706 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Yoi,. XXVI. No. 673 



tions were not compelled to resort to sci- 

 ence and to the reclamation processes in 

 order to earn large dividends. The traiaed 

 chemist had not yet entered on the indus- 

 trial stage. He did not hold the great in- 

 dustries in his hand as he does to-day. 

 Furthermore, the state universities were 

 scarcely able to train such men had there 

 been a demand. They were struggling to 

 keep up with the rapidly growing popula- 

 tion of the state, and little more could be 

 done than to teach general chemistry in 

 crowded and poorly equipped laboratories. 

 In fact, the state universities of the center 

 and middle west twenty-five years ago were 

 supported by the state as belonging in the 

 same class as reform schools and institu- 

 tions of similar nature. The state had not 

 yet come to realize that the university is 

 its best investment, not only from the men- 

 tal and moral but also from the strictly 

 commercial point of view. 



The state universities, I think, occupy a 

 position quite different from any of the 

 other educational institutions. They are a 

 part of the great commonwealth, they be- 

 long to the people of the state and hence 

 must, if they fulfill their obligations to the 

 state, not only train men and women for 

 civic but also for purely scientific and in- 

 dustrial life. Neither must be neglected. 

 During the past decade practically all of 

 the state universities have come to realize 

 this fact, and nowhere in the world has 

 there been such rapid development along 

 the lines of both pure and applied chem- 

 istry as in these institutions. The teaching 

 of chemist'ry in these rapidly developing 

 states has naturally and properly taken an 

 industrial trend. There is not a single 

 state university to-day which is not, besides 

 doing research work, materially assisting in 

 the industrial development of the state 

 from which it receives its support. It is 

 no longer difficult to obtain appropriations 



to well equip laboratories, as is evident 

 from the splendidly equipped laboratories 

 of the University of Illinois. 



Of all these great unversities which have 

 become not only great educational but also 

 important industrial factors within the 

 bounds of the states from which they re- 

 ceive their support, the University of Illi- 

 nois stands among the first. Situated in 

 the center of a great industrial population 

 where trained men are always at a pre- 

 mium, its opportunities are boundless. It 

 is bound to play an even more important 

 part in the chemical development of the 

 country in the future than it has in the 

 past. With the man at the head, whom 

 we have gathered here to-day to honor and 

 bid a god-speed, I do not believe it is pos- 

 sible to predict too much for this univer- 

 sity not only in purely didactic but also in 

 industrial and applied chemistry. None of 

 the branches of chemistry which must be 

 taken up by this state university are new 

 to him. He is the peer of Elliott or Rem- 

 sen in didactics and of Silliman and Chan- 

 dler in industrial chemistry. No man in 

 the whole country is better fitted to take 

 up the broad lines of chemistry now de- 

 manded by the state university. I con- 

 gratulate the University of Illinois and the 

 whole state in securing Dr. Noyes as stand- 

 ard bearer, and with such coworkers as 

 Parr, Grindley, Bartow, Lincoln and Cur- 

 tiss, this university will stand second to 

 none of the state universities in preparing 

 young men and women for the work de- 

 manded by this great state and by the 

 whole nation. 



George B. Fkane:forter 



University of Illinois 



THE CONTRIBUTION OF CHEMISTRY TO 

 MODERN LIFE 



1 THINK that few who have not paid 

 especial attention to the subject realize how 

 completely the world, as a place to live in, 



