276 Proccc(li)i(/f< of Ind'unia Academy of IScicnce. 



mental proof of matters that are already well known and of common 

 knowledge to better informed researchers. AVith this training in funda- 

 mental facts, laws and theories of modern chemistry and, indeed, as a 

 necessary part of it, must be a good knowledge of chemical literature and 

 a familiarity with the important journals containing original papers on 

 subjects of chemistry and. so far as possible, physics, biology, medicine, 

 engineering, etc.. — subjects closely allied to or involving the applications 

 of chemistry. 



This thorough knowledge of the science and of the recorded labors of a 

 multitude of investigators cannot come from necessarily brief and circum- 

 scribed courses of lectures and laboratory work involved in a four-year 

 course in a college. No matter how enthusiastic, intelligent or industrious 

 the student may be. or how able and inspiring the professor, it is a human 

 impossibility to absorb and asffiinihitc even a major fragment of the complex 

 material of a science as highly developed as is chemistry, in the time that is 

 allotted to this subject in a well balanced college curriculum. This is 

 recognized by i)ractically every one who has been through the under- 

 graduate work of the liberal arts or science courses of the college, and who 

 has later gone out to apply his knowledge to practical pui'poses. and every 

 good teacher knows that his courses, wisely administered, can at best 

 provide a modei-ately good training in the outstanding fundamentals of 

 specified and limited fields of the science and teach the student something 

 of the methods of independent and effective study. Real accomplishment, 

 on the part of the student, usually comes some years after graduation and 

 then only in case patient study and clear thinking have produced a certain 

 maturity of mind, — which comes to a too small number of college graduates 

 at any period. 



As looking toward the development of research chemists, the great 

 work of the college is then to teach the main fabric of the science as 

 well as possible and to develop industrious habits and logical, orderly 

 minds, capable of clear and independent thinking. This effort usually en- 

 counters many obstacles. The student must necessarily pursue a number of 

 studies in addition to his major work and this does not make for concentra- 

 tion of thought and energy. AVe do not. by any means, propose that under- 

 graduate work should l)e limited to a single science or that entirely un- 

 related studies should Ite ignored. At this period in his education the 

 student is not prepared for specialization to any considerable extent and 

 the broadening influence of the study of mathematics. English literature 

 and foreign languages, and of other sciences than his own. is too well 

 understood and too universally conceded to require any detailed argument. 



In addition to this impracticabilit.v of concentration upon a single science, 

 one may remark the great multitude of "activities" which serve to divert 

 the attention of the student and to generate in him an attitude toward 

 his studies which does not promote concentration or tend toward clear and 

 profound thinking, which we have recognized as essential to the efficient 

 investigator, or toward a recognition of comparative values of men and 

 things. ^Many of these activities are in themselves harmless, or even whole- 

 some and desirable but their influence is. undeniably, as I have stated and 

 this has been a subject of frequent comment. A single example may be 

 cited. Our own college daily (The Purdue Exponent) carries a feature 



