BOOK, INORGANIC CHEMISTRY A TEXTBOOK FOR COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS by E. J. HOLMYARD. Originally published in 1922. FOREWORD BY CYRIL NORWOOD: Science has now been taught for many years in the bulk of the schools of this country, and for nearly a generation it has been an integral part of the education which the Board of Education approves. The somewhat paradoxical result has been that there is perhaps less respect for the scientist than in the days of Huxley and Tyndall, when science had no footing in the schools at all. Few would be bold enough to hazard the assertion that there are signs in any class of British society of the scientific habit of mind. The cause cannot lie in the teaching of Classics to the boys of the Public Schools, for these form but a limited class, and for a good many years have enjoyed access to science teaching. I suggest that the causes rather lie in the strong reaction provoked by the extraordinarily one-sided results produced in the specially aided schools, which devoted themselves to Science in the last years of the reign of Victoria, and to the narrow formalism of much of the teaching.
It was discovered that man cannot live and grow on science alone, and the revolt perhaps went too far, until the Great War forcibly reminded the nation that things were not well. It ought to be possible to think out a general education in which all will be able to gain some elementary insight into the workings of the physical universe and to come to understand the meaning of scientific method, and the point of view of the scientist. So much is necessary if in the future we are all to understand one another. It ought to be possible also so to teach Science that those who learp it do not become intolerant and unsympathetic, but realize that, though it is a necessary part, it is only a part of the modern citizens outfit for life. This book is written by one who has realized this, and who knows how to teach with breadth and without exclusiveness. Its pages give information and provoke curiosity at many points they suggest that there are other realms of knowledge of a quite different sort. This characteristic, which may offend the purist, seems to me all to the good, and I hope that the work may find its way into the hands of many. CYRIL NORWOOD.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION: If Science is to retain the honourable place it has won in the educational system of this country, I believe we shall have to recognize that it is the greatest of the humanities, and deliberately abandon the so-called utilitarian stand point. There are signs that this fact is being realized, and that schoolmasters are becoming alive to the vital truth recently re-expressed by Dr. Singer, Science is a method and not a collection of facts. The present book is an attempt to present to students of the School and Higher Certificate standards a logical course of chemistry which shall acquaint them with modern ideas and give them an insight into the problems, methods and achievements of the science...