University Reform. 301 



ence is a task for the accomplishment of which 

 a lifetime is much too short. Recollecting, how 

 ever, that not doctrine, but method, is for the 

 student the thing above all others needful, it 

 will be seen that our scheme does not make too 

 great demands even upon the limited time em 

 braced in a university course. The principles of 

 investigation involved in every one of the induc 

 tive sciences might easily be learned in the time 

 now devoted to the acquisition of facts in chem 

 istry alone. The college now attempts to teach 

 chemistry as if each student might possibly come 

 to be a physician, metallurgist, or pharmaceutist 

 in after life. And the amount of time spent upon 

 it is out of all proportion to that allotted to the 

 other natural sciences, some of which, as anatomy 

 and geology, are not even included in the regular 

 course of electives. But total ignorance of or 

 gans and tissues is too great a price to pay for 

 even an extensive acquaintance with acids and 

 salts. The study of chemical details should be 

 reserved for the elective course, of which we shall 

 presently treat. The fundamental principles of 

 chemistry, its relation to kindred sciences, the 

 scope which it affords for observation and exper 

 iment, the philosophical value of its unrivalled 

 nomenclature, these are matters of universal 



