466 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 771 



of the merely descriptive matter can be 

 omitted, and the shorter explanations suf- 

 fice. 



SUMMARY 



To return to our thesis: the college can 

 reconstitute itself an indispensable and suc- 

 cessful factor in American life if it will 

 devote itself, and confine itself, to pre-pro- 

 fessional work— specific work in prepara- 

 tion for the learned professions and for 

 business— and if it will devote itself, and 

 confine itself, to turning out men and 

 women able to solve problems. I think we 

 must be ready to admit that, to do these 

 things, the college requires, and should have, 

 a more definite source for skilled teachers, 

 and that the college must vastly improve 

 the methods of instruction in many of its 

 subjects. If we as chemists can devise a 

 method for training teachers of chemistry 

 and can improve the methods of teaching 

 the science themselves^ we shall not only 

 have done a service to the science, but we 

 shall have contributed our share towards 

 the rehabilitation of the American college. 

 Perhaps we can do more than our share, if 

 we are right in feeling that chemistry, ap- 

 propriately taught, can furnish quite ex- 

 ceptional training in the art of problem- 

 solving. We can make our contribution 

 doubly welcome and doubly valuable if we 

 are willing to tackle the problem at once 

 and resolutely by scientific methods, and to 

 put our solution quickly into practise. 



Alexander Smith 



UNlyEESITY OF CHICAGO 



COLLEGE CHEMISTRY BEYOND THE 

 ELEMENTARY COURSE' 



Since the character of college chemistry 

 beyond the elementary course is determined 

 to a great extent by the nature of the in- 



"A paper read before the Section of Education 

 of the American Chemical Society at Detroit, 

 July, 1909. 



troductory work, one is compelled in a dis- 

 cussion of this kind to make certain sup- 

 positions concerning the nature of an 

 elementary course, and to proceed upon 

 the basis of these assumptions. 



Toward the close of the first year, by 

 imperceptible gradations, the course in 

 general inorganic chemistry is often al- 

 lowed to flow into routine analysis. I 

 can not help feeling that this is especially 

 undesirable. The practise materially 

 shortens the course in general chemistry, 

 and takes for its own uses time which 

 might be spent with greater profit in the 

 study of many properties of the metals 

 which are more varied in character than 

 the limited number usually chosen by the 

 analyst for the purposes of testing and 

 identifying these same elements. 



If the elementary course has given the 

 student a somewhat thorough preparation 

 in general inorganic chemistry — a fuU. 

 year with the usual number of hours of 

 recitation, lecture and laboratory work — 

 the college student comes to his second 

 year with the following customary divi- 

 sions of chemistry before him : Qualitative 

 analysis, quantitative analysis, organic 

 chemistry, physical chemistry. 



It would lead me too far afield to con- 

 sider all of the courses which follow the 

 student's elementary training; so I have 

 chosen to limit my remarks to those courses 

 only which lie in these divisions immedi- 

 ately beyond the course in general chem- 

 istry. 



Among these divisions, qualitative analy- 

 sis in the majority of cases is the one which 

 may most profitably be made the successor 

 of the first year of chemistry, provided, of 

 course, this subject is approached from the 

 proper standpoint. I fear, however, that 

 many of otir colleges, even to-day, have not 

 emancipated themselves from the old 

 method of teaching this subject, but are 



