144 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1390 



dents falling imder group 3, tliat is, those who 

 come to the university with the idea of going 

 into industry, raises, in addition to those 

 problems already referred to, a number of 

 others of equally vital importance to the uni- 

 versities and to the industries themselves. 



1. Unless all signs fail, the demand for 

 chemists for the industries is not a temporary 

 one, but will continue and in all probability 

 increase. The country has definitely set out to 

 develop its chemical industries, the goal sought 

 being nothing less than chemical indepen- 

 dence. The realization, even if it is not alto- 

 gether complete, or falls short of our present 

 hopes, will call for a continuous supply of 

 chemists. The enhanced popular interest in 

 the subject may also be expected to produce 

 an increased demand for chemists in college 

 and university positions. It seems certain 

 therefore that the graduate departments of 

 chemistry (and undergraduate as well), al- 

 ready in many cases among the largest in their 

 respective institutions, must look forward to 

 a considerable increase in the number of stu- 

 dents applying for instruction each year. 

 This will entail problems of enlargement of 

 buildings and other additions to material 

 equipment, increase of teaching personnel, pos- 

 sible additions of new courses, etc. But these 

 are questions which mainly concern boards of 

 trustees and I will not discuss them here. 



2. A group of problems are presented hav- 

 ing to do with the content of the courses of- 

 fered for graduate students. The graduate 

 courses that have been given in the past were 

 developed along broad theoretical lines with- 

 out particular reference to the training of 

 men for the industrial field. The attempt was 

 made to give the student as broad an acquaint- 

 ance as possible with the basic facts and prin- 

 ciples of the science of chemistry and in ad- 

 dition a knowledge and experience of the 

 methods of research. 



Now, inasmuch as the industries are de- 

 pendent upon the universities for the training 

 of the chemists which they require each year 

 in increasing numbers, it is only natural that 

 they should concern themselves with the char- 

 acter of instruction given. And inasmuch as 



one of the functions of the university is to 

 train men for the industrial field it is only 

 proper that those charged with the responsi- 

 bility of this training should inquire whether 

 or not the students are receiving the kind of 

 instruction and experience that best fits their 

 for their future work. The question therefore 

 whether the chemical departments of the uni- 

 versities are giving the best kind of training 

 to those who are to go into industrial work is 

 entirely proper and the correct answer is of 

 vital importance to the university, to the sci- 

 ence of chemistry and to chemical industry. 



IsTow there are a number of people among 

 both teachers and employers of chemists, who 

 believe that the present methods of university 

 instruction could be materially changed to ad- 

 vantage so far as the future work of the 

 industrial chemist and chemical industry are 

 concerned and various suggestions have been 

 put forward, most of them with the idea of 

 making the work more " practical " in char- 

 acter. It is said that the present method and 

 scope of university teaching make the Ph.D. 

 graduate too theoretical and impractical; that 

 when he goes into the plant he is at a loss be- 

 cause he has learned to think only in terms 

 of small scale reactions and because he has 

 no knowledge of engineering and therefore no 

 appreciation of the mechanical difficulties that 

 always appear when you go from the labora- 

 tory to large scale production. Hence it is 

 concluded that the kind of chemist the in- 

 dustries need is one who is also an engineer. 

 Hence the growth of a large number of in- 

 stitutions in the country in which a high- 

 school graduate is put through a training em- 

 bracing four or five years, taking various 

 courses in mathematics, physics, engineering 

 and chemistry, is given a bachelor's degree and 

 sent into the industry. However valuable in 

 a chemical plant men of this training may be, 

 their outlook upon chemistry as a whole is en- 

 tirely too limited to make them of any great 

 value in the research laboratory. If our 

 country is to realize its dream of chemical in- 

 dependence, our industries must have available 

 and must employ large numbers of chemists of 

 the highest quality, characterized by breadth 



