Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/541

Rh going through a full course of analytical exercises. At the very outset the pupil begins to think, and has to make his own way. He learns the properties of chemical bodies by trial and observation; and his progress consists in solving a succession of problems by finding out and identifying chemical elements and compounds. Some seventy or more simple salts soluble in water are the substances chosen for examination, and these are first tested to find the base or metallic component of the salt, and then to find the acid or electro-negative element. It is a work of investigation from the start, and what the pupil learns he knows. There are no recitations, the evidence of proficiency being what the pupil can do. The course is one of self-instruction, and its value depends upon the principle that one difficulty overcome by the pupil himself is of more educational benefit than a score of difficulties over which he is helped by others. Professor Rains's little accompanying manual begins by explaining the use of the necessary apparatus, and then the inquirer is directed how to enter upon his regular work; but, the problems being presented in order, he is left to solve them himself, which is the only way in which he can become a chemist.

Nothing so neat, compact, and convenient as this mechanical arrangement has ever before been furnished for beginners in analytical chemistry. The method has grown out of Professor Rains's experience as a chemical teacher; and only by a long course of assiduous trials with students and classes could he have succeeded in putting into such small compass, and such a portable and convenient form, the facilities of manipulation by which a practical foundation in the knowledge of the science can be laid. In his annual course of lectures upon "Physics" and "Chemistry" at the Medical College of Augusta, Georgia, Professor Rains has among his students the senior class of Richmond Academy, an institution in which for several years he has been the teacher of Natural Science. As a result, he became convinced that a much larger amount of chemical study than is commonly supposed, and that, too, by direct chemical work, might be given to the senior classes of ordinary schools where there is no laboratory, and no specially qualified chemical teachers. He was so sure of this, and so impressed with the value of practical work in chemical analysis—the most interesting of all chemical practice—that for several years he has given the senior academy class a certain amount of chemical testing to do by themselves, furnishing them only with simple apparatus and clear directions. In this way the self-education of the pupils has gone forward with the happiest results. Satisfied that the same advantages may be secured by others, if they have only the requisite means of practice furnished to hand, he has constructed the little laboratory that will now be furnished to anybody by the instrument-maker.

As to what has been actually attained with classes by this method of study, Professor Rains thus remarks in his preface: "At the recent