November 26, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



743 



fulness, and that in the hour of need it will 

 not be found wanting in the vital matter 

 of industrial eiSeiency and solidarity which 

 is the corner-stone of all military power. 



In the terrible world war now raging, 

 the law of the survival of the fittest wiU be 

 found as inescapable, immutable and inex- 

 orable in the case of nations as it is with 

 individuals. It listens to no explanations, 

 accepts no excuses, and knows absolutely 

 no pity. Our own country is beginning to 

 awaken to the fact that civilization un- 

 armed by science is at a terrible disadvan- 

 tage in the event of a struggle for exist- 

 ence, and that this arming can not be done 

 at short notice. The result is a loud and 

 urgent call upon the universities, colleges 

 and technical schools of the land for help. 



Conspicuous among those answering this 

 call most effectively are the University of 

 Pittsburgh and its Mellon Institute. Con- 

 ducting an energetic campaign for the edu- 

 cation of the community to a better appre- 

 ciation of science, pointing out to the manu- 

 facturers wherein the chemist can aid them, 

 and winning their support for chemical 

 research, prosecuting skilful investigations 

 directed to the immediate public needs, and 

 turning out highly-trained scientists, this 

 university has already made an enviable 

 record of service, and has placed under a 

 lasting debt of gratitude not only the city 

 of Pittsburgh, the chemical profession and 

 the nation, but the entire world of human- 

 ity as well ; for its activities minister in the 

 highest degree to the progress of civiliza- 

 tion, and its achievements ultimately be- 

 come the property of all mankind. 



Robinson has defined education as "the 

 process of fitting the individual to take his 

 place 'and do his part in the life of his age 

 and nation," and no educational institu- 

 tion at the present time can discharge this 

 responsibility faithfully unless it accords, 

 in its equipment and in its curricula, ade- 



quate recognition to so comprehensive a sci- 

 ence as chemistry which, in its wide sweep, 

 touches almost every phase of human life 

 and endeavor. 



Two years ago, in an address which I had 

 occasion to deliver in England, I ventured 

 the opinion that the most pressing need of 

 the day was the proper endowment of chem- 

 ical research, by the founding of great re- 

 search institutes and the creation of re- 

 search professorships. That opinion I have 

 not altered. 



The establishment in this university of 

 the Willard Gibbs Professorship of Re- 

 search in Pure Chemistry is an occasion for 

 warmest congratulations : to the chancellor 

 and trustees of the university on the mo- 

 mentous step they have taken in the direc- 

 tion of building up a great new school of 

 graduate and research work in pure chem- 

 istry; to the distinguished director of the 

 Mellon Institute, Dr. Raymond F. Bacon, 

 for his wise foresight in securing such a 

 department as a powerful means of ad- 

 vancing progress in industrial research; to 

 the university land its Mellon Institute, on 

 securing as the first incumbent of the new 

 chair a most talented teacher and investi- 

 gator. Dr. Martin A. Rosanoff, whose re- 

 searches have already won for him an inter- 

 national reputation; and to Professor 

 Rosanoff himself, on being selected for this 

 high honor. 



That this new chair should bear the illus- 

 trious name of Josiah Willard Gibbs is 

 peculiai'ly appropriate, for, as an investi- 

 gator in the field of pure chemistry, Ostwald 

 has called him "by far the greatest scien- 

 tist America has yet produced," and Le 

 Chatelier has said that his work marks an 

 epoch as important as that of Lavoisier. 

 Abstruse and recondite as those researches 

 were, their fundamental bearing upon the 

 development of our science is daily becom- 

 ing clearer. 



