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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIIl. iNo. 593. 



mental, but are attained by various indi- 

 vidual methods. 



7. (a) Do you begin the study of or- 

 ganic chemistry with a lecture course 

 merely, or with one comiining lectures and 

 laboratory work? 



ib) What number of hours do you de- 

 vote to organic chemistry? 



I happened to know of several southern 

 colleges which give lecture courses in or- 

 ganic chemistry without laboratory work. 

 I was anxious to learn how general this 

 practise is in the south; and accordingly 

 used this opportunity of taking a census 

 of southern colleges on this subject. 



Those which give no parallel laboratory 

 work, though in the minority, are more 

 than I had supposed. Just what the trend 

 in this method of teaching organic chem- 

 istry is I have not been able to learn. 

 "Whether the large nvimber of lecture 

 courses without laboratory is a protest 

 against what some regard as a laboratory 

 mania, or whether the majority of teach- 

 ers following this practise have not ade- 

 quate laboratory equipment or assistance, 

 I am not prepared to say. I suspect, how- 

 ever, that the latter is true, though the list 

 includes several small colleges and a smaller 

 number of universities and well-equipped 

 schools of technology. The following are 

 some of the institutions which oiier or- 

 ganic chemistry lectures without labora- 

 tory: Tulane, Sewanee, Washington and 

 Lee, University of Louisiana, University of 

 Tennessee, University of North Carolina, 

 Clemson College, A. and M. College of 

 Texas. 



"What was said regarding general chem- 

 istry without laboratory may also, I think, 

 be said in part of organic chemistry with- 

 out laboratory. It is better in most cases 

 to have the laboratory course, but often the 

 deductive may precede the inductive vnth 

 fair results. Another factor to be taken 



into consideration is the stage of the stu- 

 dent's chemical education when the sub- 

 ject is begmii. If introduced early, before 

 he has acquired the quantitative habit, I 

 think that laboratory work should in- 

 variably accompany lectures, the idea be- 

 ing to reinforce theory with practise. If 

 the student has had considerable training 

 in both theoretical and practical inorganic 

 chemistry, it seems reasonable to believe 

 that he could assimilate lectures on organic 

 chemistry without the laboratory. 



The average number of hours devoted to 

 organic chemistry is three hours for lec- 

 tures and two hours for laboratory a week 

 for one term. 



8. {a) Do you offer courses in chem- 

 istry for graduate degrees? 



(b) If so, please state the degrees. 



The majority of the institutions repre- 

 sented offer graduate work in chemistry 

 for the M.S. degree. This is noticeably 

 characteristic of the southern state univer- 

 sities. The most significant, and I think 

 hopeful, development from the investiga- 

 tion is the very small number of southern 

 universities offering the Ph.D. degree. Of 

 the forty institutions heard from, only the 

 following offer the doctor's degree: Uni- 

 versity of Virginia, "Washington and Lee, 

 University of North Carolina, "7anderbilt, 

 University of Mississippi, Tulane, Univer- 

 sity of Missouri, "Washington University. 

 Of this number, four, while still offering 

 the degree, indicate their intention of 

 abandoning it. The small number is hope- 

 ful, I think, in that it means a growing 

 desire among our southern colleges and 

 universities to accomplish only that work 

 they are best fitted to do. Many have been 

 pretending to do work for which they were 

 not adequately equipped. The cause is 

 less one of vanity or dishonesty than of 

 history. Before the civil war, nearly 

 every southern state had well-equipped 



