202 Biochemistry in the College of Liberal Arfs [Dec. 



products and by-products which are f ormed ; it considers the action 

 of bacteria on proteins with special reference to the chemical 

 changes which they produce. I use the famiHar yeast to show that 

 the cell is the unit of life and that many metabolic processes take 

 place there. The study of the carbohydrates and of the relation of 

 the yeast cell to the carbohydrates takes us into the domain of bio- 

 chemistry. Molds and bacteria follow naturally. After we have 

 learned the technique of bacteriology we isolate and study the 

 organisms gathered on a Petri dish during a few seconds' exposure 

 in a room just swept or one just vacated by a class. We isolate 

 and study the organisms collected from the daily supply of milk. 

 Our constant object is to compare the Standard uncontaminated 

 material with the fermented or changed material. The importance 

 of the by-product is dwelt upon and the relation of the reaction 

 " in vitro " to the reaction " in vivo " is emphasized. Much of the 

 reading in connection with the course has to be magazine reading 

 and this, too, lays stress upon the fact that most of this work is 

 recent, although the beginnings date far back, before there was any 

 science of chemistry. 



There has been one unexpected development of this course in 

 which the faculty of the department are interested. Fifty per cent. 

 of the students have entered laboratories as assistants or have gone 

 to medical schools. There seems here an opening, rapidly enlarging 

 field for women workers. The eagerness with which these 

 opportunities are sought shows how ill adapted many of our alumnae 

 feel for teaching. It is no part of our Intention to become dis- 

 tinctly a training school for technical chemists and yet our students 

 want to know that the long afternoons spent in the laboratory do 

 prepare them if necessary to do a real work with a paying wage. 

 In our academic circles as elsewhere the stamp of success is that " it 

 pays." There seems to be slowly developing a consciousness of the 

 importance of this kind of work for women, and opportunities for 

 its practice are rapidly increasing. It is an interesting development 

 and as such we shall do what we can to make it prosper. It is not, 

 however, our chief aim. Our chief aim is to give these students a 

 liberal culture for the development of such trained minds that logical 

 thinking and sound opinions can be brought to the Solution of the 

 Problems which they meet. 



