August 19, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



143 



eases acting in an advisory capacity to their 

 employers while tliey are carrying on their 

 regular university work. The perils in such 

 a situation from the standpoint of the uni- 

 versity and the cause of pure science, some 

 of them obvious and others not apparent, have 

 been discussed several times and will be re- 

 ferred to a little later. 



We come now to the consideration of an- 

 other phase of the present situation. An ac- 

 tive discussion has been going on for several 

 years having to do with the general subject 

 of the relation of the universities to the 

 community. The particular part of this dis- 

 cussion with which we are concerned is that 

 pertaining to the relation of the departments 

 of chemistry in the university to the chemical 

 industries. 



However much some of us may be inclined 

 to cling to our old ideals, I think most of us 

 will agree that the idea long held of the uni- 

 versity as a seat of learning for learning's 

 sake is gradually giving place to a new con- 

 ception of the university as a utilitarian in- 

 stitution. To appreciate the change that has 

 already taken place one need only visit the 

 class rooms of any large institution and see 

 the handful of students taking Greek, for ex- 

 ample, while in any subject having a direct 

 practical utility, huge lecture rooms are filled 

 to overflowing. Many colleges and universities 

 have endeavored to uphold the old ideals and 

 have continued to maintain the old chairs, and 

 a few students continue to take these so- 

 called cultural courses and always will so long 

 as they are offered, but it remains true that 

 the great majority of the students are inter- 

 ested mainly in those subjects which have a 

 definite practical value. This is true of both 

 graduate and undergraduate schools. And of 

 necessity the departments dealing with sub- 

 jects which are of practical value to the stu- 

 dent in after life are receiving relatively 

 greater, and increasingly greater, financial 

 support from governing boards. Thus our 

 higher institutions of learning, and particu- 

 larly the graduate departments, are apparently 

 tending to become, in fact, professional 

 schools; that is, institutions in which men and 



women receive specialized training which fits 

 them for a particular kind of work. This de- 

 velopment is perhaps not so much the result 

 of the adoption of a definite policy by those 

 in charge of such institutions, but rather 

 comes from the demand on the part of the 

 students themselves. The students want such 

 courses and, if a particular university will not 

 give them, they will go elsewhere. The very 

 great popularity of chemistry in the colleges 

 and universities throughout the country is not 

 due to a widespread scholarly interest in the 

 science itself, but arises from the facts that 

 chemistry is fundamentally related to the wel- 

 fare of the community and that a thorough 

 knowledge of the subject opens the door to an 

 attractive profession. 



We have already pointed out that most of 

 tlie graduate students in chemistry in the uni- 

 versities may be grouped under three heads : 



1. Those looking forward to professorships 

 of chemistry in colleges, in which their chief 

 work will be the teaching of chemistry to un- 

 degraduates, with limited opportunities for 

 research. 



2. Those looking forward to careers of re- 

 search in pure cheinistry, either in universities 

 or other research institutions. 



3. Those expecting to become industrial 

 chemists. 



So long as the university had to do mainly 

 with students of the first two groups, there 

 was no particular difficulty in providing suit- 

 able instruction for them without in any way 

 endangering the ideals of the university la- 

 boratory as a place set apart from commercial 

 considerations and devoted, with singleness of 

 eye, to the cause of the advancement of sci- 

 ence for the common good. The course of in- 

 struction generally adopted by American uni- 

 versities required for its completion three or 

 more years' work subsequent to the bachelor's 

 degree. A part of this time was devoted by 

 the student to acquiring a knowledge of the 

 fundamental facts and principles of the sci- 

 ence, after which he was required to spend 

 one or more years in actual research under 

 guidance. 



The rapid increase in the number of stu- 



