682 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 644 



term professional chemist is suggested to 

 include the chemical engineer, the engi- 

 neering chemist, the expert and the con- 

 sulting chemist. 



Even those of us who have been actively 

 occupied in the broad field of chemistry as 

 teachers or professional workers during the 

 last quarter or third of the century, find it 

 difficult to realize the great transition 

 within this period. It is inevitable that 

 the all-pervading commercial spirit of our 

 generation should be felt in institutions of 

 learning, perhaps more forcibly in schools 

 of science, where students have an im- 

 mediate prospect of seeking their fortunes 

 in the absorbing vortex of business ac- 

 tivity. The benefits that have come to 

 those institutions as one result of the recent 

 unparalleled industrial and business expan- 

 sion have been accompanied by certain dis- 

 turbing influences that are difficult of 

 control. "With such a golden flow into the 

 educational coffers, new institutions have 

 grown to large proportions like the tradi- 

 tional mushroom, and the older ones have 

 doubled or quadrupled in capacity and 

 power. 



Naturally, every student within college 

 walls has his attention attracted to the 

 courses of wealth which provide these 

 great benefactions. It suggests a possi- 

 bility of a similar pecuniary reward even 

 to the extent of limiting his interest to 

 subjects and their especial features that 

 shall in his estimation lead to immediate 

 advancement and profit on his exit from 

 the collegiate environment. I believe I am 

 stating a part of the common experience 

 of teachers, with reference to the mental 

 attitude of a considerable proportion of the 

 student body. Impatient of attainment 

 along the lines of self-improvement and 

 broad culture, the student regards his in- 

 stitution merely as an influence in gain- 

 ing an initial foothold, satisfied with the 

 minimum requirements that it will accept 



for his respectable graduation. I do not 

 vnsh to express the belief that this feeling 

 is universal, but it is sufficiently evident 

 both as to outward expression on the part 

 of some, and through the influence of asso- 

 ciation on the part of many, to interfere 

 seriously with the highest ideals of intel- 

 lectual training. It tends to limit the 

 efforts of teachers to a monotonous routiae, 

 and the maintenance of an acceptable 

 standing of students in this routine. 



It can not be doubted that the conditions 

 of instruction in the highest institutions 

 may be greatly improved by certain 

 changes in the secondary schools. Much 

 has been done within the last few years 

 mainly with the aid and cooperation of 

 teachers in the higher institutions; but the 

 suggestions for better work in chemistry 

 have been limited rather to improvement 

 in methods already in use than to funda- 

 mental changes to eliminate primary 

 causes. Judging from the results of en- 

 traiice examinations, the pupil is taught a 

 text-book rather than chemistry, a fatal 

 error with young pupils, for when they 

 once begin to depend on the printed page, 

 their vision of what they should learn is 

 obscured by their false support. Obser- 

 vation of natural facts should be the only 

 guide until the pupil has a sufficiently well- 

 grounded method to enable him to dis- 

 tinguish between his own observation and 

 printed descriptions. On account of the 

 inherent inertia of young pupils and their 

 inclination to lean on the teacher or the 

 text-book, it is not safe to permit the use 

 of a book until they have acquired a good 

 knowledge of facts and deductions. 



"Why chemistry should be relegated to 

 the fourth year of the high school, and 

 then suddenly launched on the pupil aa 

 a full-fledged science, usually prefaced, as 

 in the ordinary text-book, with a series of 

 definitions and a statement of theoretical 

 principles, almost before the correct obser- 



