Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/211

Rh be trained to observe, the hand to experiment, and the judgment to reason. Hence it is that, in the new scheme of requisitions for admission to Harvard College, the requisition in chemistry has been stated thus: "A course of at least sixty experiments in 'general chemistry,' actually performed at school by the pupil.... The candidate will be required to pass both a written and a laboratory examination. The written examination will be directed to testing the candidate's knowledge of experiments and experimenting, as well as his knowledge of the principles and results of the respective sciences. The laboratory examination will be directed to testing his skill in experimenting. At the hour of the written examination the candidate will be required to hand in the original note-book in which he recorded the steps and results of the experiments which he performed at school, and this note-book must bear the indorsement of his teacher, certifying that the notes are a true record of the pupil's work." The requisition in physics is stated in similar language.

The pamphlet, whose title is given at the head of this notice, was prepared chiefly for the purpose of accurately defining the requisition above stated. It presents certain novel features.

In the first place, the course here presented is limited to the fundamental principles of chemistry, and no attempt is made to develop the scheme of the chemical elements. At Cambridge this scheme is fully illustrated in a subsequent course, which is the natural sequel of the one we are here discussing. Such a limitation of the subject-matter has a very great advantage in an elementary course, by enabling the teacher to fix attention on the general principles of the science, selecting for illustrations only those facts which have a general interest, and avoiding the great mass of details which usually so greatly encumber the elementary presentation of chemistry. But, although the scope of the course is thus limited, all the fundamental principles of the science are considered, the most important of its facts are illustrated, and the general method of each of its great departments is explained.

In the second place, demonstrations by the teacher are systematically used in this pamphlet to supplement the experiments made by the students, and a complete outline is given of a systematic course of instruction in the elements of chemical science which is logically followed out from beginning to end. The ground is taken that it is not necessary, in order to secure the full advantages of the experimental method, that each student should perform every experiment for himself. If this is attempted, a course in chemistry must be made very meager, since, on account of either their danger or their expense, a large number of the most instructive experiments must be omitted; but these can be shown once for all, without danger and with comparatively slight cost, on the lecture-table. If the student has actually performed in the laboratory a sufficient number of