136  Examination  of  Vegetable  Products.    { An,MaX  1913™' 
laboratory  an  analytical  laboratory,  not  a  chemical  or  botanical 
laboratory.  His  equipment  should  consist  of  the  necessary  apparatus 
for  a  wide  variety  of  chemical  work  and  a  complete  microscopical 
outfit,  including  micro-reagents  and  a  set  of  standard  specimens 
of  economic  seeds,  roots,  barks,  fibers,  woods,  etc. 
But  in  order  to  have  workers  in  this  field,  we  must  have  suitable 
courses  of  instruction  in  our  schools  of  science.  The  subject  has  a 
recognized  place  in  many  continental  universities,  particularly  in 
the  schools  of  medicine,  pharmacy  and  hygiene,  but  outside  of  a 
few  institutions,  receives  little  attention  in  America. 
The  student  who  seeks  to  prepare  himself  for  this  field  should 
take  both  chemical  and  botanical  studies.  In  chemistry,  he  should 
study  the  branches  taught  in  a  well-regulated  chemical  course — 
elementary  chemistry,  qualitative  and  quantitative  analysis,  organic 
and  physical  chemistry,  and  so  on.  In  botany  he  should  take  up  suc- 
cessively elementary  botany, systematic  botany  (at  least  of  the  phaner- 
ogams) and  vegetable  anatomy  and  physiology.  These  studies  are 
all  on  the  curriculum  of  every  college  and  school  of  technology, 
although  the  student  of  chemistry  does  not  usually  take  all  the 
botanical  studies  named.  Without  a  certailn  amount  of 
botanical  training,  however,  a  chemist  is  no  more  fitted  to  take  up 
microscopical  analysis  than  a  botanist  without  chemical  training  is 
fitted  to  work  at  quantitative  analysis. 
After  his  preliminary  studies  in  chemistry  and  botany,  the  student 
is  ready  to  take  up  a  course  in  the  methods  for  the  chemical  and 
microscopical  examination  of  the  various  raw  materials  and  of  the 
products  derived  from  them.  This  course  should  be  so  arranged 
that  the  student  will  carry  along  his  chemical  and  histological 
practice  side  by  side,  as  he  must  do  afterwards  in  practical  work. 
For  example,  in  studying  the  cereal  grains,  he  should  devote  part 
of  his  time  to  the  methods  of  determining  water,  ash  (including  ash 
analysis),  protein,  fiber,  starch,  fat,  pantosans,  etc.,  and  another  part 
to  a  systematic  study  of  the  starches  and  the  histological  elements  of 
the  bran  coats  both  in  sections  and  in  powdered  form.  In  like 
manner,  he  should  take  up  a  chemical  and  histological  study  of 
leguminous  seeds,  oil  seeds,  spices,  tea,  coffee,  cocoa,  drugs,  fibers, 
etc. 
His  work  in  the  chemical  laboratory  should  teach  him  not  only 
the  strictly  chemical  methods  but  also  the  use  of  the  polariscope, 
the  spectroscope  and  other  physical  apparatus,  and  his  microscopical 
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