Note 25 — PART II. MATHEMATICS.

Professor Salford (Monographs on Education and Health) insists on the importance of teaching logarithms as a part of scientific arithmetic. “Often logarithms are first taught in connection with trigonometry, and the average pupil does not learn the difference between a logarithmic and a natural sine; there is no cure for this confusion but to teach logarithms where they belong and to apply them to purely arithmetical problems.” He advises the introduction of logarithms “as soon as the pupil has reached in algebra the proposition am × an = am × n, and he should be shown that the practical method of dealing with powers and roots is the logarithmic. Teachers will then abstain from annoying young pupils with difficult and needless problems solved in the antiquated manner; they will learn how to calculate a compound interest table, an excellent exercise in itself, as well as a labour-saving contrivance in arithmetic. The reason why logarithms are so little appreciated, is that teachers of arithmetic have not as a rule really learned their use; they go on wasting time in arbitrary exercises in evolution, interest, etc., done by tedious methods, and do not appreciate how instinctively the best calculators employ logarithms.”