NOVEMBEB 3, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



595 



tors and can not direct such students. On the 

 other hand, it is fortunate for the college 

 teacher that very few of the students in our 

 classes are ready to attempt special problems. 



Even after many years of experience, the 

 writer does not think that he should attempt 

 to direct more than two or three of his stu- 

 dents in special investigation at one time. 

 These he tries to select early in the courses in 

 botany and to suggest something to them 

 which may be carried along for a time with 

 their regular work and take more of their 

 time as they advance, the investigation some- 

 times being finished under his direction after 

 they have graduated. Every advanced stu- 

 dent of botany might well be expected to do 

 seminar work, but few teachers can find time 

 to direct all advanced students properly even 

 in this. The writer has a senior college stu- 

 dent who has been working on a special prob- 

 lem for two years and who spent the whole of 

 last summer in laboratory investigation and 

 library work, in matter related to this problem 

 and others similar to it, without credit on his 

 course. This student has gone through about 

 40,000 titles in search of literature pertaining 

 to this work and is aiding his teacher in per- 

 fecting his lectures on the subject, and in 

 putting them together in systematic fashion. 

 The student is by no means narrow in his 

 botanical training, nor is he regarded narrow 

 as a college student. 



Independence and originality should be en- 

 couraged, and why should we discourage the 

 exceptional student when he reaches the 

 point where he wants to attempt some inde- 

 pendent work ? The effort may or may not re- 

 sult in something worth publishing, and if 

 published, it should not be tabooed because 

 done by an undergraduate student. Some of 

 the best research is done by those who have 

 had no college or university work. So far as 

 they go, the results obtained by undergradu- 

 ates are sometimes equal to those of graduate 

 students who undertake more difiicult prob- 

 lems. Like the teacher's research, the stu- 

 dent's investigation should center about some 

 problem related to his undergraduate courses 

 and his proposed life work. There are many 



problems of this kind. Some of them are 

 work on some portion of a local or a state 

 flora, investigation of some plant disease, the 

 study of the woodlots of a small area ad- 

 jacent to the college, the working out of keys 

 for the identification of certain fungi or 

 other plants of the region, the investigation 

 of botanical instruction in high schools or col- 

 leges, studies in laboratory administration, 

 etc. These and many other problems may well 

 be attempted by the exceptional undergradu- 

 ate, provided his teacher has sufficient in- 

 sight and enthusiasm to aid him when he needs 

 help. 



Lest the drift of the argument above may 

 have obscured the writer's views somewhat, it 

 needs to be repeated in closing that the in- 

 vestigation of the undergraduate should never 

 exclude thorough and broad botanical train- 

 ing, nor should it replace a knowledge of the 

 elements of many subjects in the college cur- 

 riculum. Hence it must be confined to the 

 rare student, who is especially fitted and has 

 time for this work and the more important 

 general work which will give him a broad 

 mental training. 



Brdce Fink 

 Miami Universitt, 

 OxroED, Ohio 



THE " KAISES-WILHELM INSTITUT FUS 



FEYSIKALISCEE CHEMIE UND 



ELEKTSOCHEMIE ' ' 



On October 1 Professor F. Haber wiU begin 

 his work as director of the new Kaiser-Wil- 

 helm Listitut fiir physikalische Chemie und 

 Elektrochemie at Dahlem near Berlin. The 

 buildings of the Institut, work upon which was 

 begun during the present summer, are being 

 erected by the Prussian government working 

 in conjunction with the " Koppel-Stiftung for 

 the purpose of improving the intellectual rela- 

 tions of Germany with other lands." 



The " Koppel-Stiftung " which was founded 

 in Berlin some years ago by Geheimer Kom- 

 merzienrat Leopold Koppel, and which until 

 now has maintained the German School of 

 Medicine in Shanghai and the American Li- 

 stitute in Berlin, will provide the funds for 



