THE TEACHING OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 247 



THE TEACHING OF APPLIED SCIENCE. 



Br M. CH. LAUTH. 



IN an article published a few months ago in the Revue Scientifique 

 I pointed out a danger that threatens some of our chemical indus- 

 tries. I showed on the evidence of official documents that these 

 very industries have taken a rapid start and had an immense devel- 

 opment in Germany, while they have continued nearly stationary 

 in France, the country of their origin. In the search for the causes 

 of this standstill I believe I established that it is largely due to defi- 

 ciencies in the chemical instruction given in France and to the 

 indifference to industry manifested by our scientific men, while in 

 Germany the teaching of chemistry has reached an admirable stage 

 of perfection, and the alliance of science and industry is commended 

 as a necessity of the first order. Like ideas have been developed 

 recently in various publications; attention seems to be concen- 

 trating around the question, a happy sign which I remark with joy. 

 M. Leon Lefevre, who agrees with me in opinion on this point, 

 speaks of the parallelism in the development of the color-making 

 industry and of organic chemistry in Germany. " That country," 

 he says, " now possesses the supremacy in both, and yet it did not 

 assist at the birth of artificial coloring matters; for the honor of the 

 discovery of the first aniline colors belongs to France and England " ; 

 and he calls attention to the very rapid growth of the Chemical 

 Society of Berlin since that discovery was made in 1868 from 107 

 members to 3,129, as compared with that of the societies of London, 

 551 to 2,029, and of Paris, 269 to 736. M. Haller, director of the 

 Chemical Institute of Nancy, presents a similar argument, and 

 quotes Humboldt's prediction that those countries which neglect 

 recourse to their scientific lights will see their prosperity inevitably 

 jeopardized as neighboring nations develop and strengthen them- 

 selves under the vivifying influence of the arts and sciences. My 

 opinion is further sustained by many other men of science from 

 whom I have received letters. Some of them accuse our method 

 of teaching, which, they find, has no direct bearing on the object 

 for which the instruction should be given. One of them says it is 

 all wrong, in that it gives prominence to the abstract and does not 

 give importance to the application, and another finds fault with the 

 method by which instructors are chosen and appointed. 



We may look at the subject from another side and inquire 

 whether manufacturers have done their best to keep their standards 

 even with the highest. It will appear that the majority of French 

 manufacturers do not appreciate as they ought the influence of sci- 



