846 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 857 



they themselves acting under general or 

 specific direction. 



Some of us are just now concerned to 

 know how with respect to chemical engi- 

 neering we can give the young men an op- 

 portunity to come into contact with the 

 actual practise of their profession before 

 they leave the school, and the advisability 

 of the equipment of laboratories of chem- 

 ical engineering is under careful considera- 

 tion. While it is no doubt true that, from 

 its nature, chemical engineering offers less 

 abundant opportunities for industrial work 

 during the vacation interval in a stu- 

 dent's career than many other professions, 

 notably less than civil engineering, and at 

 the same time is a profession the actual 

 practise of which it is exceedingly difficult 

 to reproduce in an educational plant, I 

 suspect that similar general conditions ex- 

 ist in other lines. Here, again, is a prob- 

 lem with no small dimensions or impor- 

 tance with which we are wrestling, and one 

 step toward its solution may be made 

 through the greater cooperation on the side 

 of the industrial managers for which I 

 have just appealed. 



If I have dwelt more upon the alleged 

 weaknesses of the engineering school grad- 

 uates than upon their strength, it is be- 

 cause the latter is attested by the engineer- 

 ing advance of the recent past to which 

 they have contributed to an extent which 

 would not have been possible had not the 

 majority of them received from the schools 

 an education and training which has 

 proved useful, dependable and stimulating. 

 I believe that the large majority of the 

 engineering school graduates are virile, in- 

 telligent, industrious fellows, with sound 

 habits of thought and great capacity for 

 work, ambitious to make the best of them- 

 selves, possessing a sincere desire to acquit 

 themselves honorably, both in private and 

 public life and with an increasing ability 



to do so. As such, we, their instructors, 

 honor them and ask your cooperation, ad- 

 vice and encouragement in our efforts to 

 give to them what they deserve at our 

 hands. "We ask you also to recognize that 

 while for the moment the rapidly changing 

 social and industrial conditions may have 

 outrun our ability to adapt our educational 

 practise to them, we are not lacking in an 

 appreciation of the significance of these 

 changes, or of our obligations for the fu- 

 ture. 



Henry P. Talbot 



Massachusetts Institute 

 OF Technology 



CHRISTIAN ABCHIBALD SERTEB. 



The death of Dr. Herter on December 5, 

 1910, terminated a life of only forty-five years, 

 a life which had been rich in endeavor and was 

 synonymous with the conception of intellectual 

 cultivation as the happiest outcome of tem- 

 poral existence. 



Dr. Herter graduated from the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons in 1886 at the age of 

 twenty-one and in the same year married 

 Miss Susan Dows, who throughout his career 

 sustained him with sympathetic power and in- 

 telligent appreciation of the value of his work. 

 After graduation he studied with Welch in 

 Baltimore and with Forel in Zurich. He then 

 began to practice medicine, specializing in the 

 diseases of the nervous system, on which 

 subject in 1892 he published his first book. 

 His mind, which was ever active, did not permit 

 him to receive his knowledge through second- 

 hand sources, and in 1893 the upper floor of 

 his house was converted into a series of labora- 

 tories in which work could be accomplished 

 according to his liking. It was the beginning 

 of the " Laboratory of C. A. Herter," the con- 

 tributions of which are known throughout the 

 world. To appreciate the significance of all 

 this, it should be remembered that with the 

 exception of the work in the pathological 

 laboratories of the colleges, the work of the 

 board of health, and the work done by Dr. 

 Meltzer, there was practically no scientific 



