234 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1942 



Geologists, have made a preliminary report.^ In it they concluded, 

 in part, that more attention in college training should be given to 

 English composition, mathematics, chemistry, physics, descriptive 

 geometry, logic or the ability to reason accurately, foreign language, 

 sedimentation, geophysics, and field work. Biology might well be 

 added to such a list also. Apparently the teaching of the strictly 

 geological subjects meets their approval but they feel there should 

 be more training in the fundamentals of science in what might be 

 called "background" studies. They also favored more problem courses 

 and fewer memory studies in the preparation for a career as a petro- 

 leum geologist. In order to do all this and still have time to do the 

 essential work in geology, they believe the standard course of study 

 should be for a term of 5 years, instead of 4, as at present. 



I rather think this interest in college curricula is traceable to the 

 general broadening of the viewpoint of the petroleum geologist. As 

 he takes a more active and responsible part in the oil industry; as 

 he goes into the oil business for himself ; and as his strictly geological 

 duties require greater imagination, more sound reasoning, and a 

 broader basic understanding of the interrelation of the various sciences, 

 so he comes to realize his own shortcomings and the need for better 

 preparatory training for those now in the colleges. In effect, this 

 means that the specialized field of petroleum geology is coming of 

 age and is commencing to think about building its own standards 

 of training and achievement. 



Thus we see that geology and geologists are exercising a constantly 

 expanding influence on the whole business of finding and producing 

 oil and gas. There is no sign of a slowing down of this trend of 

 usefulness, but, on the contrary, it is accelerating steadily, year by 

 year. The petroleum geologist is becoming an "oil man" in every 

 sense of the word, which, after all, is the best proof that he is keeping 

 imce with the other applied sciences in the forward-moving front of 

 scientific progress. 



5 Report of Special Committee on College Curricula, F. U. Lahee, Chairman. Bull. Amer. 

 Assoc. Petrol. Geol., vol. 25. pp. 969-972, May 1941. A later report of tbis committee 

 may be found in vol. 26, pp. 942-946, May 1942. 



