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NATURE 



[September 15, 1910 



foreign extraction engaging in cliemical manufacture in 

 England who are far more prone to enlist the services of 

 expert chemists than are the rank and file of our own 

 manufacturers points a lesson which is well illustrated 

 from two other quarters. The secretary of the Cambridge 

 Appointments Board says {Empire Review, January, 

 '905) ■ — " A feature of the lists of matriculations (at 

 Cambridge) for the years 1880-95 's the recurrence of 

 German names, with the note, ' Now assisting his father 

 in business.' From this it would appear that the repre- 

 sentatives, naturalised in England, of the nation which 

 has, more than any other, astonished the world by its 

 industrial progress, have deliberately chosen for their sons 

 a University career as a preliminary to business life." 



The other illustration comes from British business life. 

 Only one letter from a British manufacturer emphasises 

 the need of research, and that is signed by a chemical 

 manufacturer with a German name. As to evidence of 

 change, one of the largest technical institutions says : — 

 ■■ We are fairly sure of placing at once all the best men 

 who have taken a graduating course in any branch of 

 applied chemistry." Another technical institution — prob- 

 ably the largest — states : — " We have been unable, during 

 the last three or four years, to meet all the demands upon 

 us for trained chemists, and at this moment we are unable 

 to make nomination to two or three most important posts 

 for which trained chemists are required because all our 

 men are satisfactorily placed." From one of our oldest 

 universities comes the statement : — " There is no difficulty 

 in placing chemists of the highest rank in first-rate 

 technical posts. By highest rank I mean people with 

 approximately fellowship standing and great originality." 

 Sir William Ramsay writes : — " Some months ago I had 

 the curiosity to pick out from my class-lists, back to about 

 1890, one hundred names of men (and women) whose sub- 

 sequent history I know. The result was, roughly : 60 in 

 industry (analysts, private or in works, managers, pro- 

 prietors of works, &c.) ; 25 in teaching posts (assistants 

 in universities or university colleges, schoolmasters and a 

 few professors — about 6) ; and 15 given up (married 

 women, men who have changed their profession or dead)." 

 The most gratifying fact about this analysis is that it 

 suggests that bo per cent, of Sir William Ramsay's 

 students are pursuing industrial chemistry for a living. 



An examination of the after-careers of the 185 1 

 exhibitioners reveals the following results. It will be 

 remembered that science scholarships are awarded 

 annually by the Commissioners of the 185 1 Exhibi- 

 tion. The scholarships are awarded for research 

 in the experimental and observational sciences bear- 

 ing upon industries. The nomination of scholarship 

 holders is made by the authorities of twenty universities 

 and university colleges within the British Empire, and, 

 with rare exceptions, these nominations are confirmed bv 

 the Commissioners. The scholarships are of the annual 

 value of 150;. a year, and are ordinarily tenable for two 

 years. Between i8gi and 1906 there were awarded 262 

 scholarships. Of the holders, 145 are now engaged as 

 professors, assistant professors, lecturers, or assistants in 

 science colleges or other educational institutions ; 76 hold 

 positions in manufacturing firms or in public departments, 

 and the remainder may be conveniently classified thus : 

 scholars recently retired, 6 ; continuing research in private 

 capacity, 12; engaged in professional pursuits, 10; 

 deceased, 6 ; occupations unknown, 3 ; no longer engaged 

 in scientific work, 4, of whom 3 are ladies. I find on 

 further analysis that, of 1 12 scholars whose branch of 

 science was chemistry, 50 are, or have been, engaged in 

 industrial chemistry. 



I am not able to provide more statistical details. As a 

 rule, universities, university colleges, and technical institu- 

 tions have not kept records of the after-careers of their 

 students, and until quite recently most of the universities 

 (and some not yet) have not had any organised means of 

 giving assistance to students who may be seeking posts 

 at the end of their college career. 



Looking at the matter quite broadly, I see no reason for 

 believing that the number of highly trained chemists who 

 find their way from colleges into industrial chemistry is 

 anything else than insignificant, compared with similar 

 figures for Germany or the United States of America. 



NO. 2133, VOL. 84] 



The following facts may aid in understanding the con- 

 clusion of " insignificant " which 1 have reached. In 

 1904 and 1905- an average of 400 chemists received the 

 doctor's diploma or the technical high school diploma in 

 Germany ; with the materials at my disposal I have been 

 unable to convince myself that there were in 190S 300 

 students of all faculties of applied science taking a fourth- 

 year day course in British universities and technical 

 colleges. 



For some of these results our system of degree-giving is 

 denounced in no measured terms. An able university pro- 

 fessor says : — " The fact is, the whole thing — university 

 teaching of chemistry — is turned upside down. Much of 

 our university work is simply good secondary work. A 

 pass B.Sc. degree, for example, is about the standard of 

 a school-leaving certificate in a civilised country. Uni- 

 versities lay down syllabuses, time-tables, hours of work, 

 and spend a large proportion of their energies in examina- 

 tion grinding. They teach for examinations instead of 

 teaching for the dilfusion and advancement of scientific 

 knowledge. When a man arrives at a university he has 

 a ' curriculum,' in other words, simply a glorified school 

 syllabus, laid out for him, and is promised a degree in 

 three years if he is a good boy. They do not do that in 

 Germany. We are not," he continues, " really quite so 

 bad in this country as regards our so-called ' honours ' 

 degrees, but the centre of gravity is wrong for all that. 

 . . . The centre of gravity of the English system is still 

 in the examination hall, even though a good man does 

 stay on for several years of research afterwards." Others, 

 who have clearly devoted themselves to a study of the 

 matter, demand a five years' course for the making of a 

 chemist, three for degree and two for research. 



One of the most thoughtful memoranda sent to me by 

 a university professor shows: — "On entering the research 

 laboratory the graduates are rarely independent thinkers, 

 and their knowledge is essentially ' book knowledge.' 

 When freed from the necessity to attend lectures or to 

 work for examinations they seem to pass through a stage 

 when they actually have to struggle to develop their 

 resources, and often the students with the best degrees 

 make the poorest research workers. . . . Again, the busi- 

 ness faculties of the students at this stage are poor, and 

 their knowledge of modern languages as applied to scien- 

 tific or commercial work is quite inadequate. These are 

 deficiencies which I have to make good in the research 

 department. . . . .Students at this stage are not qualified 

 to take up positions of responsibility. The graduate of 

 twenty-two has, however, many latent possibilities which 

 may be successfully developed by a course of research 

 work." The time spent by the graduates in research work 

 in the university laboratory is from two to three years, 

 and the average age of the students on leaving is twenty- 

 four to twenty-five. "Taking an average case," the pro- 

 fessor continues, " I can say that at the end of the first 

 year the research student has commenced to think for him- 

 self, to anticipate difficulties, and to overcome them when 

 encountered. He begins by suggesting new working 

 methods, and finally proposes new topics of research. He 

 has a working knowledge of scientific and technical 

 French and German, knows the original literature of his 

 special topic, and is generally conversant with modern 

 research thought. His business style has also improved 

 greatly. .'\ considerable advance in these respects takes 

 place during the next year, and in most cases a two years' 

 course is sufficient to produce a man who has had a good 

 education and who knows how to use it. It is my experi- 

 ence that when students with this training enter technical 

 work they master the literature of their new subject very 

 quickly and effectively. They seem to be able in a short 

 time to form an estimate of the present position and 

 future possibilities of the new subject and to bring their 

 speculative faculties into play. I therefore regard the 

 time spent at research as a necessary part of scientific 

 training if university graduates are to enter the field of 

 technical work, and men thus equipped make most valu- 

 able officials, even taking into account the fact that they 

 have no previous experience in the supervision of work- 

 men, and have generally no k.nowledge of chemical 

 engineering." But the British parent does not care to 

 alTord to keep his sons at the university until they are 



