CULTURAL BY-PRODUCTS OF LABORATORY INSTRUCTION' THOMAS D. COPE University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
STRAWS still show which
way the wind is blowing.
A, B, and C are distinguished scholars and educators of mature years, in different fields. None is a physicist.
X, Y, and Z are well-known scientists of mature years, in different fields. A, B, and Cspoke to the writer, separately, deliberately, in sorrow, not in anger. A said of X: "He is a narrow specialist who lacks appreciation of liberal subjects." B said of Y: "He is half-baked and half-educated, a serious reflection upon the institution that graduated him." C said of Z: "He lacks even the ~ d i m e n t sof culture." Culture i t appears is expected in scientists. Attempts are made to give "cultural" courses'in the sciences by lectures and recitations and without lahoratory. The writer prefers to continue to try to impart culture in the laboratory, for, during undergraduate years, 1899 to 1903, he saw and heard the late Edgar Fahs Smith teach chemistry. Doctor Smith was then in his late forties, a professor, laboratory director, and vice-provost. He had many graduate students working on investigations. He had already served the first of his three terms as president of the American Chemical Society. He was a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1902was elected president of the Arnerican Philosophical Society. He was in great demand in scientific, educational, and public life, yet he had ample time for us undergraduates, as individuals. Doctor Smith in person gave the demonstration lectures. During one of our vears he in verson conducted Edgar Fahs Smith' the recitation-hour. ~ n d - h eseldom-failed to visit us during the laboratory periods. He wouM walk into the room unhurried, greet us with a smile, take in the situa- the undergraduates entrusted to him and his college tion, ask a few questions, confer with the instructor, and that he gave of himself without stint. He was assisted leave, still unhurried. Where did Doctor Smith h d the by younger men, some of them graduate students, and time and energy to do all of these things? To me there with them and with the pupils in their classes Doctor is no doubt about the answer. He had reserves of char- Smith was always in contact.- This was a golden opacter upon which he drew for all the time and energy he portunity for both the young teachers and the young needed. pupils. He taught us chemistry and much besides. A classBut the example before us daily was even more than mate in the chemistry courses, now an industrialist in scholar, educator, and public figure. Doctor Smith was the Middle West, brought his freshman son to the cam- a simple, genuine, wholesome, genial man. Dignity pus a few days ago. He visited Doctor Smith's office and good manners were natural to him. "He walked and said while there: "We have forgotten most of the with kings and kept the common touch." He set a reactions but the philosophy of life that we learned here standard of human excellence that his campus refuses we shall never forget." to forget. What were the features of this philosophy? First, I Underclassmen in a college that islinked with agradushould say, the day by day example of a great scholar, ate school are a fortunate lot when an educator like educator, and public figure, who felt so responsible for the latc Doctor Smith is a t hand. They were objects He in person saw that their Of his 'pecial 1 Read before the Pennsylvania Conference of College Phpicies careers were started right. Graduate students helped Tesohers at Urs~nusCollege on October 18, 1946. 193
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to teach them under Doctor Smith's constant supervision and guidance. All underclassmen were looked upon as young humans seeking an education. What their fields of specialization would be in later years was irrelevant. During my freshman and sophomore years, I never heard a suggestion from a member of the teaching staff that a student specialize in his field. Under less fortunate circumstancesproselyting goes on. Promising major material is detected and cultivated to the neglect of other students. And professors leave the teaching of underclassmen largely to graduate students with a minimum of guidance and supervision. One hears of such abuses and now and then reads protests against them. Doctor Smith radiated ethical standards to every nook and corner of his laboratory. The first words of his first lecture to us were these: "No rules are posted in this building but one rule governs all of us-to do the right thing-to be honest with ourselves-to treat our fellows fairly-to respect the building- and its equip. . ment." Instruction centered in the laboratory work. Demonstration lectures, faithfully prepared and admirably delivered, introduced the student to chemical phenomena and chemical concepts. In the laboratory he met matter and its chemical phenomena face to face. And during the recitation hour he gave an account of what he had done, of what he had observed, and of what conclusions he had drawn. In the presence of phenomena had he been honest with them and with himself? Sham knowledge crammed from books, learned quotations from authorities wilted under Doctor Smith's oral quizzing. Did the student know of his own knowledge? In that, and in that alone, the Doctor was interested while the student was reciting. The recitation hours on quantitative analysis were the high spots of my undergraduate days. Under Doctor Smith work in the laboratory was an orderly, cleanly experience. Glassware, table tops, reagent bottles were spic and spap. Little details were scrutiuized-those little things that determine whether results shall be valid or worthless, and whether the experiment shall proceed smoothly or whether i t shall be interrupted by leaks, explosions, and other accidents. Well do I recall Doctor Smith's account of a difference between two eminent chemists that he had seen resolved in his early days. The two had analyzed the same mineral and their results disagreed. The difference was settled, not in the columns of journals, but in the laboratory of one of the men. The two worked side by side, each watching and criticizing the work of
the other. The outcome was a joint report and a triumph of "infinite capaxity for takiig pains." I have heard that recently a bright young scientist visited Doctor Smith's old laboratory to try some experiments. The undergraduates who saw h i at work still marvel a t his slipshod and slovenly ways. The spirit of Edgar Fahs Smith lingers in those halls, and the undergraduates still do clean, orderly, careful work. In that laboratory one learned that chemistry has grown out of the work of devoted men through long generations. Each element, each compound, each reaction was first identified by someone a t some time. Chemical concepts have grown through the ages and are always in flux. Creators of concepts and theories no longer in use contributed to progress. The names and portraits of the worthies and anecdotes about them were always before us. Today Doctor Smith's office is a shrine for students of the history of chemistry. And the teachers of chemistry in our college from its earliest dam were not foreotten. The underzradilat,e - - ~ ~ - ~ ~ ~ ~ chemistry h u b was nameYd for Provost John Ewing. Joseph Priestley, Robert Hare, James Woodhouse, Thomas Cooper, James Curtis Booth, John Fries Frazer, Persifor Frazer, and Frederick A. Genth were honored names. Incidents from their careers as chemists were mentioned in appropriate settings. Doctor Smith kept their memories green, and perhaps his respect for his predecessors won from us an added measure of respect for him. Besides an appreciation of the past and present of chemistry, Doctor Smith gave us a vision of its future, especially of new possibilities in chemical analysis. I recall vividly his lecture on aluminium and his account of the isdation of the metal by an electrolytic method f i s t used by C. M. Hall while an undergraduate a t Oberli College only a few years before. Not long afterwards one of Doctor Smith's own undergraduates isolated metallic calcium by electrolysis in unprecedented amounts. Out of my own recollection of events witnessed in my youth I have enumerated the following by-products of laboratory instruction: Fidelity to a trust High ethical standards Honest knowledge of me's own Decent, orderly, cleanly work A wholesome respect for men who have created our culture A vision of the future. If these be aspects of human culture, perhaps a moral has been pointed and a case established.
There are several m y s of determining the speed of light with wrying degrees of accuracy; however, i t is reported that the speed can now be determined to mithin O.WOOWOOOWOOOO3 of a second-in a four-inch cylinder by meons of mieromve radio. We'll let our readersfigure out the percentage error this represents.
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