Modern inorganic chemistry / by J.W. Mellor.

  • Joseph William Mellor
Date:
1922
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Modern inorganic chemistry / by J.W. Mellor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of a civilized man, and a student may learn to observe without gaining much beyond an increased facility in the art: and he may become very skilful in experimenting without gaining much more than mere dexterity in manipulation. 2. Memory and knowledge of relevant facts..—Facts, of course, form the raw material which is refined by scientific methods into science itself. Science can do nothing without facts. Consequently, many facts must be memorized by the neophyte in chemistry. Some students soon learn the trick of amassing and memorizing all kinds of information in a mechanical way. All the facts associated with a phenomenon may not be of equal importance. In practice it is not always easy to discriminate between relevant and irrelevant facts. Still, it is important to confine the attention as closely as possible to relevant and essential facts, and to discard those irrelevant and accidental. The tyro in chemistry must trust his teacher to indicate the more significant facts to be committed to memory, and used as material for exercising his intellect and wits. 3. Ability to reason and think in a logical systematic way.—A student must learn to reflect on the available data bearing on the problem in hand ; and to explain a phenomenon by drawing legitimate inferences from approved evidence. It is a mistake to postpone the exercise and discipline of the thinking faculties until a student has memorized a vast accumulation of facts. It is necessary to form habits of reflection and thought as early as possible. Exercise means growth. It is far easier to acquire a mass of facts than to learn to draw a sound inference as to what the facts prove. The thinking faculty can be developed only through the student’s own individual efforts. Just as the memory, in some subtle way, grows more vigorou's with use, so the exercise of the thinking faculties enhances the power to think. Every exercise of the reason, said Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1811, strengthens the habit of correct thinking, and adds sometimes to the influence and power of common sense. Vague indefinite observing is usually followed by muddled inchoate thinking. Clear thinking pre-supposes clear seeing. 4. Cidtivation of the imagination.—Some teachers have very pronounced objections to the introduction of scientific theories in an elementary course ; they claim that “ it is not scientific to present and discuss, say, the atomic theory in an elementary chemistry course.” It might be asked what constitutes an elementary course? It would be a great mistake to suppose that science has no need for the imagination, for it is very true, as K. Pearson has said, that
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