On the Glassification of Carbon-Compounds. 325 
the order outlined above. The amines and hydrazines will then 
be studied after, not before, aldehydes and ketones, the nitriles 
even later, and not before the fatty acids. 
In conclusion the writer desires to state, in order to avoid 
misunderstanding, that such a system is not meant for the 
elementary student. The beginner in chemistry is not dosed 
with the periodic system or with any system. The elementary 
student is taught how to observe chemical phenomena, how to 
interpret them correctly, and how to draw generalizations from 
obtained facts. For this purpose the methods of instruction 
are as inductive as possible and the number of observations is 
naturally limited lest the student may fail to see the woods on 
account of too many trees. With the more advanced student, 
who reviews the subject of chemistry in order to obtain a more 
comprehensive view of the entire field, the method of treatment 
should differ accordingly. After the eminently successful ap¬ 
plication for more than twenty-five years of deductive methods 
in chemical research, it would seem that a more general appli¬ 
cation of deductive methods in teaching chemistry might not be 
uncalled for, i. e., in their proper place. 
If such methods as outlined are already followed here and 
there in lectures and class-room work, the writer should be 
pleased to receive information of the fact. In a country, how¬ 
ever, in which text-books are employed so fully as in ours, the 
writer may be pardoned, if necessary, for concluding that the 
treatment accorded the subject of chemistry in the class-room 
does not differ materially, at least in the largest number of 
instances, from that of the text-books. 
The above is an expression of opinion, founded upon a sub¬ 
stantial basis, as the writer believes, on a subject which has 
been seriously neglected. Within the last thirty years or more 
chemical thought has experienced no great revolutions. Theories 
have been formulated: some have again vanished, others are 
still being fought over. Yet within this time the benzol 
theory, and other more recent theories, have been so fruitful in 
their inventiveness that the chemist almost constantly finds 
himself so deluded with new material that he seldom, if ever, 
