[26] Book instruction in the new sciences goes back, in the universities of most lands, to the late eighteenth century, but laboratory instruction is a much more recent development. Chemistry was the first science to develop, being the mother of science instruction, and probably the first chemical laboratory in the world to be opened to students was that of Liebig at Giessen, in 1826. The first American university to provide laboratory instruction in chemistry was Harvard, in 1846. The instruction in science in most of the universities, up to at least 1850, was book instruction. (See schedule of studies for University of Michigan, R. 331.) The first American university to be founded on the German model was Johns Hopkins, in 1876.
[27] By Charles Mayo and his sister, who opened a private Pestalozzian school, about 1825. Miss Mayo published her Lessons on Objects, explaining the method, and this became very popular in England after about 1830. Both the Mayos were prominent in the Infant-School movement, which adopted a formalized type of Pestalozzian procedure.
[28] In 1871 Dr. William T. Harris, then Superintendent of City Schools in Saint Louis, published a well-organized course for the orderly study of the different sciences. This attracted wide attention, and was in time substituted for the scattered lessons on objects which had preceded it. This in turn has largely given way, in the lower grades, to nature study.
[29] At the time of Professor Bache's visit, in 1838, the instruction included Latin, French, English, German, history, religion, music, drawing, mathematics, natural history, physics, chemistry, and geography.
[30] Scientific instruction in the Lycées was not in favor in France after 1815, and in 1840 it was materially reduced, on the ground that it was injuring classical studies.
[31] Astronomy, botany, chemistry, and natural philosophy had been prominent studies in the American academies. Between about 1825 and 1840 was the great period of their introduction. The first American high school (Boston, 1821) provided for instruction in geography, navigation and surveying, astronomy, and natural philosophy. By 1850 the rising high schools were incorporating scientific studies quite generally. The instruction was still textbook instruction, but some lecture-table demonstrations had begun to be common.
[32] The Oneida School of Science and Industry, the Genesee Manual-Labor School, the Aurora Manual-Labor Seminary, and the Rensselaer School, all founded in the State of New York, between 1825 and 1830, were among the most important of these early institutions.
[33] Spencer's classification of life activities and needs, in the order of their importance, was (R. 362):
1 Those ministering directly to self-preservation.
2. Those which secure for one the necessities of life, and hence minister indirectly to self-preservation.