MARcH 22, 1901.] 
work is coming to be recognized and the de- 
mand for well-trained chemists is increas- 
ing. Wecannot yet boast with the Germans 
that single works employ more than one 
hundred thoroughly educated chemists, yet 
inquiry shows that many of the important 
works have corps of chemists numbering 
from ten to fifty, while very many more 
have smaller numbers. The same inquiry 
affords some clue to the number of chemists 
actually at work in this country. If we 
compare the list of members of the Amer- 
ican Chemical Society, we find that more 
than two-thirds are engaged in technical 
work. Furthermore, of the few chemists 
reported in the inquiry just referred to, 
scarcely one-third are members of the So- 
ciety. A fair estimate based upon such 
data leads tothe conclusion that more than 
five thousand chemists are actually at work 
in the United States and that eighty per 
cent. of these are connected with the indus- 
tries. A study of the lists of the graduates 
of the educational institutions leads to sim- 
ilar conclusions. Fischer reported as the 
result of special inquiry made three years 
ago that in Germany four thousand gradu- 
ate chemists were employed in the indus- 
tries and about two hundred in teaching 
and special investigations. 
So then we find that the chemical indus- 
tries of the United States are growing with 
enormous rapidity ; that they are being con- 
centrated into fewer but larger works ; that 
operations and reactions are being carried 
out with a magnitude which the earlier 
chemists would never have predicted ; that 
new methods are being followed; new prin- 
ciples applied, greater accuracy of results 
demanded both as to quality and yield of 
the products; that the products now issue 
from the works in lots of tons ata time of a 
higher degree of purity and with a greater 
economy than were possible but a few years 
ago with lots of afew hundred pounds. For 
instance, the great sugar refineries each 
SCIENCE. 
447 
yield from one to two million pounds daily 
of a product, the purity of which may be 
considered absolute. The modern beet 
sugar works have in some cases capacity 
for treatment of from 1,000 to 3,000 tons of 
roots daily, and consequently the purifica- 
tion of almost an equal quantity of juice. 
And if so great advance has been made 
during the closing quarter-century and even 
decade, what shall we say of the possibili- 
ties of the future? What is to be themag- 
nitude of the chemical industries of the 
United States? What shall be the charac- 
ter of the products issuing from them? 
What will they require of the men who must 
direct and control them? That is to say, 
what will be the educational requirements 
of the American chemical industries of the 
almostimmediate future? These questions 
are not new to our own country, and their 
importance has forced itself with powerful 
intensity upon those engaged in the chem- 
ical industries in the old world: it has been 
the subject of most earnest discussion, par- 
ticularly in Germany and England, during 
the past five years at least. Nor has it 
been in all respects satisfactorily answered. 
Even within this closing month of the clos- 
ing century the cable has flashed news of 
the complaint on the part of the leading 
statesmen of England that the training of 
technologists in that country is inadequate 
to the development necessary to meet for- 
eign competition, and at almost the same 
time brings news of the inauguration of new 
institutions for technical education. And 
in Germany also, the home and starting 
point of many of the great industries, the 
demands upon the educational institutions 
for the better training of technologists are 
being pressed from every side. It is natu- 
ral to believe that the time is not far dis- 
tant when we too shall be called upon to 
make and meet similar demands. It may 
be pardonable therefore to discuss briefly 
what these requirements are likely to be. 
