PHILIP W. WEST Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
IT 16 generally noted
that analytical chemistry has undergone tremendous changes during the past ten years. The nature of these changes had made modifications inevitable in the teaching of chemical analysis. This paper is a review of the more important changes in course content and scope. Of primary importance in the changing of status is the rebirth of respect and interest in analysis itself. Analytical work has become somewhat glamorized and has proved itself to be more than a routine control operation-it is now recognized as an important and challenging phase of scientific and industrial development. The greatest single pedagogical change is the impact of "instrumental" methods, which are now so common in the universities. There seems little doubt that graduate courses covering instrumental techniques, microanalysis, coordination chemistry (complex ions, organic reagents), chromatography, etc., should be made available, and there are many who believe that undergraduate instruction in modern methods of analysis is also becoming an educational responsibility. The second factor influencing present changes is the unsatisfactory status of qualitative analysis. For 100 years courses in "qualitative analysis" have been taught that have been based on the use of hydrogen sulfide separations. The analyses obtained through use of snlfide schemes have been so crude and the work so laborious that for many years the professional chemist has relied on spectroscopy, microscopy, and spot tests for qualitative determinations. Present qualitative analysis courses are impractical in many respects and have lost prestige. Many departments now offer only a "watered down" course or combine the qualitative analysis with freshman lectures, where they tend to become unrelated partners with little mutual aid. Some institutions are even dropping the qualitative work completely-a very serious error in the opinion of the author. The preceding remarks will be considered in more detail.
stressed.) A full year of analytical chemistry seems to be an absolute minimum for acquiring and establishing the required skills. This year of study can be made up of a semester of carefully taught qualitative analysis closely integrated with a semester of general quantitative analysis, two semesters of classical quantitative analysis, or a semester of classical methods followed by a course in instrumental methods of analysis. The latter combination is proving of real value in some departments in spite of the early predictions by some that only the traditional quantitative analysis courses could he used for establishing laboratorytechniques. It is now clear that methods such as polarography and spectrophotometry require careful attention to the art, just the same as titrimetry, and in fact have some special value because the necessary practice is provided under conditions especially interesting to the students. Of real interest a t this point is the trend toward the teaching of semimicro methods in the general chemistry laboratory. Such methods seem to aid the analytical chemistry faculty through the early introduction of more defined rn!u~ipnlnti\.rrrqnirt~mrnrs I ) r t ~ ~ ~ l o o r n
