A remedy was sought in natural science, and the next educational wave which was to roll over us began to rise.
It was thought that the temper of the really scientific man, so patient in research, so accurate and conscientious, so slow to dogmatize, so deferential to others, might be fostered by experimental science in the schools, acquiring "knowledge at first hand," making experiments, looking with great respect at balances, weighing and measuring, and giving an account of results.

So laboratories were fitted up at great expense, and teachers with university degrees in science were sought after.

The height of the tide seemed to be reached in 1904 and 1905--to judge by the tone of Regulations for the Curricula of Secondary Schools issued by the Board of Education--for in these years it is most insistent and exacting for girls as well as boys, as to time and scope of the syllabus in this branch.

Then disillusion seems to have set in and the tide began to ebb.

It appeared that the results were small and poor in proportion to expectation and to the outlay on laboratories.