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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 108, 



tive analysis are taught. Chemistry is 

 now seen to be one of the best disciplinary 

 studies, and it fails in educational value 

 only when the teaching of it is entrusted to 

 improperly trained pedagogues of the ob- 

 solete text-book school. The teacher who 

 is a slave of text-books is as bad as no 

 teacher at all. To teach chemistry one 

 must think chemistry ; a mere memory for 

 facts is not a sufficient qualification. 



Leaving out of consideration the names 

 of many American chemists who published 

 important researches during this period of 

 our history, for personal details would not 

 be in place here, we come down to the date 

 of the Civil War, which marks an epoch 

 in more senses than one. In science, as 

 well as in politics, the war divides Ameri- 

 can history into two periods — the one a 

 period of preparation and slow growth, the 

 other a period of swift advances and frui- 

 tion. Through the war the Nation had re-- 

 ceived a sharp stimulus, and the re-estab- 

 lishment of peace was followed by wonderful 

 progress in many directions. Population 

 and wealth increased with great rapidity, 

 and in due time that wealth began to flow 

 into educational channels. The Nation it- 

 self embarked in many new enterprises; 

 these demanded the aid of science, and so 

 the latter received encouragement which its 

 students had hardly dreamed of before. 

 Even during the war the land-grant col- 

 lege bill was passed by Congress, and soon 

 every State was provided with new facilities 

 for scientific instruction, and the demand 

 for trained teachers was greatly increased. 

 The foundation of Cornell University, which 

 opened its doors to students in 1868, was 

 one of the consequences of this bill. In 

 1864 the School, of Mines of Columbia Col- 

 lege began its work; in 1865 the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology was started ; 

 and these were followed by the Polytech- 

 nic School at Worcester in 1868, and the 

 Stevens Institute at Hoboken in 1870. 



Even the older schools of science developed 

 more rapidly, and in the Lawrence Scien- 

 tific School particularly the research method 

 of instruction was pushed into great prom- 

 inence by Wolcott Gibbs. Hitherto our 

 professors of chemistry had been commonly 

 content with teaching what was already 

 known, but under Gibbs the student was 

 taught to think and to discover. Training 

 in the art of solving unsolved problems 

 became a part of the school curriculum. 

 This phase of chemical education was 

 brought into still greater prominence some 

 years later, in the laboratory of the Johns 

 Hopkins University, and now it is well nigh 

 universal. Original research, once an occa- 

 sional feature of American college work, is 

 now emphasized in all of our better univer- 

 sities, and the student's thesis outweighs 

 his examinations in importance. At first,, 

 as was but natural, our educational system 

 was modeled after that of England, with. 

 Oxford and Cambridge as the shining ex- 

 amples to follow. Here, as there, the pass- 

 ing of examinations was the one supreme 

 test of scholarship ; but the growth of 

 science in Germany attracted our better 

 students thither, and they returned full of 

 the modern doctrines. The German graft 

 upon our English stock has made our uni- 

 versities what they are to-day, and now 

 the man who can increase knowledge is 

 more highly esteemed than him who merely 

 knows. The knowledge which is fruitful 

 outranks the sterile culture whose end is 

 in itself. In all departments of learning,, 

 education has become more vital, more of a 

 living force ; and in this great movement 

 forward the chemist has been a leader and 

 a pioneer. 



For many, many years the chemists of 

 America were unorganized, a thousand 

 scattered units, each doing what he could 

 as an individual, but with no bond of union 

 other than that of common interest. Here 

 and there chemical societies were founded^ 



