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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 484. 



school with thorough and careful training 

 first, in general culture, in language and 

 literature, then in mathematics, and finally 

 give them the advantage of the splendid 

 courses provided in our technical schools 

 in chemistry and engineering, and they vs^ill 

 be prepared to meet effectively and success- 

 fully the great problems the chemical in- 

 dustries of the immediate future will have 

 ready for them. That what is needed can 

 be fully accomplished in a course of four 

 years I doubt, but it may be helped by the 

 preparation I have outlined. That the 

 technical chemist of the future must know 

 thoroughly the great laws of chemistry and 

 at the same time be well grounded in the 

 principles of engineering I do not doubt. 

 And I am satisfied that justice to the young 

 men, as well as to those who must employ 

 them, demands that time for all the train- 

 ing I have outlined should be provided. 



Professor Edward Hakt. 



It seems to me that we must in the first 

 place reconcile ourselves to the idea of do- 

 ing the best we can in four years. I am 

 one of those who do not believe very much 

 in post-graduate courses for chemical stu- 

 dents. There are many who must have a 

 post-graduate course, of course, but if you 

 take the ordinary man and follow the his- 

 tory of such ordinary man, the man who 

 passes through college and makes after- 

 wards a success, you will find that very 

 many of them were poor boys. They haven 't 

 the money to take more than a four years' 

 course. If we are to turn out such men 

 we must educate them, as far as we can, 

 in four years. How are we going to do it ? 

 "We must limit the number of our subjects. 

 We must attempt and to a large extent 

 succeed in teaching those things that we 

 attempt to teach well and not attempt to 

 teach too many things, and that involves a 

 very careful selection of one part of the 

 equipment to which I am sure too little 



attention is often paid, and that is those 

 who take part in the work of teaching. 

 I have had considerable experience in 

 teaching. I have had very few assistants 

 who did their work faithfully, very few. 

 It is a very tiresome, thankless business to 

 teach a lot of beginners, and it very seldom 

 happens that before the end of two years 

 of such work the man doesn 't lose a part of 

 his enthusiasm and do his work less well 

 than it should be done. This work must 

 be done well if we are to succeed in turn- 

 ing out the class of men that we want, and 

 it is this work which determines very 

 largely the quality of our product, for 

 there is no truer thing in the world than 

 that the student is largely the product of 

 the self-sacrifice of his teacher. We must 

 first teach the science of chemistry, so far 

 as it is possible, and we must teach it thor- 

 oughly and well, because we can't go too 

 far, and then we must teach engineering, 

 becavise the chemical manufacturer is an 

 artisan. He must be an artisan to a cer- 

 tain extent. I do not believe, however, 

 that in the four years' course it wiU be 

 possible to get into such a man more than 

 the elements of engineering, but if these 

 things are done well I am quite sure that 

 the product will be quite different from the 

 product that is turned out at the present 

 time. 



Professor W. A. Notes. 



The discussion thus far has dwelt almost 

 exclusively upon the necessity that the 

 chemist should know many things besides 

 chemistry and especially that he should 

 laiow mechanical engineering, and with all 

 that phase of the discussion I most heartily 

 agree. 



With regard to the chemical side of the 

 work we are in as great difficulty, almost, 

 for lack of time as with regard to the ac- 

 cessory side of it. Chemical science has 

 expanded enormously in the last twenty- 



