892 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. YOL. XL. No. 1042 



I have tried to define extreme cases; most 

 of us are blends or mosaics of the two types. 

 It must be admitted, I think, that when a 

 teacher is keenly interested in research, his 

 teaching suffers in some respects. It gains in 

 others, and the question is, how to find the 

 optimum condition of affairs. We seem to be 

 attacking the old problem of progress. We 

 are reproducing on a minute scale the phe- 

 nomena of evolution. The absence of prog- 

 ress and excessive progress are alike detri- 

 mental, and there is a shifting optimum 

 between. My personal opinion, which tends to 

 grow stronger with time, is that our universi- 

 ties mostly err on the side of conservatism 

 and dogmatism, so that additional emphasis 

 on progressive policies becomes desirable. By 

 a sort of paradox, conservative teachers with 

 rigid ideas are frequently undecided or in- 

 different as to the merits of the systems they 

 expound, rather priding themselves on their 

 academic impartiality. On the other hand, 

 progressive thinkers will be filled with partic- 

 ular ideas at particular times, and will then 

 appear very confident; thus, superficially, our 

 definitions may seem reversed. In reality, the 

 indecision of the conservative is due to the 

 limitations of his field, and is quite different, 

 psychologically, from the indecision of a man 

 who is ardently seeking a solution which still 

 evades him. 



There is, of course, another matter to be 

 considered. Granting that a research man, 

 with his necessary limitations, makes a better 

 teacher than one who is only a teacher, what 

 if he loses interest in his teaching? Many 

 will remember instances of this sort, and it is 

 customary to put the whole blame on the man 

 who has thus failed. Is it not possible that 

 the loss of interest is sometimes accelerated 

 by the indifference of those who do not wish 

 to receive the only sort of thing the man can 

 give? There is so much to do in this world 

 that among the numerous possible activities 

 presenting themselves there is a sort of sur- 

 vival of the fittest. No one is justified in 

 " wasting his sweetness on the desert air," if 

 he can help it. The problem then becomes 

 one of creating an atmosphere in which good 



teaching can flourish, as well as securing good 

 teachers. 



On the whole, it appears that we can not 

 have every good thing at once. It is for each 

 department and man to seek an optimum 

 which will certainly differ according to times 

 and circumstances. It may, however, be 

 worth while to try to understand the psychol- 

 ogy of each situation as it arises. 



T. D. A. OOCKERELL 



Univeesity op Colorado, 

 November 16, 1914 



A NOTE ON APPARATUS REPAIR 



To THE Editor op Science : Doubtless there 

 are many who like the writer have met with 

 accidents where a fused-in-platinum electrode 

 has broken off at the very surface of the glass. 

 Such a thing occurred while setting up Hoff- 

 man's apparatus for electrolysis. 



'^ 



Fig. 1. 



In order to repair it the writer took a piece 

 of chamois skin cut to an appropriate size and 

 shape, formed it into a little sack and fixed it 

 with sealing wax to the outer wall of the ver- 

 tical tube. This sack was so placed that when 



