156 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. LI. No. 1311 



tion had, in quality of instruction, equipment, 

 largely increased laboratory time, and a uni- 

 versal recognition that the important course 

 to the department, as a whole, is general 

 chemistry. It might be said, and some pro- 

 gressive administrators and teachers do say, 

 that a chemistry department can be rated in 

 terms of its general chemistry. We can al- 

 most say that there is no department of chem- 

 istry in this country that can be classed as a 

 great or strong department whose general 

 chemistry is not the best course that the de- 

 partment can secure by having experienced 

 teachers to handle the work, having excellent 

 equipment, modern laboratories, and a suffi- 

 cient number of laboratory hours to do the 

 work required. Unfortunately some few large 

 institutions still have not changed their gen- 

 eral chemistry to meet the new conditions. 

 One has only 4J hours a week for one year 

 without a year of high school chemistry as a 

 prerequisite; another has had its hours re- 

 duced by the board of trustees from five hours 

 a week for a year to four (without a year of 

 high-school chemistry as a prerequisite) ; this 

 despite the strong protest of the administra- 

 tive head and the entire teaching stafE. This 

 is certainly a mistake, a short-sighted policy, 

 and a backward step by the board. Why 

 should a body of business men who are not 

 experts in this line, determine the policy of a 

 department and neglect the advice of those 

 who do know and have the good of the depart- 

 ment at heart? 



The greatest confirmatory proof of the 

 statement made that a department of chem- 

 istry is great in proportion to the quality of 

 its general chemistry is found by making a 

 list of those institutions, which rank highest 

 in this country from the point of view of 

 ■ research and of the training of its students, 

 and comparing the effort expended in making 

 general chemistry the very best. It will be 

 found that the institutions of the highest 

 rank have a first class course in general chem- 

 istry with six hours a week or more in lab- 

 oratory work for one year. Those who do not 

 take this ever-growing and modern point of 

 view will surely become decadent departments. 



The ever-growing importance of chemistry 



will demand an ever increasing efficiency. I 

 predict that the time is not far distant when 

 an investigation carried on by such an organ- 

 ization as the Carnegie Foundation similar 

 to that done in the medical schools'- of this 

 country and Canada, will be instituted, and a 

 result similar to that of this report on low 

 grade medical schools, viz., an elimination of 

 those institutions who do not do so good 

 chemistry work. When such a report is pub- 

 lished, those low grade institutions will cease 

 to teach chemistry, because the students, 

 knowing the true state of affairs will either 

 not elect chemistry, or if interested, will go 

 elsewhere where the subject is properly taught. 



Before taking up the working of the 

 " Freas System "^ in the general chemistry 

 laboratory, we wish to review briefly the exist- 

 ing methods now in use. 



First, the old side-shelf reagent system 

 which is very common, in fact now exists in 

 most college laboratories in this country. 

 Nothing can be said in favor of this system, 

 as it has no virtues, and possesses innumerable 

 evils. It is wasteful, expensive, tmtidy; al- 

 most impossible to prevent contamination of 

 chemicals and is one of the main sources for 

 wasting students' time and encouraging petty 

 theft. In a chemical laboratory of one of the 

 oldest universities in this coimtry, where the 

 side-shelf reagent scheme is used, a student 

 needs one particular chemical five times 

 during the course. For this one chemical 

 alone he has to walk five hundred feet during 

 the term. One hundred and forty chemicals 

 are used, and it can readily be seen that a 

 large amount of time will be wasted if he 

 makes but one trip for each chemical. One 

 trip to the side shelf for these chemicals 

 means a walk of thirteen miles, while a 

 double trip, which is most common, would 

 amount to a twenty-six mile walk or equal to 

 two or more laboratory weeks work. The 

 director of this department told me that while 



1 Published in a report to the Carnegie Founda- 

 tion on Medical Education in the United States 

 and Canada by Abraham Flexner, Bulletin Num- 

 ber 4, 1910. 



2 Science, May 30, 1919. 



