon in her mouth, have that spoon tested ; in other words, let no opportunity slip. You may even discourage a love of mock jewellery by contrasting its density with that of gold and silver. Examine liquids as well as solids. Have solutions made of various strengths of salt or soda and let their density be determined and let these be used in sorting eggs good from bad. Let some girl each day bring a sample of milk and determine its density ; put the results on a diagram. Sooner or later you will be in a position to determine the degree of affinity the local milk supply bears to the pump and you may even exercise a moral influence on its quality and thus gain the goodwill of all the mothers with young children. Have cubes made of various materials or blocks of various shapes, if you will ; in any case gradually create an interest in and the desire to learn something about everything that comes to hand. In this way you will really study the school and its surroundings ; you will not merely talk about them in a vague and indeterminate way. And it is so easy to deal with matters which to the classical mind bear a transcendental aspect. The ball is an object loved by children ; it is xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 411 just as easy to weigh a ball as any other object in water and so determine its volume. Its diameter is measured without difficulty. A section through the middle of a ball is evidently circular. The area within a circle is easily deduced by means of squared paper and the relation of circumference to diameter the mystic TT even more easily found with the aid of a ribbon reel or a cup. It is then child's play to develop the rule for finding the area within a circle and even to pass from the square on the radius to the corre- sponding cube and to discover what relation the volume of the sphere bears to TT and the cube on the radius. And then in view of our interest in the land surface of our globe, you may well go on to determine the surface of a sphere by stripping off the cover from a tennis ball, spreading it out and outlining it on paper and then dividing up the area into centimetre squares. All sorts of problems about the globe then become real and easily understood. But I do not consider this example belongs properly to a girl's elementary course. If only properly introduced, all such exercises as I have referred to are easily carried out and understood. Last year I explained how I thought they might be led up to with great advantage by means of some simple story. Another year's experience has more than confirmed this view. The story of the Three Giants in Stead's Id. series of Books for the Bairns has proved invaluable and I most strongly recommend it as a text-book in studying the properties of water ; you cannot buy a cheaper one and there is not another to equal it for very young children. And the effect of using such books is reciprocal. Gradually, as the allegory is interpreted and its meaning made clear 412 PAPEES ON EDUCATION , xxi in practice, the force of the narrative becomes more and more obvious and afterwards less effort is required to understand a story ; a hidden meaning is sought for, in fact, where before none was seen. To conclude what I have to say about measurement work, let me insist that it is not a question of teaching mensuration by practical methods but of forming the habit of measuring and weighing with all the attendant consequences ; therefore exercises such as I have referred to must be repeated over and over again but of course in a varied form if desirable ; and they must never be mere demonstrations. As far as possible, it must always be some little piece of juvenile research work that is undertaken, some little problem that is worked out. And in order to induce habits of regular systematic observation, all sorts of measurements should be kept going and discussed thermometer and barometer may be read ; squares of flannel of known size may be weighed daily and the change in moistness determined ; the amount of gas burned daily may be registered. All such observations must be recorded as diagrams : quite young children may be led to appreciate these, even if they only regard them from the same point of view as they do the wonderful way in which Alice grew taller or shorter when down the rabbit's hole in Wonderland. It must not be supposed that they cannot, because the average reader of a daily paper is blind to the meaning of the diagrams given in representation of changes in the weather conditions. And as to the value of such work, we have only to consider what we should gain if housekeepers kept before them some graphic record of the consumption of articles in common use ; how much waste might thereby be prevented because noticed. xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 413 Something is needed to bring home to schools generally kindergartens included the mental and moral value of measurement work. If Kudyard Kipling could but be persuaded to write a song with the refrain " Weigh, weigh, weigh," which could be hummed and danced to by girls during the science lessons and sung on state occasions in colleges and universities he would be doing infinite service. A writer in the Times a few days ago, in a very admir- able letter on "Presumptuous Judgment," complains that nowhere are young people taught " what data are necessary for the formation of a sound judgment about anything" and he points out how serious are the con- sequences of this neglect. If people learn to weigh things, they will perhaps in time learn to weigh opinions ; the experiment is worth trying in any case. The work I have sketched out should occupy at the very least two years. No shorter period will permit of a sufficient number of exercises being worked to produce the requisite moral effect. Even if the course proceed no further and yet this part be done thoroughly, a most valuable foundation will have been laid. WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE ! I pass now to the second and third sections of iny programme, those relating to the determination of the properties of water and of the effect of heat changes. It is necessary to take these together. Very probably much will have been done in the course of the previous work which has a bearing on this section of the pro- gramme ; in fact it is only on paper that the work can be divided up into sections ; but still water will have been studied, not water as an active substance. As I have already said, the study of water may well be 414 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxi introduced by reference to Stead's story of the Three Giants. One of the giants in this is Aquafluens Moving water; and another is Vaporifer Steam. The idea of work in connection with moving and heated water is delightfully brought out and in a way which appeals to children. The study of water the most important substance in the universe, if there be any one substance which can be said to be the most important begins as soon as water is weighed out and its density determined and when things are weighed in it. Of course, rain water will be contrasted with the water in ordinary use. As the sea plays so important a part in our history, it is desirable and possible, now that sea water is procurable in the larger inland towns, to compare it with ordinary water at as early a stage as possible. The fact that sea water is salt naturally suggests that there is salt in it, so some is boiled down and the salt compared with ordinary salt under the microscope and otherwise as you will. Then the amount of salt is found out (by evaporating a known quantity in a beaker the salt creeps too much in a dish) and a solution of salt is prepared of a strength corresponding to that of sea water. A saturated solution of salt may also be made and its density, strength, etc., determined and, if you will, the relation between the density of the liquid and the amount of. salt in solution : so as to drive borne the value of density as a criterion of amount of dissolved matter and hence the importance of knowledge of the density of milk, for example. You see all this is pure nature study but scien- tifically worked out. In the course of the experiments, the hidden and ordinarily unperceived activity of water xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 415 is discovered. And when such information is definitely graven on your pupils' minds, you can lead them to inquire, with understanding, what the sea is and why it is salt ; further, if it is only salt that is washed by rain from off the land into the rivers and so into the sea ; in short, if there be not other things besides salt in the sea. It is an exercise de luxe, perhaps, but a true analysis, valuable beyond compare for the insight it affords, to boil down, say, 2 5 litres of sea water ; to separate the salts six or seven are easily isolated ; and to gain some slight knowledge of their remarkably different character. To those who have had such an experience the sight of the sea must call up visions other than those of mere moving water and pleasant memories ; if in early youth attention were thus called to sea water, the vacuity of mind noticeable in ordinary trippers would perhaps be tempered by some slight display of interest in the wondrous fluid before their eyes. The separation of the water from the salt by dis- tillation is an important exercise to have undertaken as leading to a conception of pure water, after which cloud formation and rain become possible subjects to be considered in class. If time permit, it is then worth while to gain some understanding of the rela- tion between temperature arid rate of evaporation by heating water in a cylindrical glass dish during known times at known temperatures and determining the amount evaporated. Such experiments are easily made if only proper care be taken ; they have a bearing on the drying of clothes and are very valu- able as leading to some notice being taken of the relation between cause and effect, as to which the average housekeeper appears to be a non- sentient 416 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxi being. But their chief effect must be to develop some faint glimmering of the research spirit. A cook who had learnt to work systematically and to experi- ment might be very valuable and such training may eventually lead to the sterile field of British cookery becoming a region of luxuriant growth. The boiling of water must be made the subject of most serious study. How few housekeepers really know when water does boil. That it boils at a definite point on the thermometric scale, must, of course, be noticed ; but don't bother about the con- struction of the thermometer. Teach your pupils to use it without breaking it and have it used as frequently as possible. Bakers in these days know at what temperature bread should be baked ; does any cook know at what temperature a pie should be baked or a joint roasted ? The day must come when it will be impossible that the pie resemble either a clown's face or a cinder; when cooks have some appreciation of temperature through having learnt at school to use a thermometer. The boiling point of sea or salt water will, of course, be determined and the effect of re- stricting the escape of steam ; there is no need to introduce the complex conception of pressure, or to give any explanation of boiling point, as all cooking is done so near the sea level in this country. But- it should be made clear that the value of the digester in boiling down bones for soup depends on the raising of the boiling point. It is important also, in order that boilers may not be burst, to make it clear that water expands greatly on becoming steam there is no better way of doing this than by determining the density of steam, which need not be a difficult operation. There are two important investigations which may xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 417 be, or rather must be, carried out during this part of the course. To drive home the truth that even to boil water costs money and that there is no need to waste fuel over it, the amount of gas burnt in raising known weights of water to the boiling point should be ascertained by means of a gas meter attached to the burner used. The difference in efficiency between a clean, nicely polished saucepan or kettle and one coated with a stony cake of bituminous matter by use over a smoky fire could sooner or later be made apparent and the importance of considering the external as well as the internal cleanliness of cooking vessels would be generally realised. Even the long-standing debate as to whether a metal or a stoneware teapot is to be preferred might be settled by careful determination of the rate at which water cooled in them ; and of course the influ- ence of the cosy could be taken into account. At the mention of the teapot in this connection a happy vision comes before my eyes of a time when measurement work at school will have had its proper influence, and in consequence of continued balance -worship a " quantitative sense " becomes part and parcel of the female mind : then both tea and coffee will be made of uniform strength from day to day and will lose the reputation of being subject to greater variation than even the English climate. The office of water as a cleansing agent should be made the subject of most thorough study and none is more deserving of attention. The effect that grease has in preventing a surface from being wetted is easily noticed ; it is difficult to lead people to remove grease in a rational way by thoroughly rubbing over the dirtied surface with some soft material moistened with 2 E 418 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxi soda solution and then rinsing in running water. The conventional practice of putting soda into hot water in a more or less greasy tub and then immersing the greasy objects is very ineffective in comparison. I may here interject the hope that, if this subject be taken up, something will be done to check the sinful waste of water which is everywhere counte- nanced. In rinsing out a vessel it is unnecessary to fill it up with water; it is far better to allow a moderate quantity to run in, then to pour this out and to repeat these operations as often as may be necessary. The hand should always be kept on the tap and as soon as the required amount of water has been let out the tap should be closed. In laboratories and kitchens both gas and water are constantly wasted through thoughtlessness and eyelessness ; the waste is of less consequence than the mental attitude which permits it to go on unchecked. If the old adage of the pounds taking care of themselves were thought of in this connection, it would be greatly to our advantage. I mention this because I am anxious to impress on teachers who may engage in elementary experimental work that they will have infinite opportunity of practically inculcating moral habits, and that it is the very fact that the work presents these opportunities that makes it of such value. It is generally recognised that hot water has superior cleansing properties ; it is well to determine whether this is because it is hot or because it has been heated. That rain water is " soft " in comparison with river or well water is also generally recognised. To trace the difference to the solid matter in solution is not difficult but, if time permit, this question should be gone into very thoroughly with the aid of soap xxi "DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 419 solution. The determination of " hardness " is a most excellent exercise and one which is very easily carried out by children. Coming back to steam to enforce the lesson that much heat is expended in making steam and that, therefore, steam should not be needlessly wasted, the heat capacity of steam should be determined. As yet, I have not referred to ice at least, its density must be determined, in order that the irre- sistible force with which water expands on freezing may be realised. Ocular demonstration that bursting attends solidification is easily given by filling a medicine bottle with water and freezing it. Of course, the penny-ice man's freezing mixture of ice and salt will be studied in the course of these experiments and some note made of the conditions to be observed in working with it. Ice-making being part of the cook's art, such exercises are of domestic value and are highly appreciated if a practical end be given to them : children love ices. AIR, FIRE AND FUEL Of the last section in my programme, air, I propose to say nothing now : it is less necessary to deal with it, as so much has been written already on the subject ; and it is impossible to deliver a text-book in an hour. THE DUCHESS ! THE DUCHESS ! Having used the word text-book, let me point out that no text-book must ever be allowed in classes such as are under discussion. Each child should write its own text-book and be taught to regard it as a holy possession. The notes of the work must be most carefully written out, at first as a draft but eventually 420 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxi as neatly as possible, in the form of a connected story not split up into paragraphs, please, by ruled lines. Do not forget also that the answer must not be placed in advance of the account of the work done : the motive for the experiment must come first, then the descrip- tion of the work done, next the results : finally, the moral. And the motive and the moral must be held to be of supreme importance. The sapient remark of the Mock Turtle : " No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise," and the far-reaching conclusion of the Duchess : " Everything's got a moral if only you can find it," should live in the children's memory. In fact, the cry of " The Duchess ! The Duchess ! " at the close of an experiment should suffice to call the class to order and lead each child to consider what had been learnt. It would do us all good to bear these sayings of the Mock Turtle and the Duchess more in mind : perhaps we should then often find ourselves, like Alice, in Wonderland. My main concern has been to impress on you the points of view from which it seems to me we must endeavour to teach our elementary classes. I care little what is taught, provided the method be sound and the discipline secured ; and I shall be satisfied with very little, if that little be well done in fact, whatever pressure be brought upon you by inconsiderate inspectors with " Oliver Twist " tendencies (there are many such abroad), if you are honestly convinced that you are going ahead as fast as is desirable, if your teaching is to have its proper moral effect, resent and resist all pressure to teach more facts. Little attention need be paid to the precise order in which subjects are taken, provided it be not an illogical one bear this xxi " DOMESTIC SCIENCE" 421 most carefully in mind when face to face with a syllabus. There is one at present before the public which commences with formulae : score the line out arid never think of even mentioning formula} they concern specialists and are not for children. I shall do no injustice if I say that few teachers are prepared to follow a course such as I suggest. Let me conclude by expressing the earnest hope that all will at least try. The great distinction between the older methods and those we are now seeking to introduce is that ours are self-educative. Teachers who honestly endeavour to carry out simple experi- mental exercises in the spirit we advocate and who themselves seek to be discoverers will, I believe, find the path of discovery grow easier from day to day and progress less and less of an effort. The only danger lies in underrating the difficulties. I believe the surest road to success will be to watch most carefully the workings of the child's unbiassed mind, to follow its promptings and to satisfy its longings as far as possible. We shall all gain by making the children our friends and regarding ourselves as fellow learners with them not as their taskmasters. XXII THE CONSERVATION OF MATTER WHEN you've used up all the borax and the beads no longer charm, When you've made sufficient sulphuretted stench, Will you kindly drop a rider on the graduated arm Of the little Becker balance on the bench. You have learnt a lot of symbols, long equations and the rest And of these just like a parrot you can chatter But have you thought of trying on your own account to test The Indestructibility of Matter ? Gramme weight drachm weight weight of a hundred grains. (Fifty thousand boys and girls, it's all the same to-day. Each of them doing his own research, each of them using his brains.) Put the weights in the balance pan and weigh weigh weigh ! Oh, argon you have read about and modestly you own That you think you're fully able to declare, 422 xxn THE CONSERVATION OF MATTER 423 With an accuracy limited by paper-space alone, The percentage composition of the air. You have seen the rose and jessamine grow climbing 'neath the eaves And in autumn heard their leaves fall pitter-patter ; But do you see you're proving, as you burn the faded leaves, The Indestructibility of Matter ? Red leaf dead leaf leaf that is charred and hot, Leaf of a rose or buttercup, it's all the same to-day. Each of them serving to prove the law. And what's to be done with the shot ? Put it into the balance pan and weigh weigh weigh ! Of your knowledge of your bone and blood's com- ponents you are proud (No doubt you have a list of them by heart). You can tell in learned language that would mystify the crowd How the ox y haemoglobin plays its part. But you've seen the grasses growing by the margin of the lake, And you've watched the browsing herd grow slowly fatter, Yet have you thought you're proving, when you're lunching off a steak, The Indestructibility of Matter ? Gramme weight drachm weight weight of a hundred grains. (Fifty thousand boys and girls, it's all the same to-day, 424 PAPEES ON EDUCATION XXH Each of them doing his own research, each of them using his brains.) Put the weights in the balance pan and weigh weigh weigh ! We have burrowed in the coal-pits, we have quarried out the stone, We have forged a house of iron in the flame. But the whirlwind and the rain-cloud they shall reap where we have sown, Nought shall last of that we builded but the name. Yet although our work shall perish, though it -crumble into dust, Which the four winds of the heavens freely scatter, There is evidence convincing in that scattered iron rust Of the Indestructibility of Matter. Brown rust town rust rust from the country gates, Eust from an old torpedo boat, it's all the same to-day. All of it serving to prove the law. And, what's to be done with the weights ? Put them into the balance pan and weigh weigh weigh ! M. S. XXIII TRAINING COLLEGE COURSE OF GENERAL ELEMENTARY SCIENCE SYLLABUS Object Studies. Instruction in the methods of leading children to notice and examine carefully the materials at hand, which have been collected in their district, including botanical objects, so that they may be able to describe them and distinguish their properties and characteristics in so far as these may be determined by the eye and with the aid of a simple lens, a pocket knife or file and hammer and anvil. Measurement of Length and Area. Instruction in the art of measuring, especially with the object of showing the utility of measurements and of de- veloping accuracy in descriptions having reference to the position of objects, etc. This should, as far as possible, be made part of the instruction in Mathe- matics and Drawing. The schoolroom and its furni- ture, the school building and the playground should be measured and simple plans thereof drawn to scale and coloured and their areas calculated. The instruction should involve the use of the plumb bob and level and of simple methods of measuring and setting out angles and of surveying. 425 426 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm Weighing. Instruction in weighing as an exercise and as a discipline but with a definite purpose in view, e.g., to obtain " statistical " information about some familiar object which may be subject to variation in weight, so that the conception of average or mean weight may be developed and established. The measurement of volume and the determination of the relation between mass and volume (i.e., density) should be led up to by determination of the loss of weight in water and other fluids and the densities of common materials should be determined in various ways. Physical Properties of Water. Instruction in the discovery of the properties of liquid water, ice and steam. This should include the study of the carrying power of water, with some reference to ships of its transporting and eroding power with reference to physical geography and of its solvent power, sea- water being considered in this connection. The study of ice should involve the determination of its density and the consideration of the consequences of the expansion of water on becoming ice in connec- tion with the bursting of pipes in winter and the action of frost on the soil ; glaciers and icebergs may be considered incidentally. The study of steam should involve the determina- tion of the change of volume in water when heated, the density of steam, the vapour pressure of water at various temperatures, the heat capacity of steam; and should lead up to an understanding of its use in the steam-engine. The evaporation of water under ordinary conditions should be carefully studied over a considerable period and discussed in connection with rainfall and the airing and drying of clothes. xxin TKAINING COLLEGE COURSE 427 Physical Properties of Air. The pressure exercised by air and similar fluids, as well as the effect on air of changes in temperature, should be studied inci- dentally in developing the method of determining vapour pressure. The pump and barometer, the drying power of air, ventilation, winds, etc., would require consideration in this section of the course. Chemical Studies of Earth, Fire and Air. Chalk or limestone, regarded as a typical earth, should be very thoroughly studied and the discovery made that it consists of lime and a gas. The burning of ordinary combustibles and of common metals and the rusting of these latter should be studied in such a manner as to lead to the dis- covery of the " origin " of fire and the composition of air. Growth of Plants. A series of observations, as far as possible quantitative, on germination and growth of plants, leading to the discovery of their manner of growth, of the importance of water and that they derive their food both from the air and the soil. Sugar, starch, fat, lean meat, white of egg and bone should be examined incidentally, so as to establish the differ- ence between organic and inorganic materials. Simple experiments should be made with malt extract and yeast, so that the action of enzymes in digestion and of organisms in promoting fermentation and putrefac- tion and decay might be understood. 428 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF GENERAL ELEMENT- ARY SCIENCE AND THE ELEMENTS OF SCIEN- TIFIC METHOD. The prime object in view in teaching this subject must be to develop individuality and to inculcate the scientific attitude of mind. In the course of the work the teachers in training should become exact workers and should be led to acquire and exercise the powers of observing and of reasoning from observation, as well as the ability to set practical questions and to obtain answers to such questions by practical means : in a word, to experiment. Not merely to make experiments to order, however, but with a carefully thought out purpose, in a carefully thought out manner, deliberately and precisely, so that they may afterwards be able to make all possible use of the information gained in giving answers to the questions raised and in devising such further experiments as may be necessary to solve the problem under consideration. An art has to be acquired not mere knowledge ; but much useful knowledge is necessarily gained in the course of such work, as the problems investigated and the materials used should, whenever possible, be chosen so as to bear on common experience and on common phenomena. The work should be done entirely from the point of view from which the subject will be taught in the school. The course should be based on and be con- terminous with the school course. It will rarely be possible, under existing conditions, to proceed to a higher stage ; nor will this be necessary, as ample opportunity will always be found within the school course if it be once understood that thoroughness is xxm TRAINING COLLEGE COURSE 429 the condition of fundamental importance. Exercises that may appear to be very simple and even trivial at first, will soon be found, as experience is gained, to admit of development and to deserve serious and extended study. Moreover, it is most important that students should learn to deal with a given theme in a variety of ways and to expand it ; therefore, it will be desirable to encourage them to suggest alternative methods and alternative ways of putting the same question experimentally in fact, that they should be fully practised in working riders with little or no assistance. The course should lead the students to become acquainted with principles and methods common to several branches of science ; they should learn to understand common physical phenomena and the nature of chemical change as exemplified in everyday life ; but the teaching of technical details will be quite out of place, as a rule. Everything possible should be done to encourage an intelligent interest in natural objects and an intelligent appreciation of natural phenomena. The following scheme is drawn up by way of illustration not so much with the object of laying down a detailed programme but rather in order to show how the subject may be treated, so as to make it clear to children that they are engaged on work in direct relation with their daily life and surroundings. OBJECT STUDIES Object Studies not object lessons, in which the teacher does almost everything should form the basis 430 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxm of the instruction and every attempt should be made from the beginning to give these a quantitative form. [A (steel) foot-rule should always be available, divided on one face along one edge into centimetres and millimetres, along the other into inches and tenths, the two edges of the opposite face having the inch divided in other ways.] Collections may be made of the various materials to be had in the district or used in daily life, in building, etc. Each of these in turn should be care- fully examined and its properties determined ; at the same time, each should be described an writing. In carrying out such work, much may be done with the aid of a pocket knife, a file, a hammer and anvil (a common flat-iron) and a pocket lens ; in fact, when teachers have once learnt to supervise such work, they will be astonished at the opportunities it affords and how interesting it may be made ; but its most im- portant side is the effect it has in leading children gradually to notice and study things systematically and to record their observations. While such work is going on, things generally the room and its furniture, the school building and the playground may be measured. Plans or maps to scale should then be drawn and coloured. Opportunity would be given in the course of such work to deter- mine areas and the need would arise of measuring angles and of setting these out. Experiments with the plumb bob and the spirit-level would be appropriate at this stage and it would be well to teach simple methods of surveying the playground, etc., preparatory to map-making. Even in towns, children may obtain leaves of various common trees, shrubs and plants they might xxm TKAINING COLLEGE COUESE 431 be led to make outline drawings and even blue-paper prints of these, to measure them, to describe them, to preserve them, to skeletonise them, to draw and colour pictures of them, to notice when they appear, the changes they undergo and when they disappear, etc. Each child should record all such work in a book kept for the purpose. In the country, such work might be carried much further than in town and the eyes of the children cultivated to notice what is about them. Outline maps might be made of the school district by enlarging the survey maps by means of a simple pantograph ; on these might be indicated where trees, etc., and of what kind were growing. Maps might be made showing the distribution of particular trees or plants in the district and attention drawn sooner or later to the correlated differences of soil or situation. In a similar way, outline maps might be tilled in to show the features of the district. WEIGHING Weighing should be resorted to at the very earliest possible moment and should be regarded as indis- pensable ; it should be undertaken as an exercise and as discipline, even before it becomes incidental to any experimental inquiries that may be entered upon. Quite young children can be taught to weigh and to understand what they do sufficiently to record the results. From the outset the greatest care should be taken to insist that the balance is used properly and that the weights are never touched with the fingers, etc. As soon as possible some piece of work should be undertaken with a definite object in view, which can be continued during a considerable period almost daily ; 432 TAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm e.g., in the country, where fowls are kept, eggs may be weighed and their volume determined ; occasionally a selected egg may be boiled hard, then weighed and afterwards separated into shell, white and yolk, each of which may be weighed. Gradually information is collected, from which the average weight and com- position of eggs can be deduced. Seeds, nuts, nails, etc., may be dealt with in a similar manner. If encouraged, children will themselves suggest things to do ; the sympathetic teacher will have no difficulty in devising exercises which will appeal to the class. An appropriate exercise in the country would be to take samples of soil from several localities^-each time digging out a block, say, 1 2 in. by 1 2 in. by 9 in. deep and to separate these by sieving into stones and fine soil, each of which should then be weighed. The stones might be sorted into sizes and counted, and their character noted ; and the fine soil might be separated into clay, sand, etc., by elutriation. Arith- metical exercises should be combined with such work, e.g., the number of seeds, shot, or nails in a packet or bagful of a certain weight should be deduced from the knowledge of the average weight of the seeds or nails and the results checked by counting. At as early a stage as possible some question should be raised the answer to which may be found by weighing ; it is all-important that this should not take the form of a mere exercise but should be regarded by the children as an inquiry. Many subjects may be suggested the choice will depend on the conditions, especially on the materials or apparatus available ; but some " clue " must be forthcoming which will serve to suggest a line of action. As an illustration, Henry xxm TEAINING COLLEGE COUESE 433 Drunmiond's story called The Monkey that 'would not Kill (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1898) may be taken. In this a description is given of a trouble- some monkey being cast over a cliff into the sea, with a stone tied round his neck, in order to get rid of him ; in some way, however, the monkey finds out that under water the stone weighs less than it did on land and that consequently he can lift it, so he picks it up and walks ashore, thus saving his life. Such a story appeals to young children and strikes their imagination ; under ordinary circumstances, however, they would probably not question the incident but it is easy to lead them to consider : " Could such a thing happen ? " " Does a stone weigh less in water than in air ? " " May it not be well to check such a statement, if possible ? " The experiment thus suggested being tried and the statement verified, a start is made and it becomes easy to extend the inquiry. " To what extent does the stone lose in weight ? " " Do all stones lose weight in the same proportion ? " " The loss in weight obviously has something to do with the size of the stone how is it related to it ? " " Do other things besides stones lose weight in water ; if so to what extent ? " These and other similar questions come almost as a matter of course and obviously can be answered by experiment. When a variety of objects are weighed in air and water, the children are led to notice that the change in weight has more to do with the size than with the weight of the object and this renders the determination of bulk necessary. Ultimately it is discovered that the loss in weight is proportional to the volume of the object and equal to the weight of the volume of the water the object displaces. The method of determining 2 F 434 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxm volume by ascertaining loss of weight in water is thus discovered. The investigation may then be extended to sea-water and other liquids. The conception of density having been arrived at in the course of such experiments, children may be led to determine the densities of the various materials at their disposal and to express these in grams per cubic centimetre or kilograms per cubic decimetre not as mere relative densities. (The term specific gravity should be altogether avoided.) The opportunities such work affords of making diagrams and models and of setting arithmetical and geometrical exercises should be fully utilised. PROPERTIES OF WATER These cannot be too fully studied. Many ways of entering upon their consideration may be found but in order to fix children's attention and to give them a due sense of the importance of the work in which they are engaged, it will probably be found well to centre the inquiries around a story such as that of The Three Giants in Stead's penny series of Books for the Bairns. The subjects suggested for study by such an allegory are the carrying power of water, as leading up to the understanding of ships ; the power of moving water to do work, as leading up to an under- standing of the way in which the land is worn away ; the power of water to do work when applied to the water wheel, as leading up to the conception of energy and its measurement; the power of water to do work as steam, as leading up to the conception of heat energy and its measurement and the steam-engine. In the beginning of the story, the giant Aquafluens is represented as carrying on his shoulder a log on xxm TEAINING COLLEGE COUESE 435 which a man is seated. Children may be led to dis- cuss the meaning of the allegory and to explain this picture e.g., to consider what size of log would have been required to carry the man, how far it would have sunk into the giant's shoulder, i.e., the water, etc. then to make experiments with blocks of different kinds of wood to determine their carrying power when floating in water, in order to obtain the data for such calcula- tions. The blocks having been measured and weighed, the amount of water they displaced when floating and when immersed and the weight required to sink them having been determined, the data obtained should be utilised in setting a variety of exercises ; eventually the construction and carrying power of ships might be taken into consideration ; the use of rafts, life-belts, inflated skins and of the air-inflated quills of feathers might be discussed in connection with such experiments; in carrying them out, if the blocks were home-made, opportunity would be given for a certain amount of carpentering and for the consideration of the differences between woods of various kinds. Wherever opportunity occurs, attention should be directed to the work done by moving water in carving out a way for itself and in transporting earthy matter and to the way in which stones are ground down and rounded by its action. The experience previously gained that things lose weight in water will lead the children to appreciate the fact that stones are rolled about under water more easily than on land and that heavy materials may be transported by water. Examples of water action occurring in the district, or which come under the children's notice, should be carefully collected and records preserved in the form of photographs, etc. ; pictures obtained from a distance 436 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm will then be appreciated and materials will be obtained for the discussion of one of the most important subjects of physical geography. Point will be given to such discussions if samples are secured from a neighbouring stream in flood and the solid matter in suspension in a known bulk of water be filtered off and weighed. The character of the evidence afforded by the presence of gravel in a district will of course be patent when the origin of gravel is once understood. The experiments on flotation in water should be extended to other liquids, especially to sea- water, wherever possible, as ships mostly go to sea. 1 These and other experiments with sea-water should, sooner or later, give rise to the question, " Why does sea- water differ from ordinary water ? " The answer must not merely be given, " Because it is salt," but must be sought experimentally ; and subsequently must come the query, " Why is the sea salt ? " The examination of sea, river and rain water should involve the comparison of their densities and of the amount of solid matter in solution. At a later stage, it is very desirable to study sea-water somewhat fully to evaporate a con- siderable quantity and to separate the salts which crystallise out. The fact that a variety of substances having very different properties can be obtained from such a source comes as a surprise and is of the greatest interest to children. No better means can be found of directing their attention to the existence of substances differing in solubility, crystalline form, taste, when heated, etc. At this stage, attention may be called to the amount of sea- water on the globe and 1 A great opportunity is lost if sea-water cannot be studied. For certain purposes, its place may be supplied by a solution containing 3 '5 per cent, of salt. xxui TRAINING COLLEGE COURSE 437 of salt therein ; if desirable, the physical geography of the sea bottom and the nature of the deposits on it may be dealt with incidentally and the foundations of geology extended. In connection with the work on sea-water, the solubility of salt in water may be studied quantitatively and the power of water as a solvent made clear. The densities of solutions of different strengths should be determined, in order that the relation between density and amount of solid matter in solution may be under- stood. The use of the hydrometer should be taught at this stage and its value in testing milk made clear. The use of solutions of salt of known density as a means of determining the density of eggs, seeds, etc., should also be taught and the value of such deter- minations as a means of testing quality should be emphasised. The study of water as ice should be undertaken at the first convenient opportunity. The observation that ice floats should be suggestive as to its density : this should be carefully determined, e.g., by dropping pieces of carefully-dried ice into a 500 cc. measuring cylinder containing cooled petroleum or turpentine, noting the increase in volume, then weighing to find the amount of ice used ; opportunity occurs when the ice melts to check the result by noting the volume of liquid water formed. From data thus obtained, the expansion of water on becoming ice may be calculated and the consequences of the expansion may be discussed the bursting of pipes, the breaking up of the soil by frost, the rending of rocks and fully illustrated. Every opportunity should be taken in winter to make simple experiments with ice for example, strong 438 PAPERS ON EDUCATION bottles full of water may be placed out of doors during frost. Frequently a cylinder of ice will be pushed out of the neck, which may be measured and its volume ascertained and the observed expansion compared with that calculated. Such experiments live in the memory. The formation of glaciers and icebergs may, if desirable, then be considered, as well as the work they do and pictures show r n in illustration ; there is opportunity in many parts of the country to call attention to evidences of one form or another of glacial action. In connection with icebergs actual pictures of which should be shown if they are to be talked about at all calculations of the extent to which ice is immersed in ordinary and sea water when it floats should be made and diagrams drawn. In constructing a diagram to illustrate the expansion say of the side of a cubic decimetre of water on becoming ice, opportunity is given to introduce the graphic method of ascertaining cube roots at a time when the arithmetical (algebraic) method of extracting the cube root is beyond the com- prehension of children. The numbers from say 1 to 1 2 are cubed and a curve is drawn with the aid of the numbers thus obtained. In the case of ice, of which say 1095 cc. are formed from 1000 cc. of water, the question that arises is, " How much longer in the side will a cube of 1095 cc. be than one of 1000 cc. ? " The position of 1095 on the curve being found, the number of which it is the cube is easily read off. To check the result, the number arrived at is cubed and if the product be too far removed from the number sought a better value is found by trial. In making these comparisons it is desirable to use logarithms. The temperature of melting ice will, of course, xxm TRAINING COLLEGE COURSE 439 be another subject of study and in many cases it will be desirable to study a freezing mixture such as the penny ice man uses and to determine the influence of salt on the freezing-point. Sea-water should be frozen and the solid separated from the liquid ; the two portions should be independently examined. The study of steam may follow that of liquid water and ice. One of the first questions to arise will be, " How hot must water be to make it pass off as steam ? " This will lead to the determination of its boiling-point; and taking the experiments with ice also into account opportunity will then be given to discover how the " fixed " points on a thermometer are determined. [It is unnecessary to spend time in making one.] But water passes off as steam at temperatures much below the boiling-point, as evidenced by the drying up of water at all times of the year : it is desirable that systematic observations should be made throughout the year, besides the ordinary observations of temperature, to determine the daily loss by evaporation of water from a surface of known area ; this should be correlated with tempera- ture and wind changes and the mean thickness of the film evaporated during each month should also be deduced from the observations. Children's attention will have been directed by the story of the three giants to the conditions under which water becomes steam and in some measure to the properties of the latter. They will easily be led to appreciate the importance of determining the density of steam as a means of discovering the extent to which water expands on becoming steam. Bearing in mind the use that is made of the steam-engine and 440 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm the need that those who have to do with household work are under to know something of the expansive power of water, the experiment is one of considerable value ; and it is not difficult to carry out. A weighed bulb of known capacity having been filled with steam is closed and allowed to cool ; when it is again weighed the weight is found to be considerably less why ? Having been thoroughly practised in weighing in air and water, the children may be led without difficulty to understand that the weights found are not the true weights of the things weighed, because air is displaced and there is consequently some loss in weight : the difference between the bulb full of air and that from which the air is displaced by steam is, in fact, practi- cally the difference in weight between equal volumes of air and steam. How is the weight of the steam to be found ? Simply by removing the stopper from the bulb and allowing air to flow in : the weight is then that of the condensed water plus that of the bulb as originally weighed full of air, subject to a very slight correction, which it is unnecessary to introduce, owing to the presence of a little more water vapour if the air was not saturated originally. Not only may the weight of the bulb full of steam be determined in this manner, but also that of the bulb full of air the latter being found by adding that of the water from the steam to the difference between the original weight of the bulb full of air and that of the bulb after expelling the air by steam. The experiment becomes a most important introduction to the study of gases. It may be important to take advantage of the opportunity to determine the density of ordinary coal gas and to verify by experiment the conclusion that gases act like liquids and buoy up all objects which xxrii TRAINING COLLEGE COUKSE 441 they surround. If desirable, the consideration of an ordinary as well as of a fire balloon may be introduced at this stage. The pressure exercised by steam is a subject of importance to consider. This must be led up to very carefully and gradually. How is the push or pressure exerted by a gas to be measured ? Does ordinary gas exert any pressure ? The experiment is easily tried and the use of a water gauge made obvious. What pressure can be exerted by a person blowing ? A simple gauge is fitted up for the purpose with which the blowing power of each member of a class is tested. Supposing the pressure to be measured is big, what is to be done ? Probably some will say, " Use a bigger " meaning a wider "tube": let this be tried. It is then soon discovered that it is entirely a question of height and not of width of column and a most important hydrostatic principle is discovered. Sucking is evidently the opposite of blowing so the measure- ment of the sucking-up power of the members of the class is made. This turns out to be somewhat more difficult, as a knack is involved in sucking. As increasing the width of column does not help in measuring pressures, what will ? Obviously it is to be expected that a liquid will be the more effective the denser it is. The experiment thus suggested is easily made, e.g., with petroleum, water and a saturated solution of salt, by means of a tube with several branches to which tubes are attached dipping into the liquids: on sucking air out from one of the branches, the liquids rise to different heights ; the several columns are then measured. It is thus discovered that the denser the liquid the shorter is the column required to balance a given pressure ; and the use of mercury, as being 442 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxm a very dense liquid, for the purpose of measuring considerable pressures becomes appreciated. Such ex- periments afford an important opportunity : " Why," it may be asked, " does sucking out air from a tube dipping into liquid cause the liquid to rise in the tube ? What pushes the liquid up ? " Children see without difficulty that when the air is removed from the one side the pressure of the air on the other side forces the liquid up that the height to which the liquid rises is a measure of the difference in the two pressures and at once appreciate the further question, "What would happen if all the air were removed from a vessel connected with a gauge dipping into a liquid and there were no pressure on the one side how high would the liquid rise, how high a column of liquid can the air pressure support, how great is the pressure exercised by the air, say, in grams per square centimetre or pounds per square inch ? " To answer this, a gauge made of narrow glass tube may be fitted up against the wall of the room, of which the lower end dips into coloured water contained in an ordinary 6-oz. medicine bottle, the upper end being connected by means of a T- piece and rubber tubing with, say, a wine-bottle. On sucking from the free branch of the T-tube, air is removed and the water rises in the gauge ; if clips are placed on the rubber connections it is easy to adjust matters so that the liquid stands at a certain level in the tube ; when this has been done, the tube connecting the bottle to the T-piece is closed and the bottle is removed to a pan of water. On opening the clip water enters the bottle-; this is measured. Observations may be made in this way at various heights and with bottles differing in size ; and corresponding experiments may be made in which air TKAINING COLLEGE COUKSE 443 is blown into the bottle. In this way data are obtained permitting of the determination of the relation between volume and pressure. About one quarter of the air can be removed from a bottle by sucking with the mouth ; a bicycle pump can be used in removing a further quantity or in compressing air into a bottle. A saturated solution of salt may be substituted for water in the gauge, so as to impress on the attention the effect produced by substituting a denser liquid for water. The results are plotted on squared paper so as to find the law and the height of the column of water which would counterbalance the air pressure is deduced by extrapolating the curve ; the result should be verified experimentally, if possible, by means of an air-pump and a sufficient length of compo-tubing to the upper end of which a glass tube is attached, also by reference to the barometer. In this way, not only may the discovery of " Boyle's law " be led up to and actually made by children, with the aid of simplest possible apparatus and without using mercury ; but also the method of weighing the atmo- sphere ; whilst the action of the pump and of the barometer become really understood. The fluctuations of the barometer may then be discussed, both by reference to observations made in the school from day to day and with the aid of the records published in some of the papers ; the nature of winds may also be considered and the value of the barometer in fore- casting weather. The method of measuring gaseous pressure having been mastered thoroughly, the pressure developed on heating water may be studied. That the pressure of the air has to be overcome by the steam will be obvious after such a course of experiments and the 444 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm question will come naturally : " What will happen if the pressure be reduced ? " Simple experiments are easily made to answer this question by connecting a distilling apparatus with a large bottle and the gauge previously used ; air may be either sucked out until the pressure corresponds to the removal of, say, one quarter of the air, or blown in, so as to raise the pressure, whilst the distillation is carried out the alteration in the boiling-point conditioned by altera- tions of pressure is then discovered. The effect of heating water without allowing the steam to escape may then be studied with the aid of a pressure guage and the working of the steam-engine boiler made clear. The heat capacity of steam having been carefully determined, experiments may be made to ascertain the amount of gas, spirit or petroleum burnt in raising the temperature of known amounts of water to known extents various vessels being used (glass flasks, tin, copper and iron saucepans, clean and furred or corroded kettles), so as to emphasise the importance of paying attention to the kind of vessel used in culinary operations, in order to economise fuel. CHEMICAL STUDIES OF EARTH, FIRE AND AIR When, by exercises such as have been referred to, children have learnt to make accurate measurements and to understand thoroughly the use to which such measurements can be put in solving simple problems, it will be important for them to proceed to the study of problems of a different order, involving the dis- covery of the composite nature of some of the common xxni TRAINING COLLEGE COURSE 445 materials of natural occurrence, so that they may be led to understand what a chemical change is. Limestone being a typical " rock " of very general occurrence, which is to be had almost everywhere in the form of whitening, may well be the first substance selected for investigation being chosen rather than any other stony material because something suggestive is known about it, viz., that it is converted into lime when " burnt." That the two materials, limestone and lime, are very different that the limestone undergoes a profound change on burning is obvious on contrasting their behaviour when wetted ; and a natural question to ask will be, " What happens to the limestone ? " Wherever possible the work on such a subject should be preceded by inquiry at the limekiln in the dis- trict; in no case should the opportunity be missed of witnessing building operations in which lime is used in making mortar, so that the remarkable property of lime of slaking when wetted may be noticed. With a little care, limestone may be burnt on a small scale in the kitchen fire ; mortar may be made from the lime. On considering what happens to the limestone, it may be suggested that perhaps some part is burnt away and that therefore the lime obtained is not equal in weight to the limestone burnt : it is certainly a matter of common observation that when things are burnt they are, as a rule, more or less consumed ; therefore the desirability, if not the need, of ascertain- ing whether any definite amount of lime is formed on heating limestone will soon become apparent. When the experiment is carried out and the discovery has been made that a given limestone loses in weight to a definite extent, the question will arise, " What is lost ? " Evidently something which is invisible under ordinary 446 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm conditions ; but the query cannot be answered offhand, so the comparative study of the two substances must be continued. As water acts in so remarkable a manner on lime, " slaking " may be studied quanti- tatively and the fact established that it involves an increase in the weight a discovery of importance, as it leads the student for the first time to recognise that the production of heat and combination are in some way to be associated. The discovery may give rise to the suggestion that the lime has been reconverted into "limestone"; the need will then be brought home to the pupil of some means of characterising " lime- stone." Some attention will have been paid previously to water as a solvent so that the suggestion to contrast the solubility of limestone with that of lime may easily arise : in many districts, if natural illustrations of the solubility of " limestone " do not occur, attention may be directed to the presence of solid matters in solution in waters derived from limestone formations, in order that the importance of such an inquiry may be appreciated. Solvents of greater power than water, viz., acids, may also be tried. As soon as it is observed that fizzing takes place when a limestone is brought into contact with an acid, observations may be made in which both the volume of gas produced and its weight are determined : such experiments are very easily made and are highly instructive. Soon it is discovered that the weight of gas given off from a given weight of chalk is practically equal to the loss in weight which the same weight of chalk would suffer when burnt : this serves to suggest that when con- verted into lime by burning, chalk is deprived of the gas which is expelled from it when it is dissolved in acid and if so, lime should dissolve quietly in acid : xxui TEAINING COLLEGE COURSE 447 the correctness of the inference is put beyond question when it is discovered that such is the case. Observations made incidentally in studying the solubility of lime and its behaviour on slaking become of importance at this stage of the inquiry : the solution obtained will probably have been filtered into an open vessel and the clear liquid in part left to itself out of sheer carelessness ; opportunity will then be given to notice that after a time a white deposit is formed. " What is this what is it likely to be is it perhaps lime ? " are questions that will then arise. If lime, it should dissolve quietly in acid ; but it is found to fizz like limestone. Again, when the lime which has been slaked and then dried in order to determine the change in weight is dissolved in acid, fizzing takes place, although freshly-slaked lime dis- solved quietly. " What do such results indicate ? what experiment do they suggest ? " will be the questions that arise. The conventional lime-water test being thus led up to, is put in operation but not in the careless unscientific way commonly recommended : so that it may be a real test, sufficient of the precipitate must be prepared to permit of its complete examina- tion. It must be ignited and the loss of weight determined and the residue contrasted with lime ; it must be dissolved in acid and the volume and weight of gas evolved determined. On the other hand, slaked lime may be exposed in the gas obtained by the action of acid on limestone and the change in weight deter- mined. It is ultimately established that the material of which limestone chiefly consists---" limestone stuff " is composed of "lime stuff" and a gas; arid the further important discovery is made that this gas is present in the air, although only, in small proportion. 448 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm As no idea of the nature of the gas can be formed at this stage, some name must be given to it which is significant of its origin such as "chalk stuff" or "limestone stuff "gas: to call it by its conventional name would be entirely contrary to the spirit in which the inquiry has been conducted ; indeed it cannot be too carefully remembered that " you must catch your hare before you can cook it." As limestones contain very different amounts of " limestone stuff," it is important that lime prepared from several limestones should be dissolved in water and that the precipitates obtained on exposing the solutions to the air or on passing the gas from limestone and acid into them should be carefully examined ; the method of separat- ing a pure material will thus be made clear. The nature of limestone having been discovered, attention may be paid to changes of common occurrence and to ordinary cases of burning. The rusting of iron may well be studied, in the first instance, on account of its importance. The conditions under which iron rusts should first be carefully discussed in order that some clue may be obtained which will serve as the " motive " for an experiment. Eusting is usually attributed to water, so iron may be shut up with water in a bottle ; when it is discovered that it does not rust appreciably it will be clear that water alone is not the cause of rusting and the way will be pre- pared for an experiment in which the iron is shut up with air over water. It will then be discovered that air is concerned in the change, but not as a whole, as only a part disappears, although always the same pro- portion in successive experiments ; the discovery is thus made that air has parts. To test whether xxm TKAINING COLLEGE COUKSE 449 that which disappears is fixed by the iron, forming the earthy substance iron rust, some iron borings are weighed out, then moistened and allowed to rust ; the rusted iron is subsequently weighed. The discovery that air is concerned in the rusting of iron will serve to suggest that it may be concerned in other common changes. Ordinary cases of burning may then be investigated. When, ultimately, it is found that, as in rusting, a certain proportion practically always the same proportion of the air disappears, it will be placed beyond question that air consists of an active gas mixed with an inactive gas or gases ; and that all the common changes in which heat is produced are cases of combination of the sub- stance burnt with the active gas in the air : the " origin " of fire will then have been discovered. The appropriateness of the name given to the active gas will be readily grasped when the character of the products formed on burning sulphur and phosphorus has been ascertained by testing their solutions. The isolation of oxygen may be led up to by considering what substances are known in which it is present and whether one or other of these offers any peculiari- ties which suggest that its study is desirable. It may be pointed out that various metals are burnt on a large scale, such as copper, iron, lead and zinc and that the earthy products are all readily obtainable; that copper, iron and zinc each yields but a single product ; lead, however, gives two, litharge and red lead : these, it appears, are convertible one into the other they may therefore be selected for study. When quantitative experiments are made it is found that the one loses, whilst the other gains, in weight when heated : the way is thus paved for the dis- 2 G 450 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxm covery of the method of procuring oxygen from red lead. The products formed on burning substances other than metals will then claim attention. It is scarcely possible to heat cold water in a glass flask or kettle over a spirit or gas flame without observing that dew is deposited. " What is this where does it come from ? " may be asked. In order to answer the question, the experiment may be carried out in such a way that a considerable quantity of the liquid is obtained ; as it looks like water, it is compared with water and discovered to be water. Such ex- periments should be quantitative, i.e., the amount of combustible burnt and of water formed should be ascertained. The production of water on burning fat (candles) or vegetable or mineral oil should be made clear in a similar way. The burning of charcoal, coal and coke may then be studied : it is soon obvious that, whatever the product, it is neither solid as in the case of metals nor liquid, the amount of liquid formed being very small. Perhaps it is a gas. " How is this to be tested for ? " The only gases hitherto studied and for which tests are known are that from limestone and oxygen. It cannot be the latter, as it is obtained from it; but it may possibly be the former this is present in the air coal and wood are continually being burnt in the air. On burning charcoal or coke in a current of air and passing the products into lime-water, a copious precipitate is formed : when sufficient of this pre- cipitate is collected and examined quantitatively, it is discovered to be chalk stuff. The composite nature of chalk-stuff gas is thus discovered ; it becomes possible thereafter to speak of the gas as carbonic gas. xxni TRAINING COLLEGE COUESE 451 The discovery that one of the two substances into which chalk or limestone is resolvable is in itself a composite substance and that it is an oxide may excite comment : the question may arise whether lime is not also an oxide, since it is so like the oxides formed on burning the metals zinc and magnesium ; a comparison of the behaviour of the two substances to- wards acids, involving the preparation of various salts, only serves to confirm the idea that lime is probably the oxide of a zinc- or magnesium-like metal. Little more can be done than point out that the inference is a correct one ; that lime is, in fact, the oxide of the metal calcium. Such experiments, however, combined with what has been learnt of the oxides formed from various common metals, will make it easy to demon- strate the nature of the common minerals and to explain the manufacture of iron and other common metals. Should it be thought necessary that the formation of water on burning spirit, etc., should be understood, the discovery of the composition of water may be led up to by studying the action of muriatic acid on the metal zinc or iron. XXIV SCIENCE WORKSHOPS FOE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES THE importance of experimental studies carried on with the object of affording training in scientific method, as a necessary part of the ordinary course in schools generally, whatever their grade, is already so widely recognised that ere long every school will certainly need its workshops as well as its class-rooms; it is therefore desirable that the general character of the requirements should be understood, in order that buildings may be properly designed to accommodate all necessary fittings and appurtenances and more particularly to afford the necessary working space. In preparing such a statement, it is well to look ahead and to foreshadow the policy of the future, as the whole question of school design may assume a very different aspect in years to come ; indeed, the architect may play a by no means unimportant part in helping on reforms which many think to be very necessary if practical work is to take its proper place in the ordinary curriculum of every school. I propose to illustrate my arguments largely by reference to the new buildings at Horsham for Christ's Hospital School, which have been erected from the 452 xxiv SCIENCE WOKKSHOPS 453 designs of Mr. Aston Webb and Mr. Ingress Bell to accommodate 820 boys. In the past it has been customary to teach some branch of science usually either chemistry or physics or both and laboratories have been required for this purpose ; in fact, the word laboratory has a specific connotation in connection with the teaching or practice of some branch of experimental or observational science. Unfortunately, in introducing experimental science into schools, the mistake has been made of merely trans- ferring red-hot embers from the university or college and then proceeding to keep the fire burning on the professional lines followed in the technical school. We are being led gradually to see that this mistake must be rectified that it is not the province of schools to teach any branch of science technically or even specifically. We desire, in fact, to get rid of formal science and to give broad training in scientific method to subject the young scholars to the practical discipline to be derived from experimental studies ; we do not wish to make specialists of them. A step is gained by substituting the word workshop for laboratory : by so doing we not only make use of a word which is familiar to English ears but gain an enlarged and more definite conception of the kind of work to be done. Every one thinks of work done in the class-room as different from that done in the workshop. It is material to my argument that in the workshop the onus is cast on the worker rather than on the director : one of the chief objects of introducing ex- perimental studies into schools is to train boys and girls to be self-helpful. At Christ's Hospital the four chief rooms in the Science Block are called Science Workshops and are 454 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxiv distinguished by the names of Cavendish, Dalton, Davy and Faraday all classic names in the history of English science. If the work done in the school workshops is to be of a general character, it is obvious that the fittings must be planned and arranged accordingly. In the past, as a rule, subjects have been taught in watertight compartments ; but there is a growing tendency to co - ordinate much of the teaching, especially in the junior classes. Thus, mathematics has been taught in the class-room as a desk subject, whilst elementary physical measurements which have been neither more nor less than practical mathematical exercises have been carried on in the laboratory under the science teacher. It is urged and with force that the teacher of mathematics must adopt practical methods and relieve the teacher of science of much that now falls to his share. Clearly, one of two courses must be adopted either the necessary pro- vision must be made in the mathematics class-room for the practical study of the subject or a large part of the mathematical teaching must be transferred to the science workshop. A good deal of drawing is now done incidentally in the course of the science lessons ; and gradually we are also recognising that the science work has a literary side. Everything points, in fact, to a time when class-rooms such as are now provided will be of subordinate importance in our English educational system to a tune when we shall justify our contention that we are a practical people. To summarise my recommendations, I would say that in designing science workshops the architect and his technical advisers should have three S's in mind Sense, Simplicity, Space. There should be due xxiv SCIENCE WOEKSHOPS 455 knowledge and understanding of the requirements to be met mere copying should be impossible. The provision made should be of the simplest character possible because simplicity of provision conduces to simplicity of practice ; and the space should be ample for almost anything may be done, given sufficient space, and to grant proper space is to show proper respect. It is not my province to consider external design or general architectural effect but I will venture to urge that money spent on judicious ornamentation is always well spent in the case of a school. We give far too little heed to the influence which surroundings exercise on young people ; and if we are ever to recover the sense of artistic feeling, we must do far more to make our schools attractive. The disregard of property which seems to be so characteristic of boys at the present day which leads them to kick open doors, to wipe their feet on the railway carriage seats, etc. is probably a consequence of the fact that at school they are not placed under conditions which would lead them to be mindful of their surroundings. It is astonishing that the example set by Thring at Upping- ham has met with so few followers hitherto : " thinking in shape" such as he advocated is one of the most powerful means of stimulating the imagination and of developing aesthetic tastes ; and it is so easy to carry out his idea in these days, as magnificent photographic reproductions of the masterpieces of Nature and of Art are to be had at comparatively small cost. The moral of these remarks is that neither class-room nor corridoi should be without its picture rail. I would also plead for a more liberal use of colour and of line decoration in our schools. 456 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxiv Before describing the science workshops at Christ's Hospital, I should say that the fittings were not thought of until long after the building was designed. Of course, to secure the best result " the punishment should fit the crime " the building should be designed to the fittings, not vice versa. They differ in an important manner from the laboratories hitherto provided for schools. On refer- ence to the plans, it will be seen that there are four main rooms in which classes are held ; l and that to each of these are attached a number of subsidiary rooms. No lecture room is provided ; the omission Jias been made of set purpose, as it was desired to discourage didactic teaching. The object of introducing experi- mental science into schools is to give boys and girls an opportunity of learning to do things themselves ; the time devoted to such work is brief enough : they cannot afford to waste any of it in listening to formal lectures. Full provision is made in each room for such didactic teaching as may be necessary by providing a demonstration bench, in front of which there is sufficient space left free for seats in two of the rooms, whilst in the others uprights are fixed, provided with small desk tops, at which the class can stand, and take notes. Moreover, no special balance room is provided ; instead of such a room, a novel fitting a balance bench has been introduced. At first this was provided only in the two of the four workshops which were intended for juniors but it has been found so useful that a third has been ordered, which is to be placed in the Faraday workshop. The balance bench is merely a long narrow table (2 feet by 1 2 feet by 3 1 Two of these are about 75 and two about 52 feet long by 30 wide. SCIENCE WOEKSHOPS 457 feet 6 inches high) covered by a glazed case for the protection of the balances. In fact, instead of having a number of balances within separate glazed cases, one large glazed case has been provided to contain a number of separate uncased balances. The balance table is approached on either side from the working benches and is arranged at right angles to these. Four boys can work at either side and one at each end. The glazed fronts are hinged at the bottom to the table top and drop down. Holes are made in the table top wherever desirable underneath the balance pans, so that objects may be suspended from the balance pan and weighed, for example, in a pail of water under- neath the table. The arrangement has the great advantage that the teacher has the scholars under complete control and is able^ to see whether they are weighing properly. The balances placed in such a case are those required for all ordinary work. There is no difficulty in dealing with the more delicate balances required for advanced work : these are always pro- vided with a case ; and as the sensitive working parts are of agate, there is no need to keep them in a separate room. They are conveniently placed on brackets against the wall. Store Room. A third special feature of importance is the store or stock room attached to each of the four workshops. This is intended not only for the ordinary stores but also as a room in which the apparatus for experiments left unfinished at the end of a lesson may be set aside until the next attendance. Working Benches. These are of two kinds those for ordinary work and those at which work involving the use of water may be done. The distinction is fundamental, I think. The former have teak tops ; the 458 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxiv latter are covered with lead. In days gone by, when the only science taught was analytical chemistry, there was much washing out of test tubes to be done : con- sequently numerous sinks were provided. To the present day, the regulations of the science branch of the Education Department specify that there should be a water-tap and sink for every two students but fortunately the rule is qualified by an " if possible." If only to prevent the general but inexcusable habit of wasting water from growing up, this regulation should be abolished. It is the more necessary to get rid of such a regulation, as it has done much in the past and is still doing much towards retarding the proper teaching of science in schools, on account of the expense involved in carrying it into execution ; and it has given rise to numerous disputes, sensible people seeing that such provision is quite unnecessary. Besides the intolerable waste of water, the presence of sinks on the benches involves the constant wetting of the bench near the sink. Fortunately, the class of work now advocated for schools requires the use of water but seldom, so that there is no longer any excuse for providing sinks except in special places. But I would warn architects that they must harden their hearts on this point as they will meet with many unimaginative teachers who will hanker after what has been, whilst others will think it so convenient to have sinks here, there and everywhere if they do not object to allow scholars to move a few feet towards a convenience. There is no more reason, however, why sinks should be everywhere in a laboratory than there is to have one in every room in a dwelling-house so that all washing up may be done on the spot. 1 need scarcely point out that the economy involved in xxiv SCIENCE WORKSHOPS 459 localising the water supply, sinks and drains is very great. At Horsham, in the rooms on the upper floor, all sinks have been placed near to the walls ; the waste is carried down to the floor below in pipes fixed in chases in the walls. On the basement floor, cross channels have been avoided as much as possible. The conventional top hamper which is erected on the bench in most laboratories has been got rid of ; in three of the rooms an arrangement has been substituted which provides both a gas service and upright supports to which the rings, etc., required to hold apparatus can be clamped. Uprights made of quarter-inch iron gas barrel have been bolted to the table top 1 foot 6 inches from the outer edge, at intervals of about 3 feet. A few inches above the top these are fitted with crosses into each of which two eighth-inch bore gas taps (Baird and Tatlock's) are screwed. At the top, these uprights are connected together by half-inch barrel. These cross-connections form a complete circuit, which in turn is connected with the gas main brought down from the ceiling. By bridging the interval at the top by pieces of board, shelves are formed on which, for example, a vessel to be used as a reservoir may be placed ; or pulleys, etc., may be hung from the cross pipes, which form a gallows along the whole length of the table. If bottles are needed these can be arranged inside the uprights along the middle of the bench. If it be desired to produce a decorative effect and to protect the wood against acids, white glazed tiles having pieces of indiarubber glued to the underside by bicycle cement may be arranged within the line of uprights. What is wanted on a school bench is working space ; shelves only serve to obstruct the view and to carry bottles which are rarely used. 460 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxiv The arrangement which I ain here advocating has been carried out in a slightly different way at the Christ's Hospital Girls' School, Hertford. Four parallel benches about 20 feet long are arranged along the length of the room. That at the windows is suit- able for senior work. The remaining three are so placed that girls may work facing the light, standing against the inside edge of the two outer benches, which have wooden tops and are provided with gas but not with water ; the middle bench is covered with lead and there are three sinks in it and a larger sink at either end. The girls can turn from the working bench to the water bench whenever necessary, the one water bench serving for the common use of the two sets of girls. The sinks in this bench are mainly for use as pneumatic troughs : two are 1 foot 6 inches and one is 2 feet 6 inches long. I venture to think some such arrange- ment as this is about the simplest and most common- sense plan that can well be adopted. The tops of the working benches overlap the cupboards 6 inches, so that the girls may sit and write at them. The gas standards are fixed 6 inches from the outer edge and are tied by the overhead mains which run along the benches and across the room. Cupboards. Both at Horsham and Hertford, the space below the bench top is fitted with two tiers of small cupboards ; inside each cupboard there is a small drawer. Each working place has four such cupboards, so that four scholars may occupy the place in succes- sion and each have a cupboard to dispose of. In the case of school work, the amount of apparatus to be stored by the individual scholar is usually small. Sinks and Drains. The ordinary earthenware sinks are not only more or less fragile themselves but when xxiv SCIENCE WOEKSHOPS 461 glass objects are dropped into them these are invariably broken ; moreover, the connection with the drain is difficult to make and always a* source of weakness. Lead-lined sinks are in some respects better but not altogether satisfactory. Thirty years' experience has convinced me that wooden sinks are far the best provided that they are built up solidly without dove- tailed joints and that they are always kept partly full of water by arranging the waste so that it projects several inches (about four) above the bottom of the sink. American white wood seems to be one of the best to use. Sides and bottom should be without joints. All surfaces should be well painted with thin coal tar before they are butted ; and the whole surface inside and out should be similarly coated. The waste-pipe should either be somewhat expanded or should have a conical flange burnt on by means of which it may be held in position by two blocks, one of which fixed by screws to the under side of the bottom serves to carry bolts by means of which a second block is caused to clamp the pipe firmly. The space between the pipe and the side of the hole through which the pipe passes is filled in with pitch. The sink is wedged up against the bench top. Such sinks may be made of any size that may be desired and no plumber is needed to fix them. The best drain, in my experience, is a U-shaped channel formed in a concrete floor, lined with the best Portland cement and then well tarred when dry. It should be provided with a wooden cover-plate. Such a drain can always be got at. Each year during the long vacation it should be cleaned and when dry recoated with tar. 1 1 Care should be taken to arrange the drains so that they come outside the benches, in order that they may be easily got at. If there 462 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxiv Ventilation Hoods. One or more of these have been provided for each of the four large workshops but they are not yet finally arranged. Their position has been determined by that of the flues, which are not always in ideal situations. Had the fact been suffi- ciently taken into consideration that electricity is at disposal, there can be little doubt that the use of electrically driven fans would have been provided for from the outset and that the attempt would not have been made to produce a draught by means of gas. The trials made thus far have proved that it is desir- able to use fans. The conventional ventilation hood has many faults which are perpetuated time after time ; of all the fittings it is the one which most needs study and improvement. The hood is rarely properly pro- portioned to the work for which it is to be used ; and the mistake is almost invariably made of merely pro- viding an exit opening without reference to its position or shape. The improvement, first introduced, I believe, at the Finsbury Technical College and subsequently at the Central Technical College which is described in Robins's Technical School and College Building (Whittaker and Co.: London, 1887), p. 123, plate 50 appears to have passed unnoticed. It consists in giving the flue exit opening the form of a slot extend- ing across the hood, so that an even draught may be be any difficulty in so placing them, it is better to form a channel in the top of the bench at the back or down the middle of a double bench' ; this may be arranged to drain into a sink at the end of the bench, if sinks are required. Such channels are very easily provided when the bench top is covered with lead. All pipes, whether for gas or water, should be of iron. They should be fixed on the face of the walls and above the bench top. It is all-important not to fix such fittings within the cup- boards. Sinks such as I have described have been made to my entire satisfaction by the Bennet Furnishing Company. xxiv SCIENCE WORKSHOPS 463 produced extending from side to side of the cupboard. The squeegee fitted to the upper bar, blocking the interval between the glass of the rising sash and the bar in front of which the sash moves up and down, is another feature of importance which has been over- looked. The use of iron plates for the roof and in many cases for the ends may be recommended. It is easy to construct a slot flue exit in the angle which the iron roof plate forms with the wall by fixing an iron plate against the wall inclined outwards at the angle which will give a slot of the size necessary to secure an even draught from end to end, the size of the opening being determined by trial. The opening into the flue may be at any point inside the V-shaped flue-box which is thus formed. The gas-burner should always be placed below the opening from the closet into the upcast flue. Much remains to be learnt as to the manner in which flues should be constructed for draught hoods. It is the case of the smoky chimney over again : some hoods work well, others badly, no one knowing precisely why. The subject needs to be taken in hand experimentally and it is important that it should be studied. In any case, flues should be made wherever possible in the walls : they are always useful. One other point of special importance may be referred to. Whatever may be the system of ventila- tion adopted, there should be no competition between the exits ; if provision be made for the extraction of the air from a room by mechanical means independently of the hoods, it cannot be expected that the flues of draught hoods will work with full efficiency, if at all ; the air should be allowed to escape through open windows, if not entirely through the draught hoods. 464 PAPEKS ON EDUCATION xxiv Of the two systems available that in which the draught is secured by means of a gas jet and that in which a fan is used it may be said that each has its advantages. If the latter be adopted, it will, I think, be found advisable to localise the draught closets, much as I have advocated should be done in the case of water supply, etc., otherwise the cost of fans, more particularly the cost of working them if electricity be used, becomes excessive. I may add that to connect up a series of hoods in different parts of a room or building and to use one large fan to produce a draught through all is not really satisfactory in practice ; moreover, the construction of the necessary flues intro- duces special difficulties and is costly. The use of gas has the advantage that small hoods may be worked economically so that they are to be recommended in cases in which only the occasional use of the draught hood is contemplated. But I may here utter the caution that no acid fumes should be allowed to escape into the air and that draught hoods are therefore essential wherever chemical work is to be done. I am sure it will be found in cases where electric lighting is adopted that the wiring will, perish rapidly unless the precaution be taken to soak the leads in molten paraffin wax before fixing. Special Appliances. At Horsham, a carpenter's bench with four vices is placed in two of the rooms (Cavendish and Dalton), provision being made for storing tools and other general requisites in drawers and cupboards in a somewhat specially fitted bench provided with a zinc top. The top of this bench, it may be mentioned, is intended for use in cutting out cardboard, etc. A small room on the extreme left of the ground SCIENCE WOEKSHOPS 465 floor is fitted with two lathes (wood and metal), a drill and a circular saw, which are driven by an electro- motor. As the man in charge of the workshops is a skilled mechanic, it will be possible to have a good deal of simple apparatus made on the spot by the boys so that the manual training work will to some extent be co-ordinated with the experimental work. A dark room for optical experiments has been partitioned off from the Faraday workshop. A dark room for photographic work is provided on the upper floor. This latter, it may be pointed out, is an all- important adjunct to the science workshops. Arrangements for muffle and other furnaces are being made in several of the rooms. The experience I have of school requirements, especially that gained of late in arranging the fittings at Horsham and Hertford, leads me to think that, by taking into account more carefully than has hitherto been done the character of the fittings to be introduced at the time of designing the building, it will in future be possible to improve considerably upon the arrange- ments which have been made in the Christ's Hospital Schools, especially in the direction of simplification. The ideal to be aimed at, I think, is to have the whole of the room, both floor and wall space, available for the work which is to be done in it. Wall space is invaluable for a variety of purposes for many mechanical and physical experiments, for black - boards, for shelving, etc. I would, therefore, advocate that no benches should be fixed permanently against the walls but that all benches should be placed out in the room ; also that projections into the room should be avoided and that the windows should be inserted at least six feet above the floor. There 2 H 466 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxiv would then be an uninterrupted wall space at disposal on all sides of the room. Whenever possible, the steam or hot-water pipes for heating the room should be carried under gratings in channels in the floor. Radiators, etc., not only take up much space against the wall, but interfere with and damage fittings in their neighbourhood. As to benches, I am much inclined to question the need of the elaborate provision which we have hitherto made. It is doubtful whether cupboards are required under the benches in schools ; apart from the fact that there is not much to be stored by the individual scholar, cupboards tend to engender habits of untidiness everything gets put away into them and the teacher cannot be perpetually looking after them. It is desirable to encourage the common use of apparatus and the habit of keeping things in set places and in good order. If sufficient shelving, racks, etc., be provided and cupboards for general use where necessary, there is little need for cupboards under the benches. In cases where it is necessary to put certain tools, etc., in the hands of each scholar, it would be easy to provide simple lockers against the wall or even to give each scholar a box- which could be taken " out of store " at each attendance and put under the working bench during the lesson. I should like to see steady heavy benches of the kitchen-table type made use of in many, if not in most, cases. I have spoken already of the concentra- tion of water supply and sinks. As to gas supply, of course it is convenient to have it at all benches; and if various grades of work are to be done in a laboratory, it is almost necessary to make such provision. But I am inclined to advocate a less permanent arrangement xxiv SCIENCE WORKSHOPS 467 than that usually adopted. I should like to see an overhead system of supply with provision for establish- ing connection with a simple main provided with the necessary taps which could be taken down from pegs on the wall whenever required and fixed temporarily on the bench. To call on boys and even on girls to do a little simple gas-fitting occasionally would be to give them most useful training; some one or other would always be forthcoming with genius for such work. I have previously spoken of the importance of giving eye training in schools through surroundings of the importance of ornament, colour, pictures, etc. Else- where, I have urged that an atmosphere of research should prevail in our college laboratories. From the same point of view, I would here advocate that a workshop atmosphere should pervade our school work- shops ; they should be arranged as and look like workshops not like drawing-rooms. Teacher and taught should be constantly called upon to meet contingencies and difficulties to become handy and self-helpful; and instead of being forced to stand or sit at one place during the lesson, the scholar should be encouraged to move to whatever place in the workshop is best suited for the work in hand. I am a teacher of over thirty years' standing. I have taught students of every grade. What astonishes, indeed appals me, is the absolute inability of almost all the students I meet with to help themselves. I therefore feel that our schools must take the question of hand and eye training seriously into consideration. For such benches as I have advocated, it is un- necessary to use hard wood. But whatever wood be used in the science workshop for the tops of benches, it should invariably be thoroughly coated with paraffin 468 PAPEES ON EDUCATION xxiv wax by ironing this in with an ordinary hot iron. Oil is useless as a protection against chemicals. Sooner or later a wooden bench top always becomes much stained and disfigured ; unless it be exceptionally well made, cracks are sure to develop. All these diffi- culties are overcome by the use of lead-covered benches ; a long experience leads me personally to prefer these to all others. The lead should be dressed carefully over the edge of the bench ; a stout hard- wood bead, pro- jecting about half an inch above the bench top, should then be fixed against it, using cups and screws. A simpler plan is to clamp the lead firmly at its. edge by a hard-wood bead screwed down upon the table top an inch or so in from the outer edge of the table. Before fixing the bead the surface to be hidden should be well painted, so as to make a water-tight joint. Solder should never be used in making joints in any lead work ; joints should always be burnt with the blowpipe. A few words may be said here specially with reference to girls' schools. No doubt, until teachers become more imaginative and less anxious to adopt conventional fittings, they will desire to have very formal arrangements made for experimental work. If the teacher insists on having the working benches placed in front of a demonstration table, a water bench may well be fixed flanking the benches on the one side ; whilst on the other flank assuming the door to be in the middle of the wall the space on one side of the door may be occupied by draught hoods and that on the other by a balance bench. But provision should be made even in the case of girls for some use of tools. Most householders must have experienced feminine incapacity to understand screws, leading as xxiv SCIENCE WORKSHOPS 469 this does to the gradual disappearance of the screw nuts from domestic appliances ; and they must have wished that their womenkind had some soul for such matters. The chief development must come, however, in connection with the rational study of domestic requirements : it may not be necessary nor desirable to teach our girls at school to be cooks ; but they should learn there to understand the fundamental prin- ciples underlying cookery and all other kinds of domestic work it should be woman's pride to do this. Men have long been victims of academic prejudices but are seeking to throw them off; unfortunately the disease is now being contracted by women and we have to deplore the all too literary bent of the curriculum in girls' schools, whether primary or secondary. By making liberal provision of space for domestic work- shops, the architect may do much to turn the tide. With regard to the treatment of wall space, as much as can be spared here and there should be properly prepared so that it may serve as a black- board ; or the special black canvas, so much used in America, should be fixed against it by battens. The old-fashioned small black-boards, like slates, are fast disappearing, with advantage to teachers and taught. Wherever there is spare space, stout battens should be fixed to the wall a few feet apart when these are provided brackets, etc., may be fixed up at any time. Lastly, I may point out that if it can be provided a flat roof is very valuable for many purposes for experiments on the growth of plants, for photographic work, etc. Also that it is desirable that a number of beams be fixed firmly to the ceiling joists, from which pulleys, etc., can be suspended. I have said nothing directly with reference to the 470 PAPERS ON EDUCATION xxiv science workshops in colleges as distinct from those for schools. These differ considerably from school workshops in minor matters, but not in principle. I have long made up my mind that if I were called on again to design a laboratory, I should greatly simplify the fittings and follow as nearly as possible the model of the well-arranged factory. The Board of Education has recently issued a series of rules to be observed in planning and fitting up public elementary schools, which include rules for the fitting up of a science room in ordinary schools and also for laboratories in higher grade elementary schools. The latter undoubtedly tend to favour over- provision from the point of view of this paper. 1 The inspectors who are called on to administer them have usually been brought up in the .lap of luxury and have not learnt by sad experience to come down to the level of ordinary life. Large sums are being spent all over the country at the present time under such influences. It is not merely that much more money is spent than necessary : what is far worse, a false complexion is put upon the work it becomes drawing-room practice and not workshop practice; when the scholars go out into the world, they find themselves placed under altogether strange conditions, unable to use the ordinary tools and unable either to fit into or to follow the ways of ordinary life. The outcome is most serious ; some action must be taken to put the schools on a simpler footing and to bring 1 It is implied that distinct physical and chemical laboratories are desirable. I venture to urge that the very contrary is the case there should be no specific mention either of chemistry or of physics in an elementary school, whatever its grade, and scarcely in a secondary school. Science in its relation to common life is the subject that schools should endeavour to teach ; this touches on many branches. xxiv SCIENCE WORKSHOPS 471 their work into harmony with ordinary requirements. Sir William Abney, the present head of the science branch of the Education Department, is so well aware that what is most wanted in a science workshop is space that we may hope that he will so modify the regulations as to make this the essential feature in them ; and also that he will emphasise both in the regulations and in instructions to inspectors the importance of securing simplicity in the arrangements. In conclusion, I venture to urge that some attempt should now be made to standardise the requirements both for elementary and secondary schools. 1 1 Plans and pictures showing the arrangements of the fittings in the Christ's Hospital Schools are given in the original paper ; see also the School World, April 1903, for pictures of benches and fittings. INDEX ABEL, Sir F., gun-cotton, 149 Accuracy, 263 Acids, action on metals, 285, 3'Jl Action the end of man, 174, 258 Age of entry to Universities, 82 ; of leaving school, 82 Agriculture, 186 Air, study of, 232, 310, 371, 427, 444 Alice in Wonderland, 420 Arithmetic, practical, 191 Army, training for, 56 Arnold, Matthew, 11, 153, 162 Art of experimenting, 428 Arts cultivated at school, 6, 165, 191 ; practical, 11 Ayton, Prof., 135 Balance bench, 456 Balances, 274, 364 Berthelot, 153 Biology, 67 Black's Magnesia Alba, 382 Books, need of sound, 86, 206 ; true use of, 85, 87, 156, 391 ; tyranny of, 147, 175 Botany, in girls' schools, 268 ; syllabus, 291 Boys dependent on teachers, 15 British Association Committee, on scientific education in schools, 30, 55 ; on teaching chemistry in schools, 66, 242 ; course, 300, 345 mittee on teaching of, 32, 300 ; syllabus of, 275, 283 China, 2, 11, 13, 22, 32, 137 Christ's Hospital School, new build- ings, 57, 452 City and Guilds of London Institute, 99, 124, 135, 141, 240 Class system, 81 Cleanliness, 396 Coal, 47 Coal-tar colours, 126 Combustion, 311, 389 Composition, art of, not taught, 62, 88 Constructive policy, need of, 32 Conversation in school, 259 Cookery, 208, 416 Cooking, a branch of applied chemistry, 50 Creatures of habit, 37 Culture, 98 Curriculum needs enlarging, 199 Darwin, Charles, 41, 43, 184, 205 Degree, value of, 94 Density, 369, 397, 410 Detective literature, 381, -385 Didactic teaching, outcome of, 259 Discovery, the art of, 236 Doing, 7 Domestic science, 210, 400 Doyle, Conan, 16 Drawing, 88 Carlyle, 13, 40, 46, 74, 84, 118, 161 Earth, study of, 444 Certificates, 136, 378 Education, national programme of, Chalk, 314, 355, 373 27, 80, 101, 171 ; necessary Character, development of, 17, 257 Chemistry, Report of B.A. Com- 473 elements of general, 185 ; new methods necessary, 163, 183, 474 PAPEES ON EDUCATION 189 ; place of research in, 119 ; 1 scientific treatment of, 24, 163 ; two sides of, 81 ; unpractical, 378 ; unrest in secondary, 109 ' Education Department, reorganisa- tion of, 79, 118 Educational Conference, 5, 17 Educational science, 24, 53 Elementary schools, method followed by Messrs. Gordon and Heller in, 298 Empire, burden of, 38, 71, 77 Employers dissatisfied, 17 Energy, 46 English, failure, cause of, 117, 125 : ideals broader than German, 114, 147, 181 Examinations, encourage cramming, 73, 105, 108 ; make self-help impossible, 17 Examiners badly chosen, 75 Examining bodies, responsibilities of, 75 Experimental science, 1, 54, 59, 66 Experimenting, art of, 204 ; ex- perimental studies must begin early, 193 ; time devoted to, 347 Experiments, 9, 21, 88 Experts not consulted, 117, 127 Eyes, and hands, use of, 7 ; must be taught, 199 Facts not fancies, 16 Fire, 444 Food, 49 German, factories, why successful, 117, 130; methods, 109; schools, superiority of, 27, 107, 109 ; Technical High School system, 112 Giants, The Three, 411, 434 Girls, training of, 91 Gordon, Hugh, School Board work, 244, 298 Gorst, Sir John, 26 Griess azo dyes, 127, 148 Habits acquired at school, 9 Headmasters, 11, 17, 25, 213 Heath, Grace, 245 Heller, W. M., 90 ; School Board work, 215, 245, 298 Herkomer, Prof., 119 Heuristic, method, 235, 256 ; studies develop character, 257 Hofmann, 126, 147 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 49 Humanists, 25, 28, 98, 155, 162, 170 Huxley, 33, 86, 95, 124, 161, 166, 176, 207, 220, 380 Imagination, scientific use of, 35, 45, 83, 381 Imaginative power, dearth of, 37, 181, 196 Incidental method, 84 Indigo, manufacture of, in, Germany, 144 Individuality, a basis to organisation and co-operation, 138, 140 Industry, relation of science to, 131 Initiative, cultivation of, 252 Inspectors, 78, 194 Intelligence Board, 79 Ireland, education in, 89, 90 Iron rusting, 205, 309, 372, 385, 448 Japan, 33 Jonathan, advice of Brother, 384 Kingsley, Charles, 4, 5, 7, 381 Kipling, Eudyard, 33, 205 Klondyke, methods used in, 182 Knowingness, 157, 401 Knowledge, caste, 43 ; idol must be deposed, 156, 164 Laboratories, 59, 91, 270, 453 Language, study of, 61, 160 Latin, 54, 61, 159 Lesson learning, 165, 192 Limitation of subjects, 193 Literary training, importance of, 20, 43, 60, 88, 168, 265, 399; ne- glected, 21 London University Matriculation, 67, 76 Lowell, 163, 235 Magnus, Sir P., 135 Mahan, Captain, 39 INDEX 475 Manual training, 185, 199 Maps, use of survey, 201 Mathematics overvalued, 64, 88 Measurement work, 88, 277, 302, 367, 409, 425 Medical training, 171, 231 Military education, 54, 60, 105 Monkey that would not Kill, The, 394, 433 Moral, importance of, 420 Natural knowledge, 193 Naturalists, 29 Nature, ignorance of, 45, 98 Nature study, often pretence, 90, 175, 206, 405 Navy, 39 Nous, the quality needed, 400 Object studies, 425, 429 Organisation, absence of, in our educational work, 12, 66, 116 Pasteur, 52 Percival, Dr., 4, 72 Perkin manufacture of artificial dyes, 128, 147 Perry, Prof., 48, 135, 408 Physics, 262, 276 Physiology, inapplicable to schools, 268 ; vegetable, 294 Polytechnics, policy of, 136, 140 Powell, Baden, 14, 204 Practical studies, value of, 11, 60, 158 Preparatory schools for boys, 28, 70, 170 Priestley, 19, 394 Problem work, 20, 166, 185, 241, 309 Psychology often cant, 173 Public indifference, 102 Public School system condemned, 56 Quantitative, exercises, 335 ; sense, 173, 417 Reading, cultivation of art of, 202 ; not taught, 84, 157 Realists, 29 Reasoning, teaching of, 83 Record of work, 266 Reporting facts, 16 Research, importance of, 26, 141, 176 ; dominant force in educa- tion, 96 ; juvenile, 176, 392 ; spirit, 18, 416 ; neglect of, by manufacturers, 127 ; public appreciation of, 107 ; in schools, 141, 192, 252 R's, the four, 83 Ruskin, 378, 401 Sadler, Mr., 28, 101, 109 Science, General Elementary, at the University of London, 67, 249 Science, want of idea of, 11 ; value of, 69, 148, 154 ; the business of knowing, 196 Scientific method, 1, 15, 32, 81, 102, 122, 166, 178, 184, 189, 193, 195, 214 Scholarships, encourage cram, 105 ; overdone, 138 School Boards, 78, 93, 207 School, of the future, 22, 81, 157 ; not a preparation for life, 165 Schools, object before, 179 ; rural, 197 ; specialists in, 4, 18, 104 Sermons in stones, 46, 85 Sherlock Holmes, 16 Silver and lead, comparative study of, 233 Soda, 332 Spencer, Herbert, 381 Spirit of inquiry, importance of, 102, 192 Sulphuric acid, manufacture of, 150 Syllabus, Botany, 291 ; Elementary Chemistry, 225, 283 ; Element- ary Physics, 276 ; Major Scholarship's Committee, 246 ; Science and Art, 224 Teachers, training of, 18, 19, 91, 361, 421 Technical Education, 97, 100 ; Board Report of Committee, 248, 261 Test-tubing, 231 Text-books, 86, 156, 380, 419 Theory, importance of, 41, 117 Thermometer, 305, 349, 353, 416, 439 476 PAPERS ON EDUCATION Thinking in shape, 19, 160 Thought-power, development of, 93 Thring, 19, 23, 43, 51, 53, 78, 84, 160, 174, 200, 203 Tool-using animal, man a, 161, 198 Training, 73, 93 Trench's Study of Words, 238 Tripos for teachers, 94 Tyndall, 35 Understanding, need of wide, 44 Universities, classical trades-unions, 3 ; and commercialism, 72 ; backwardness of, 71, 83, 103 ; German, places of national re- sort, 106; influence on schools. 3 ; neglect to teach scientific method by, 4, 12, 18, 32 ; re- form of, 18, 93, 106, 118, 152 ; technical schools, 103 ; un- practical, 83 University Education, 100 Ward, Marshall,- Botany scheme, 269, 291 Water, sea why salt, 398 ; pro- perties of, 228, 397, 436; studies of, 348, 413, 426, 434 Weighing, 217, 368, 404, 431 Woman's requirements, 401 Workshop in school, 15, 20, 81 177, 203, 259, 363, 453 THE END Printed by R. & R. 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