time given to that subject. While fundamental chemistry is fundamental to any chemistry, some groups of students, because of similar history or similar aspirations, may have special interests. Without detriment to the course, applications of fundamentals may be chosen from any one of many fields. The particular operations chosen to illustrate general principles for a class composed entirely of home economics students would not be the same as those chosen for a class composed entirely of prospective ceramic or mining engineers. Again, the examinations should be made up of representative selections from the course taught. The sixth objection is probably the most serious objection offered in this paper. The immediate reward for hard study is a good grade. If the basis for grading is correct, the high grade is not only a reward for work done but a promise or a t least an indication of further success. Every student worthy of the name desires to achieve and just as surely to have his achievements recognized. All worthy teachers wish to inspire, to aid, or, a t worst, to drive the studentsin their classes to increased mental activity and development. They, too, wish to be recognized as having contributed to the mental growth of those entrusted to them. If, over a period of years, groups of students from some locality, or groups taught by particular teachers made poor records in uniform tests, either the localities or the teachers would be blamed for the unsatisfactory records which had been made. It is likely that these groups would attempt both to guess the fields which the next tests would emphasize and, further, to find what bias would be effective in predetermining the correct answers. All students and teachers are likely to be affected in some degree by the desire to do well in a uniform test. I can think of nothing more likely to interfere with the normal development of chemistry and the fairly satisfactory cooperation of the teachers of chemistry than a misguided attempt of some group to force rapid acceptance of new ideas or the attempt of some conservative group to delay the use of new ideas by incorporating, in widely used tests, questions whose answers are not agreed upon by all authorities and setting up unchangeable answers for the purpose of grading such questions. The title of the paper is satisfied by listing difficulties, but a wholly destructive program is never a good one. Uniform tests can be arranged in such a way that they may be beneficial. Objective tests have the great virtue that they can be made to cover much territory
without too great expense of time in administration and grading. It is peculiar that those who write objective tests in chemistry so generally omit what was completely objective in the tests given since the oldest of us took our beginning chemistry. I refer to equations and problems. The forty-eight pages of uniform test include the origination of no equations, the completion of only eight equations, and the solution of only six problems. The objection to objective examinations, that one who knows too much may be penalized, can be met by allowing any student who believes that his answer is likely to differ from the accepted answer to state briefly why he answered as he did, by using such expressions as "law of definite proportions not exact because of isotopes" or "Cog combines readily with bases but is not easily decomposed." This practice increases the work of grading but increases the justice of the results. By extending this privilege of explanation, more new and not yet fully elucidated subjects may be included. The uniform test should not be the entire final examination for any group. If the generally accepted fundamentals of the science could be emphasized in a test which could be administered in one hour, a large fraction of the teachers of the country could find some place in their schedule to give it. Its use would prevent the giving of recipe courses in everything but fundamental chemistry under the name chemistry, make the production and distribution of tests cheaper, enable more different tests to be prepared, and decrease the desire of students to secure tests because the uniform tests will have less influence in determining the fate of the students. After the contents of the uniform tests are known, each instructor should prepare supplementary questions or exercises which, together with the uniform tests, adequately and fairly determine, for the course actually taught, the degree of mastery for each student in the course. This modification of the plan would require more work on the part of the teachers, and would leave on them the'final responsibility of deciding the ranking of students. Teachers should do whatever is necessary to be fair and accurate in their work and should assume all responsibilities which their positions bring to them. This briefer examination should be prepared and used. Then, if experience proved.. that it could be enlarged to test completely all of the students enrolled in freshman chemistry courses in the United States, it would certainly be a boon to teachers.
SUMMER COURSES IN CHEMICAL MICROSCOPY AND QUANTITATIVE MICROANALYSIS AT CORNELL During the coming summer session at Cornell University, beginning July 5th and continuing six weeks, courses in chemical microscopy and in quantitative microanalysis will be offered. The work in introductory chemical microscopy includes micrometry and quantitative studies, polarized Light and the optical and physicochemical properties of crystals, lens systems and illumination, photomicrography, ultramicroscopy, and fiber studies. A course in microscopical inorganic qualitative analysis will also he given. Inquiries should he addressed to Professor
C. W. Maron. Department of Chemistry, Cornell University. Ithaca, New York. Quantitativemicrosnalysis,with practise in typical methods for inorganic and organic materials, will be given by Professor M. L. Nichols, to whom inquiries should be addressed. Persons not desiring university credit may arrange to cover, in a period of less than six weeks, portions of the above courses most suited to their needs, but enrolment is limited and carrespondence in advance of registration is advised.
