TntiiiiHff lit Hrurch Chcniisls. L'TT 



column headed "Tlio Iiuiinriiij; ItoiMntcr". Tlii.s curious indivitlual daily 

 asks of five students. clKtscn at raiidoiii. a ^'ivcu (|uestioii and the answers 

 are published, verbatim. On a certain da.v the <|uesti<)n was "Wbat. in .vrmr 

 opinion, would .<erve as the best adverti.sement for our college V" (or words 

 to that effect). With one accord tiie five answers stated that winning 

 athletic teams would be llie best possible advertisement. One answer 

 included also a successful bod.v of alunuii as a second bi'-it advertising 

 medium but this was the iieare-;t ai>proa<'h t<» a recoj;iiition of the possiitil- 

 ity of any other fine thin;;, the herabliiiK of whicii nu«lit serve to attract 

 a desirable class of prosju'ctive students, or to win the support of pul)lic 

 oi)inion and puidic purses. Ajiparently no one thoujibt of a high class. 

 <levoted faculty, whose nieiidiers can not only know and teach, but </o also; 

 or (with one exception) of :i great body <»f graduating students who take 

 an iniiNUtanf and dignified jdace in the work of the world, or (»f increased 

 (M|uipHient for the administration of high grade scientific work. These five 

 answers may possilily not lie considered as representative of student oifin- 

 ion but I am inclined to thiid< that they are. I do not me.in that (»ur 

 students look down upon tbe-e other things or hold them in cont«Mnpt. They 

 siniiily ignore tliem when the great (piestion is t(» be considered. I do not 

 even i»articularly blame them for their attitude. It is perhaps natural. 

 under the circumstances. It is certainly almost universal and this is a 

 lad that must be considered. — explain, excu.se (u- condemn it as we will. 

 Also it is an attitude that persists after graduation. The average body of 

 college alumni, desiring in their hearts above all things to "l)oost" their 

 alma mater, will give the ma.ior portion of their discussions to the prob- 

 lems of improving athletic conditions and of developing winning teams. 



If I have made myself at all clear in what has been said, my next prop- 

 osition .seems a logical conclusion. It is this, that it is not oidy a difticult 

 matter to give college undergraduates proper training and drill in the 

 methods of chemical research, but it ma.v also be luidesirable to attemi>t 

 such training, in the ma.iority of cases. Real research is a long, hard, toil- 

 some business, ricli in rewards but calling for preparation, energy and ap- 

 lilication such as the average inidergradiuite does not pos.sess. Far better 

 to keej) him on the fundamentals of pure and ai)plied .science, of which 

 be will absorb a woefully small amount under the best conditions, than to 

 give him the false notion that after a matter of three or three and a half 

 years of intermittent study of an intricate and ccmiplex science, he is pre- 

 pared to .solve scientific itroblems that have liatlled others, or even to know 

 how to try to solve them. 



The undergraduate thesis, in the large ma.jority of cases, is little more 

 than a piece of more or less mechanical f(dlowing of directions given by tlu" 

 su] lervising professor, and it rarely devehtp-; any dependable results that 

 may be coiisidercMl ;is new. It is conceded that the material may be new 

 to the student and that the iisychological effect may thus be desirable. Hut 

 so are all of bis studies new to him. They are all. for him. original 

 rese.ircb in i>ractically the same sense that the the-is investigation is orig- 

 inal res(>arcli and if. in his regular studies, he is properly directed in the 

 u.se of the library and if the in>-piration to real study is provided, there is 

 little real difference between the thesis and the regular study, so far as 

 this sort of training is concerned. 



