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SCIENCE 



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



broadly trained in the principles of chemistry. All 

 other considerations must be subservient to this 

 fundamental purpose. 



This is a tlioroughly sound principle and if 

 it is accepted fully and made a guiding policy 

 by both the university faculties and the in- 

 dustries it will constitute a touchstone by 

 means of which the quality of any specific pro- 

 posal may be tested. It must be clearly un- 

 derstood that if men are to be " thoroughly 

 and broadly trained in the principles of chem- 

 istry " emphasis must be laid upon a good 

 many things of which we can not at present 

 point out any very direct practical applica- 

 tion to industry. The fact is, however, that 

 the number of these abstract questions em- 

 phasized by university teachers that have no 

 bearing upon the problems of commercial 

 chemistry is not nearly so large as the prac- 

 tical man believes. In other words, chemical 

 industry lags considerably behind chemical 

 science. The discovery on the part of in- 

 dustry that it has not been utilizing the 

 chemical knowledge which has been available 

 all along, carefully recorded in the literature, 

 is really one of the outstanding events of the 

 last five years. This is the explanation of the 

 greatly increased demand for trained chem- 

 ists. Their chief efforts will be directed, not 

 so much toward original research, but rather 

 toward applying what is already recorded to 

 the practical problems of the plant. 



The second paragraph of the report deals 

 with " the strong tendency at the present to 

 draw men, who have been particularly effective 

 in research work, away from the universities 

 by the payment of salaries far in excess of 

 the salaries paid the same men in a univer- 

 sity." In view of the considerable number 

 of younger men of great promise who have 

 in consequence been induced to abandon their 

 university careers, the report goes on to say 

 that " it seems evident that unless a very con- 

 siderable increase in the salaries of teachers 

 of chemistry can be secured, the next genera- 

 tion of chemists is likely to be trained by a 

 set of mediocre men. Such a result would be 

 disastrous to our industries and every pos- 

 sible effort should be made to meet this 

 danger." 



As to the various specific proposals for co- 

 operation that have been put forward they 

 should all be tested by the touchstone men- 

 tioned, and if this is conscientiously done it 

 seems to me that no very great difficulty will 

 be experienced in reaching wise decisions. 

 There would seem to be no possible objection 

 to the endowment of fellowships in the uni- 

 versities, similar to the duPont fellowships, 

 which leave the student and the instructor 

 entirely free in the choice of the subject of 

 research and which carry no restrictions in 

 the matter of publication of the results. 



Fellowships designed to promote the solu- 

 tion of problems for the benefit of a particular 

 industry, it seems to me, may be safely ac- 

 cepted by the university, but it should be 

 clearly understood: (1) That the subject of 

 investigation should be of fundamental im- 

 portance to the industry as a whole; (2) that 

 the instructor and student must be left en- 

 tirely free in deciding upon the method and 

 scope of the investigation; (3) that there 

 must be no secrecy attached to the work; and 

 (4) that the results should be published for 

 the benefit of the industry as a whole within 

 a reasonable time. 



It seems to me that other kinds of fellow- 

 ships proposed, of a private character, for 

 example, a fellowship endowed by a single firm 

 for its exclusive use, either for a limited or 

 indefinite period, would be attended with grave 

 dangers to the university. Aside from other 

 considerations of equally vital importance, 

 one of the most invaluable and inspiring fea- 

 tures of the university research laboratory, 

 viz., the entire freedom from restrictions which 

 prevails, would be lost by the introduction of 

 a system of private fellowships. Each worker, 

 while he is interested mainly in his own par- 

 ticular subject, needs the inspiration which 

 comes from contact with his fellow workers, 

 and to deny him the privilege of learning what 

 those around him are doing is to take from 

 him a thing of inestimable value and for which 

 there is no substitute. 



B. F. Lovelace 



The Johns Hopkins UNrvEBsiry 



