Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/151

Rh and younger women to bed. Three women, failing to get the protection they sought from a policeman, clubbed their pennies to buy a Bible. Other persons, thinking that the world was to be set on fire by the collision of two stars, believed that it would be safest to avoid the streets. A story is told of an old nurse, on another occasion, who, imagining that a very heavy and dark thunder-storm meant the end of the world, went up-stairs and put on her best cap. In another thunder-storm, conveying a similar suggestion, a panic-stricken sufferer lamented that the parson was not at home. On the morning after a storm on the island of Sark, which nearly blew the house over, the old housekeeper addressed her master: "Eh! Mr. B, did you hear the wind? Eh! I thought the day of judgment had come." "And what did you do?" the master asked. "Eh! Mr. B, I got up and made myself a little cup o' tea."

Some Principles of Chemistry-Teaching.—A paper by Lillie J. Martin, of the High-School, Indianapolis, on "Chemistry in the High -School," contains some good thoughts on the subject of teaching the science. While historical study, rightly carried on, does not preclude work that gives the kind of discipline that science should give, and itself has many advantages, "the great danger is that the distinctive aims of science-study will be lost sight of in the historical study," as is alleged to be done in too many text-books. At the bottom of the author's system of teaching lies the principle that the peculiar discipline of chemistry-study comes through the proper use of the laboratory. In practice, she divides the time about equally between getting the facts, or laboratory-work, and considering the facts, or class-room work. Simple apparatus, made or adapted by the pupil, is pronounced the best; and her own description of the apparatus recommended shows how the most common things, some of them costing nothing, may be made to serve. Four kinds of experimental work are declared to be too much neglected in high-schools: work that teaches pupils the use of their senses; work that acquaints them with the underlying laws of the science; work that throws them on themselves, or independent qualitative analysis; and work that teaches scientific exactness, or quantitative work. Encouragement of pupils to do original work and write about it when they have done it is insisted upon. Many experiences have taught the author that even the best text-books should be preceded by work which would throw the pupils upon the use of their senses in learning their lessons. In her own teaching of laboratory-work, in order to save time, experiments to be done on a certain day are indicated the day before, and are learned by the pupil; and general directions as to the particular way of doing each experiment are given at the beginning of the experiment-hour. By a little encouragement pupils will do a good deal of extra experimental work, and much of this can be done at home, with great gain in independence and originality. The ability to write what is laid down in the text-book is not a sufficient test for promotion in chemistry. The "literary test" in examinations makes pupils feel that chemical information is the thing to strive for; and, to counteract this tendency, the author suggests, in a question, that high-school laboratories should be opened for a practical test during examination, to make pupils understand that a knowledge of chemistry means the ability to deal with Nature.

The Origin of "Manners."—Otto Goldmeister, in writing on the usages of politeness, treats the subject as a universal one, the adequate treatment of which would have to include all people, of all times and places, and of every degree of barbarism and civilization. An institution thus coextensive with mankind can not have originated in convention or the caprice of some small social groups, or have been the product of any particular period of time. The presumption is therefore justified that the social code of manners has some kind of a bearing on the development and welfare of the race, and that it contributes to some end that can not be so easily reached in any other way. The essence of courtesy consists in our using the outer signs of esteem toward a person whom we do not know or may inwardly despise, in order to place ourselves in a position in which we