602 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 746 



Whatever may be said, the latter is what 

 employers expect and demand. The 

 questions which arise must be answered 

 promptly and accurately. The amount of 

 knowledge a man may have acqiiired and 

 may possess is little appreciated unless it 

 can be applied usefully and eifectively. 

 Complaint is not uncommon that young 

 men from the technical schools are over- 

 educated, overtrained; educated above and 

 beyond the positions they must occupy 

 and the work they have to do. While this 

 is unfortunate in form of statement, it 

 nevertheless expresses a fact. Many young 

 men are profoundly educated in theories 

 and laws and at the same time acquire 

 little or no appreciation of the practical 

 value of these theories and laws, even in 

 the advancement of the science to which 

 they relate, and certainly not in the solu- 

 tion of the problems of the industries and 

 the arts of life. There is therefore, 

 whether recognized or not, a demand for 

 something beyond the regular course of 

 study of the university or the technical 

 school. Something beyond the mere cram- 

 ming with facts and the academic training, 

 to the exclusion of the systematic utiliza- 

 tion of knowledge in the promotion of 

 knowledge. Here then is the problem pro- 

 pounded to the educator for solution: 

 How shall young men be educated and 

 trained to meet the demands likely to be 

 presented to them by the chemical indus- 

 tries? In the chemical industries it is 

 natural that a profound knowledge of 

 chemical laws should be required, \>\\t in 

 addition to this there must be provided a 

 sound knowledge of such laws of physics 

 as may be necessary to the physical appli- 

 cation of chemical laws. In the under- 

 graduate school, first the laws of chemical 

 action and the properties of matter, theo- 

 retical and descriptive chemistry, the 

 methods of chemical analysis, qualitative 

 and quantitative, must be taught, and it is 



well known that one of the first steps in 

 laboratory instruction in these methods is 

 an introduction to the forms of apparatus 

 to be employed in the practise of experi- 

 ment and analysis. Then comes the appli- 

 cation of the laws of chemistry and of the 

 properties of matter to the methods of 

 operation to be used. Now since manu- 

 facturing or industrial chemistry is really 

 analytical chemistry in a large way, simi- 

 lar lines of instruction and training miost 

 apply in preparation for the industries. 

 If acquaintance with the beaker, the cas- 

 serole, the filter, the evaporating dish, the 

 distilling apparatus, must be provided in 

 the analytical and research laboratory; if 

 here must be taught the sources and mode 

 of application of heat; transfer of liquids, 

 separation of vapors, liquids and solids; 

 so all these processes made in a small way 

 in the laboratories must be made large 

 in the works. Operations made in a 

 large way must be studied, and the means 

 for effecting them made familiar. The 

 operation of the chemist in the labora- 

 tory must become the operation of the 

 engineer in the works. The industries 

 demand that the men who shall con- 

 trol shall have some of that capacity 

 known as engineering, shall know some- 

 thing of the materials and methods of 

 engineering, of the larger apparatus to be 

 employed and its management, and ability 

 to apply the laws of physics in the larger 

 operations of the works. Chemistry and 

 engineering must, therefore, be combined 

 in some measure at least, in the training 

 of the men who will become most success- 

 ful in meeting the demands of the "tech- 

 nical interests," and whether this is recog- 

 nized generally or not, it is certainly 

 desired by employers of educated chemists. 

 But the common complaint of the insti- 

 tutions and their teachers is, that the 

 customary four years allotted to the 

 undergraduate course is too brief for all 



