July 14, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



51 



istry on gases and gas laws is criticized. The 

 belief that the ordinary student can get more 

 tangible results by starting with more tangible 

 substances is put forth. A scheme of experimen- 

 tation, which was tried out at Exeter some years 

 ago, and which starts the student on some common 

 metals and leads up through a series of ninety 

 experiments to a little chemical investigation of 

 an unknown substance without the use of a con- 

 ception of atoms, molecules and symbols, is de- 

 scribed. The scheme was satisfactory from the 

 point of view of teaching chemistry but had its 

 limitations for those who must primarily prepare 

 students for the college entrance examinations. A 

 possible revision of the College Entrance Exam- 

 ination Board syllabus is suggested. 



First year chemistry for women: Minnie B. 

 FiSHBR. Women students who take chemistry as 

 a cultural subject, or as a prerequisite to home 

 economics courses, should be taught in separate 

 groups. They lack background for scientific 

 work, will devote little time to pure science and 

 need very careful laboratory direction and super- 

 vision. Conference periods should be arranged to 

 clear up difficult points. The utmost accuracy in 

 observation and recording of facts should be 

 insisted on. Greatest cultural value is to instill 

 into students greater respect for truth. Greater 

 proportion of time should be devoted to study of 

 chemical history, theory and non-metallic ele- 

 ments. 



Metric system: Eugene C. Bingham. Metric 

 education has been too largely neglected in the 

 elementary schools, so we need not only to instruct 

 our students in its use, but also in the desira- 

 bility of an extension of the use of the metric 

 system. Particularly we should give an object 

 lesson to students by buying apparatus and chem- 

 icals and selling it in metric quantities. 



MetJiods for presenting first year chemistry : 

 P. P. Venable. 



The project method of teaching chemistry: 

 Neil E. Gordon. A project method has been 

 worked out in the first year chemistry where the 

 laboratory work and the text work have been 

 very closely correlated. What the student can 

 find out and has time to find out is not presented 

 in the text. Blank spaces are left for inserting 

 this material by the student, and hence the book 

 is not complete until the student has done fis 

 part. The method has been found very efficient 

 in training the student 's power to think, ability 

 to reason and arousing his curiosity. 



Studying chemical engineering by the unit- 



operation method: Dr. W. K. Lewis and Pro- 

 fessor K. T. Haslam. A brief description of the 

 School of Chemical Engineering Practice of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the 

 methods employed in teaching chemical engineer- 

 ing by means of experimental work on full-scale 

 operating equipment is given. The field of chem- 

 ical engineering is divided into ' ' unit-operations, ' ' 

 the more important of which are flow of fluids, 

 flow of heat, evaporation, distillation, drying, fil- 

 tration, combustion, extraction, electrolysis, etc., 

 and these unit-operations are studied quantita- 

 tively, particular attention being paid to the effi- 

 ciency of the operation, how this efficiency can be 

 improved or the losses decreased, and how the 

 equipment can be changed to get increased pro- 

 duction. The students in this school design, 

 carry out and work up the results of these investi- 

 gations by themselves under suitable guidance 

 from members of the institute faculty resident at 

 the plant, who devote their time wholly to work 

 in the practice school. A description of the quan- 

 titative tests carried out in the study of these 

 unit-operations is given, showing the wide scope 

 and the fundamental character of these plant 

 investigations. 



Standardisation of courses in quantitative anal- 

 ysis for students in chemical engineering: John 

 L. Daniel. A study of the courses given to 

 chemical engineering students in sixty-nine insti- 

 tutions shows that the time given to quantitative 

 analysis laboratory varies from 72 hours as a 

 minimum to 714 as a maximum. The time given 

 to recitation work in quantitative varies from 

 none to 270 hours. There is no suggestion of any 

 agreement among these schools as to the proper 

 time to give to quantitative. Teachers of this 

 subject should confer with a view to standard- 

 izing the course so that sufficient time would be 

 given to it to accomplish its aim and purposes 

 and to avoid devoting an excessive amount of time 

 to it as this crowds desirable courses out of the 

 curriculum. 



Discussion of committee's report on chemical 

 engineering education: R. H. McKee. 



Content of chemistry courses: L. J. Desha. 

 With a fixed limit to the time available for 

 instruction in chemistry and an ever-widening 

 science, the problem of what to omit becomes 

 fundamental. Courses have grown by simple addi- 

 tion of the newer developments to the traditional 

 content, without sufficient attention to consolida- 

 tion. As a result, the student 's knowledge con- 

 sists chiefly of isolated facts but poorly knit to- 



