642 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 304. 



great stress on the producing of chemical 

 preparations ; on the students preparing, 

 that is to say, pure substances in good 

 quantity from crude materials. The im- 

 portance of this was, even in Liebig's time, 

 often overlooked ; and it was, he tells us, 

 more common to find a man who could 

 make a good analj^sis than to find one who 

 could produce a pure preparation in the 

 most judicious way. 



" There is no better way of making one's 

 self acquainted with the properties of a 

 substance than by first producing it from 

 the raw material, then converting it into its 

 compounds, and so becoming acquainted 

 with them. By the study of ordinary anal- 

 ysis one does not learn how to use the im- 

 portant methods of crj'Stallization, fractional 

 distillation, nor acquire any considerable 

 experience in the proper use of solvents. 

 In short, one does not, as Liebig said, be- 

 come a chemist." 



One reason why the present system of 

 training chemists has persisted so long is 

 no doubt because it is a very convenient 

 system : it is easily taught, does not require 

 expensive apparatus, and, above all, it lends 

 itself admirablj' for the purpose of competi- 

 tive examination. 



The system of examination which has 

 been developed during the last twenty years 

 has done much harm, and is a source of 

 great difiiculty to any conscientious teacher 

 who is possessed of originality, and is de- 

 sirous, particularly in special cases, of leav- 

 ing the beaten track. 



In our colleges and universities most of 

 the students work for some definite exami- 

 nation — frequently for the Bachelor of Sci- 

 ence degree — either at their own University 

 or at the University of London. 



For such degrees a perfectly definite 

 course is prescribed and must be followed, 

 because the questions which the candidate 

 will have to answer at his examination are 

 based on a syllabus which is either pub- 



lished or is known by precedent to be re- 

 quired. The course which the teacher is 

 obliged to teach is thus placed beyond his 

 individual power of alteration, except in 

 minor details, and originality in the teacher 

 is thereby discouraged : he knows that all 

 students must face the same examination, 

 and he must urge the backward man 

 through exactly the same course^ as his 

 more talented neighbor. 



In almost all examinations salts or mix- 

 tures of salts are given for qualitative anal- 

 ysis. ' Determine the constituents of the 

 simple salt A and of the mixture B ' is a 

 favorite examination formula ; and as some 

 practical work of this sort is sure to be set, 

 the teacher knows that he must contrive to 

 get one and all of his students into a condi- 

 tion to enable them to answer such ques- 

 tions. 



If, then, one considers the great amount 

 of work which is required from the present- 

 day student, it is not surprising that every 

 aid to rapid preparation for examination 

 should be accepted with delight by the 

 teacher ; and thus it comes about that tables 

 are elaborated in every detail, not only for 

 qualitative analysis in inorganic chemistry, 

 but, what is far worse, for the detection of 

 some arbitrary selection of organic sub- 

 stances which may be set in the syllabus 

 for the examination. I question whether 

 any really competent teacher will be found 

 to recommend this system as one of educa- 

 tional value or calculated to bring out and 

 train the faculty of original thought in 

 students. 



If, then, the present system is so unsatis- 

 factory, it will naturally be asked, how are 

 students to be trained, and how are they to 

 be examined so as to find out the extent of 

 the knowledge of their subject which they 

 have acquired ? 



In dealing with the first part of the ques- 

 tion — that is, the training best suited to 

 chemists — I can, of course, only give my 



