778 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 385. 



all, and for training technologists only sec- 

 ondarily. Not that the training of teachers 

 of chemistry is incapable of great improve- 

 ment; but on the whole it is so much more 

 satisfactory, that the improvement of 

 instruction in other technical branches is 

 more imperative. Moreover, taking as our 

 major premise the essential unity of chem- 

 ical practice, be it that of analyst, manu- 

 facturer or teacher, it follows that the main 

 deficiency in the present training of our 

 teachers is exactly the lack of knowledge 

 we are deploring, and endeavoring to 

 remedy. Should it be possible therefore 

 to generate within the college walls the 

 mental atmosphere of the busy world 

 where things must be mastered as well as 

 ideas, we shall also have ministered to the 

 wants of the budding preceptor. 



Having thus wearied you by a circuitous 

 return to our starting point, in order to 

 eliminate possible objections based upon 

 differences in the point of view, let us 

 again take up the question. 'What do we 

 mean by adequate preparation?' If, in 

 the following discussion, the proposals I 

 have to make shall appear a trifle too 

 radical, I trust you will bear in mind that 

 they spring from a conscious and deliberate 

 idealism; and should the views here ex- 

 pressed really prove to have a basis of - 

 truth, any merely practical difficulties will 

 yield as surely as the difficulties of manu- 

 facturing indigo yielded to the idealism of 

 the German professor. 



I take it then that an adequate prepara- 

 tion for the technical chemist has been se- 

 cured when (1) a sufficiently broad gen- 

 eral foundation of inorganic, organic and 

 physical cheniistry has been laid in the 

 class room and in the laboratory; (2) when 

 the 'chemical instinct,' i. e., the ability to 

 think in chemical terms, has been devel- 

 oped; (3) when sufficient analytica] skill 

 has been attained to ensure accuracy in fol- 

 lowing new methods; (4) when enough 



preparative skill has been acquired to 

 make any compound with maximum purity 

 in maximum yield, at the lowest possible 

 expense under given conditions; (5) when 

 speaking acquaintance with current chem- 

 ical thought, both pure and applied, has 

 been reached; and (6) when time has been 

 found to accomplish all this. 



THE BROAD FOUNDATION OF CHEMICAL 

 KNOWLEDGE. 



First, then, as to the general foundation 

 of inorganic, organic and physical chem- 

 istry, in the lecture room and laboratory. 

 I think there can be no serious objection 

 to the statement that the present equipment 

 of our students in this line is too meager. 

 The plan seems to be to give very elemen- 

 tary courses in all three subjects, and then 

 to assume that this information will multi- 

 ply by cell division in the laboratory atmos- 

 phere. Another very prevalent view 

 among teachers is that if you only give the 

 student fundamental ideas, the facts will 

 take care of themselves. My own expe- 

 rience is that for the amount of time spent 

 in study, the outfit of actual information 

 about chemical substances is unreasonably 

 small. The unfortunate policy of feeding 

 students only on peptonized and malted 

 facts may avoid mental indigestion in col- 

 lege, but it predisposes them to colic after- 

 wards. Certain very prominent text-books 

 have had a bad influence in this direction, 

 by seeking to eliminate all possible diffi- 

 culties of comprehension and any reference 

 to partially solved problems. It is not 

 uncommon for students to ask if they 

 ' have to remember the names of those sub- 

 stances ' in their lessons, after a few weeks 

 with those books; indeed, the question is 

 not unreasonable, if we consider that the 

 names constitute the sole remaining diffi- 

 culty. Again, both text-books and teach- 

 ers seem afraid that the students will 

 know too much, and prune out all except 



