ook in a brief, businesslike
manner. Long-winded, superfluous discussions should be avoided. As a
rule, drawings of apparatus in the notes are unnecessary, it being
sufficient to indicate that the apparatus was set up according to
Figure so-and-so in the laboratory manual or according to the
directions given on page so-and-so. The student should be made to feel
that the laboratory is the place where careful, purposeful
experimentation is to be done, that this is the main object of the
laboratory work, and that the notebook is merely a reliable record of
what has been accomplished. To this end the data in the notebook
should be complete, yet brief and to the point, so that what has been
done can be looked up again and that the instructor may know that the
experiment has been performed properly, that its purpose was
understood by the student, and that he has made correct observations
and drawn logical conclusions therefrom. While in each case the notes
should indicate the purpose of the experiment, what has actually been
done and observed, and the final conclusions, it is on the whole best
not to have a general cut-and-dried formula according to which each
and every experiment is to be recorded. It is better to encourage a
certain degree of individuality in this matter on the part of each
student. Notebooks should be corrected by the teacher every week, and
the student should be asked to correct all errors which the teacher
has indicated. A businesslike atmosphere should prevail in the
laboratory at all times, and this should be reflected in the
notebooks. Anything that savors of the pedantic is to be strictly
avoided. Small blackboards should be conveniently placed in the
laboratory so that the instructor may use them in explaining any
points that may arise. Usually the same question arises with several
members of the class, and a few moments of explanation before the
blackboard enable the instructor to clear up the points raised. This
not only saves the instructor's time, but it also stimulates interest
in the laboratory when explanations are thus given to small groups
just when the question is hot.

It is, of course, assumed that the necessary amount of apparatus,
chemicals, and other supplies is available, and that the laboratory
desks, proper ventilation of the rooms, and safeguards in the case of
all experiments fraught with danger have received the necessary
painstaking attention on the part of the instructor, who