February 13, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



155 



ated to profit by cooperation in research. In 

 both countries national movements for the 

 promotion of research are in progress and im- 

 portant advances are being made. The ex- 

 ample set by the Canadian government in 

 establishing the Honorary Advisory Council 

 for Scientific and Industrial Research and 

 that of the Royal Canadian Institute in 

 organizing this series of addresses on research 

 and its applications, have stimulated and en- 

 couraged us in the United States. The 

 friendly bonds that have joined the two 

 countries in the past have been greatly 

 strengthened by the war, and I am sure that 

 our men of science will welcome every oppor- 

 tunity to cooperate with yours in common 

 efforts to advance science and research. 



George Elleby Hale 



GENERAL CHEMISTRY AND ITS RELA- 

 TION TO THE DISTRIBUTION OF 

 STUDENTS' SUPPLIES IN THE 

 LABORATORY 



The object of the general chemistry labora- 

 tory is, I take it, to teach chemistry. Its 

 mechanical aspect is clearly a business on a 

 par with any other undertaking that has a 

 special object in view. True, the methods 

 will differ somewhat from other endeavors, 

 but the main idea of striving " to put across " 

 a definite proposition puts the laboratory side 

 of teaching chemistry on a straight business 

 basis, and subject to the ordinary rules of 

 business. Now a business firm no matter 

 what the character of its work, knows that if 

 they are to compete with others, they must 

 avail themselves of every method, scheme or 

 device that will cheapen production, facilitate 

 transportation, add to the efficiency of their 

 employees, or in any other way make better 

 goods at a lower price than the competing 

 firm. They are ever on the watch for a new 

 idea and many dollars' worth of machinery 

 are often scrapped to give place to a newer 

 and more efficient machine. Many firms em- 

 ploy efficiency experts constantly seeking to 

 improve or save anywhere and everywhere 

 throughout the works. iN'o progressive firm 

 ever stands still, but is ever changing its 

 methods for better ones. This does not seem 



to be true always in the conducting of a 

 chemical laboratory. What "Bunsen did" 

 many years ago is good enough now, and the 

 old song, " the old time religion is good 

 enough for me " seems to apply very appro- 

 priately to the management of many labora- 

 tories. 



Such a state of affairs should not be, and 

 these laboratories with unchanging methods 

 will go to the wall as surely as will a busi- 

 ness house run on similar ideas. 



A recent questionnaire sent to a large 

 number of institutions in all parts of this 

 country reveals the fact that general chem- 

 istry is regarded as the most important and 

 vital course in the department. The grade of 

 work done in all other eoui-ses is determined 

 by the nature of this course. If it is poorly 

 given, all other courses are built on a poor 

 foundation, and a poorly trained chemist is 

 the result. The importance of this course is 

 further brought out by this questionnaire, 

 when we note that the number of laboratory 

 hours in general chemistry varies from six to 

 eight per week, for one year. In some cases 

 this is in addition to a year of physics and 

 chemistry in the high school. This, in many 

 cases means that a student before he can take 

 qualitative analysis in college has had in the 

 high school one year of chemistry of say five 

 hours a week for forty weeks, which makes a 

 total of two hundred hours. In college, he 

 has two laboratory afternoons of three hours 

 each and three or four recitation hours a week 

 for a year of thirty weeks, which amounts to 

 2Y0 hours as a minimum. In other words, 

 the student has had 200 hours in high school 

 and 200 hours in college, or a total of 470 

 hours, exclusive of all home study both in 

 high school and college. A few years ago 

 these same institutions gave only five hours a 

 week to general chemistry, but the growth of 

 chemistry in this country has demanded a 

 correspondingly increased preparation of stu- 

 dents (on the part of institutions) and a very 

 generous response has been given all over 

 America. This increased preparation has been 

 made possible by putting into the students 

 earlier and basic training the best the institu- 



