Abstract
THE author of this small work can be congratulated upon having written a really practical text-book which is much superior to most of those now used in Great Britain. Its chief feature is absolute clarity of present-ation; no pupil should go wrong if he follows faithfully the directions given, and if he tries to answer the numerous questions interpolated throughout the text he will exercise his intelligence as well as his fingers and his capacity for obeying instructions. Those who prefer the strictly heuristic method of teaching will probably not regard with favour a book of this kind, but they would find it very useful if-as is usually the case-they are expected to cover a lot of ground with a large class in a limited time. Other valuable features are the optional work given after each experiment, and, near the end of the course, some elementary lessons in applied chemistry. The present writer has given some of these experiments to his pupils and can testify to their value, not only in imparting knowledge but also in stimulating interest. Some minor points of criticism will doubtless suggest themselves to every teacher, but these are negligible in comparison with the excellence of the work as a whole. Unconscious humour, too, is not often to be found in a school textbook, but if the reader will refer to the second sentence on page 1 of this book and then glance at the illustrations on the frontispiece opposite, he will learn that the homely test-tube, beaker, crucible, etc., are among the “less familiar “pieces of apparatus. We wonder what are the more familiar pieces of apparatus in American schools?
Laboratory Experiments in Chemistry: to accompany Black and Conant's “Practical Chemistry.”
N. Henry
Black
By. Pp. x + 167. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1923.) 5s. net.
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Laboratory Experiments in Chemistry: to accompany Black and Conant's “Practical Chemistry”. Nature 114, 346 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114346b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/114346b0