54 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



main subject. Where the interval between the Intermediate and the Final 

 Honours Examinations is only two years, time-table considerations un- 

 fortunately may forbid the study of more than one subsidiary subject. 

 There is much to be said for a minimum period of three years, which would 

 not only relieve the congestion of a two years' specialist course in chemistry 

 but would enable the student to acquire a broader outlook on related 

 fields of knowledge. In some Universities where the three-year interval 

 between Intermediate and Final Honours is in force, the chemistry 

 student takes a general degree — or its equivalent — in three subjects before 

 proceeding to the Final Honours year, and this arrangement has much to 

 commend it. 



As to the subsidiary subject or subjects themselves, there should be 

 much elasticity, and the student's own aptitudes and interests should be 

 the determining consideration. Thus while all chemists should have a 

 working knowledge of mathematics up to the calculus, it would be a 

 mistake to make more advanced work in this field obligatory as a subsidiary 

 subject, irrespective of the student's individual capacities and interests. 

 On the other hand, the chemistry student who has a real flair for mathe- 

 matics — in my experience he is a rare bird — should have every encourage- 

 ment, both before and after graduation, to cultivate his special talent. 

 Such encouragement is specially effective if it is backed by members of 

 the mathematics staff with some appreciation of the chemist's outlook and 

 requirements. 



The Honours course in pure chemistry which is current in our Univer- 

 sities is itself very specialised and, in my judgment, lacks flexibility. 

 Many chemical undergraduates are frankly more interested in the practical 

 application of the broad principles of chemistry than in the refinements and 

 subtleties which figure largely in our honours courses of lectures. Such 

 highly specialised instruction may be appropriate for those who are to 

 spend their lives working in the field of pure chemistry, but it has limited 

 value for those who are less interested in knowledge for its own sake than 

 in its application for practical ends. In physics the necessity of providing 

 for these two types of workers has long been recognised and our Univer- 

 sities welcome students of electrical engineering as well as students of 

 pure physics. In view of these considerations serious attention should be 

 devoted to Chemical Engineering as a degree subject. Experiments in 

 this direction have already been made in one or two places, and the 

 question has been raised afresh by the recent proposal of the Imperial 

 College that an undergraduate course in Chemical Engineering should be 

 instituted, covering three years after the Intermediate stage. It is essential 

 that any course such as that proposed should be based on the fundamental 

 principles of physics and chemistry, with the requisite mathematics, and 

 should cover their general application in the field where the chemist and 

 the engineer have common interests and common problems — a field which 

 is very largely that of physical chemistry. 



The oft-repeated criticism that the man trained on the lines proposed 

 would be neither a chemist nor an engineer is merely formal and un- 

 convincing ; the water-tight separation of the two professions is entirely 

 artificial, for in chemical industrial practice there are many who are 



