August 24, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



183 



of Birmingham, to establish a Charles Hol- 

 eroft Eesearch Fund. 



FuxDS for the new chemical laboratories at 

 University College, London, have been raised 

 by a committee, of which Prince Arthur of 

 Connaught is president and Captain the Hon. 

 Eupert Guinness chairman and treasurer. 

 The cost of the site, building and equipment 

 will be £120,000. £100,000 has already been 

 raised, leaving £20,000 to be found. In order 

 to facilitate the immediate provision of this, 

 Sir Ralph C. Forster, who has already sub- 

 scribed generously to the cost of the labora- 

 tories, has promised £5,000 on condition that 

 the remaining £15,000 is raised speedily. 



A School of Mines has been organized at 

 Washington State College at Pullman. Under 

 the new plan, the department of mining be- 

 comes one of the eight schools or colleges that 

 comprise this state institution, and Professor 

 Francis A. Thompson, head of the depart- 

 ment, becomes dean of the School of Mines. 

 Full facilities will be available for instruction 

 in, and treating ores by, all standard forms of 

 treatment, including leaching, amalgamation, 

 concentration, roasting and smelting. A 

 special laboratory will be devoted to the flota- 

 tion process. 



A. B. McDaxiel, former assistant professor 

 of civil engineering, University of Ulinois, has 

 been given administrative charge of the gen- 

 eral engineering department of Union College, 

 Schenectady, N". T. 



H. B. Ellenbergee, Ph.D. (Cornell), has 

 been appointed associate professor of animal 

 and dairy husbandry at the College of Agri- 

 culture of the University of Vermont. 



Professor Hexri Roger has been appointed 

 dean of the school of medicine of the Uni- 

 versity of Paris, to succeed the late Professor 

 Landouzy. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



TEACHING CHEMISTRY AND TEACHING 

 CHEMISTS 



LooKixG over the lists of chemistry courses 

 ofiered in the various colleges and universities, 

 one is impressed by the thoroughness with 

 which the field has been covered. To suggest 



additions to the already long lists may seem, 

 at first thought, uncalled for. There is a 

 group of courses so obviously essential that we 

 find them taught in every university, and 

 there is a pretty clear understanding of what 

 courses belong to this group. Supplementing 

 this basic group are nmnerous courses extend- 

 ing and amplifying it in various directions 

 determined by local influences, traditions and 

 training of the staff members. The scheme 

 has one serious defect, which is that there is 

 seldom to be found in the whole list of courses, 

 a single one designed to give the would-be 

 chemist an intelligent and comprehensive 

 idea of the science of chemistry, its history, 

 literature, and role in a modern civilized 

 world. A man who diligently pursues the 

 courses offered will undoubtedly attain to a 

 considerable knowledge of the laws, facts and 

 theories of chemistry. "Will he then be a 

 chemist ? 



The writer was recently called upon to 

 grade the examination papers of contestants 

 for the Alpha Chi Sigma Scholarship Medal. 

 There were eighteen contestants, representing 

 ten prominent universities or colleges. Con- 

 testants were all in the second semester of the 

 junior year and, since they undertook to com- 

 pete in a scholarship examination, may be 

 considered as somewhat more alert than their 

 classmates. That grades attained would dif- 

 fer widely was to be expected. The sequence 

 of courses is not the same in the schools repre- 

 sented, and various other factors contribute 

 to make it difficult to get an adequate measure 

 of the relative standing of students; but, 

 allowing for all these, there was clearly shown 

 a striking lack of information and of view 

 point whenever the questions of the examina- 

 tion passed beyond the field of strictly chem- 

 ical facts, laws and theories. A few examples 

 will illustrate the point : Of the eighteen con- 

 testants, eight were unable to name a single 

 American journal of chemistry, eleven were 

 imable to name an English journal, thirteen 

 could not name a French journal, and eight 

 could not name a German journal. Of the 

 eighteen contestants, only five could name a 

 general treatise on inorganic chemistry; only 

 nine could name such a work on organic 



