Mat 5, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



629 



persuading the authorities that they will 

 put the building out of harmony with the 

 other structures on the campus. Hence the 

 chemist must himself tackle the problem in 

 detail. Then again, if the laboratory oper- 

 ations occupy long periods of time, the 

 intervals between the points at which 

 thought by the student is required, or the 

 practise of certain manipulations is de- 

 manded, are so prolonged that the pupil 

 forgets to think when the time comes, and 

 bungles the manipulation because his mind 

 has long since wandered to some other sub- 

 ject. Thought and physical activity are 

 more effective when there is a more or less 

 continuous demand for them, and so every 

 abbreviation of the periods of waiting and 

 of the interruptions, caused by looking for 

 some article or going to a hood, increases the 

 efficiency of the work as a form of study. 

 It also, of course, permits more work to be 

 done, and therefore more subjects for 

 thought and more manipulation to be intro- 

 duced, and so gives more mental training 

 and greater technical skill. 



The magnificent addition to this labo- 

 ratory, the opening of which we are now 

 celebrating, has been made at a most oppor- 

 tune time. A German statistician has dis- 

 covered that the ratio of chemists to popu- 

 lation in four countries is represented by 

 the numbers: Switzerland 300, Germany 

 250, Prance 7, Great Britain 6. The corre- 

 sponding number for the United States is 

 probably nearer to the two last numbers 

 than to the number for Switzerland. The 

 general run of people in this country, even 

 educated and intelligent people, have 

 hitherto been almost entirely unaware of 

 the important role which chemistry plays 

 in the industries. When you tell them that 

 many railroads employ fifteen or twenty 

 chemists each, they stare in astonishment, 

 and can not imagine what there is for a 

 chemist to do in such a connection. But 



the discussion raised by the war has sud- 

 denly drawn chemistry out of its modest 

 retirement, placed it in the limelight, and 

 advertised it as nothing else could have 

 done. The number of students in chemis- 

 try, always a rapidly growing factor, has 

 this year taken a great leap forward. The 

 University of Illinois is fortunate in having 

 completed a building for chemistry so 

 carefully planned and so magnificently 

 equipped. It is fortunate also in the splen- 

 did spirit which has characterized its work 

 in chemistry, and in the remarkable num- 

 'ber of investigations of the highest order 

 which have been, and are being carried on 

 in its laboratory. The state of Illinois is 

 to be most heartily congratulated both on 

 the performance of its university, along 

 chemical lines, in the past and, with the 

 space and the facilities which the new 

 laboratory offers, upon its promise of even 

 greater things in the future. 



Alexander Smith 

 Columbia Univeksitt 



RESEARCH AS A NATIONAL DUTY 



The object of this paper is to emphasize 

 the importance of material research and to 

 lay stress on its necessity to any people 

 who are ever to become a leading nation 

 or a world power. 



I have called it material research be- 

 cause I wanted to exclude immaterial re-, 

 search. I class under this head pure 

 thought as distinct from thought mixed 

 with matter. It is worth while making 

 this distinction because, from the youngest 

 to the oldest chemist, it is not always rec- 

 ognized. It is very natural for us to think 

 we can think new things into being. Chem- 

 istry has advanced only in proportion to 

 the handling of chemical substances by 

 some one. When the study of our science 

 was largely mental speculation, and the 

 products and reagents largely immaterial, 



