UTILIZING RECORDED
CHEMISTRY
M. G. MELWN,PURDUEUNIVERSITY, LASAYETTE. INDIANA
The date of the dawn of chemical literature, as we now know it, may be taken as the time when Robert Boyle and his associates of The Invisible College brought about the formation of the Royal Society in England. There, about 1665, we find the first systematic recording of scieutific papers and discussions, and a careful preservation of the contributions for posterity under the name of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. A simple beginning it was; but now the practice is so universal and the contributions so numerous, that one 2 amazed to find more than one thousand periodicals publishing information more or less closely related to the work of the individual in chemical and related pursuits. The record of known chemical facts and the theoretical discussions involving them, even when limited to the century and a half since the fundamental work of Lavoisier, presents an impressive collection as viewed in a fairly complete library of chemistry. To this existing collection there is added annually a constantly increasing volume of material. Instructors in chemistry are not alone in the realization that i t is futile to overcrowd the curriculum with specialized, technical courses involving chemical or other facts. We can detect in a recent announcement of the School of Medicine of Cornell University a trend towards a more liberal and broader basic plan of study. From one of the administrators of this institution comes the statement that we should prefer having game birds which know how to find their own food rather than fowls fattening for the market which expect their food to be served to them in trays. He warned a class of incoming students that, "the best that we can teach you now will be hopelessly inadequate in another decade. You must teach yourself to study the medicine of this decade in such a manner that you can teach yourself the medicine of the next decade. You must learn to do your own searching for knowledge. You must develop your own powers of observation and critical judgment. You must learn how to use the literature and must prepare yourself to substitute your own wards, your own laboratories, and your own libraries for those of this medical school." One agrees with Barrows that, "chemical literature is the storehouse of the available published information of chemical science and chemical industry." Such a storehouse--the permanent memory of the chemistcan be opened only by those who have become acquainted with its contents. One must know something of the searcher's technic. In fact, so dependent are we upon the accumulated information of the past that Libby well coucludes, "very little advance in culture could be made, even by
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UTIIJZING REMRDED CHEMISTRY
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the greatest man of genius, if he were dependent for what knowledge he might acquire upon his own personal observations. Indeed, it might be said that exceptional mental ability involves a power to absorb the ideas of others, and even that the most original people are those who are able to borrow most freely." With the conviction that a student trained in courses broad and general in character rather than narrow and detailed should then know something regarding the arrangement and contents of this storehouse of recorded chemical facts. There has recently been introduced in a few universities required work involving the study and use of this material. The author believes that such training should be designed to acquaint the student a t least with the origin and development of the literature of value to the chemist and chemical engineer; with the character of the information to be found in such sources as periodicals, patents, indexes, handbooks and treatises, dictionaries, monographs, Government bulletins and other publications pertaining to chemical subjects; and with the use of such sources of information. The question regarding a suitable method of instruction arises. Like many other activities, actual experience is the most valuable teacher. One might spend hours discussing the details of some compilation, but the student will become really familiar with the work only by direct contact with it. Some discussion and explanation seems desirable, but practical assignments to be worked out in the library are essential. The material considered in the classroom will vary with the training and viewpoint of the instructor. The amount and variety must be adjusted to the time available. A suitable outline may be formulated from the pamphlet of Miss Sparks,' taken along with such papers as those of barrow^,^ Hibbert,a and H a m ~ r . Perhaps ~ the most important discussion should center on the types of chemical literature, including a consideration of the contents and method of compilation, and the proper method to follow in searching for desired information. As suggested by Hamor, the discussion may be expanded to include such phases of the subject as the production and recording of the material, the technic of the librarian, and the methods of writing and abstracting. In making assignments to the library one may select a section of suitable length from the general outline. It is, of course, highly desirable to give each student an individual assignment. This may be accomplished without an undue amount of work by the instructor by using blank forms such as that shown here.
' Chemical Literature and Its Use
(1921).
Chem. Met. Eng., 24, 423, 477, 517 (1921). a
Ibid., 20,578 (1919).
' Special Libraries, April (1923).
.
CHEMICAL LITERATURE Library Problem No. 5 In the compilations indicated (Author-title-volume-pagtdate) the3esignated physical constants for the substances noted.
one may find
Sp. G.. .................... . M . Pt.. ........................ . B . Pt.. ....... ............................................................................. 2.- ......................................................................... Soly. in. .................................... . a t . . . . . .C'. .................
Investigator. ........................... Orig. Ref.. ......................... ............................................................................
..........
Sp. G.. ................ .Iodine No.. ................ .Refr. Index.. Solidifying Pt.. .................... .Hehner value.. ......................... Optical rotation.. ...................Sapn. value.. ..........................
............................................................................. ......................................................................... Heat of solution.................... .Heat of formation.. ..................... Specific heat.. ..................... .Heat of combustion.. ................... ............................................................................. 5.- ......................................................................... 4.-
Sp. G. (Density). .................. .Elec. Cond.. ........................... Vapor tension.. .....................Refr. Index ( . .... .line). ................ Viscosity.. ........................Surface tension.. .......................
............................................................................. .........................................................................
6.-
;. .........
Dissociation constant at ......C". ............................... Solubility product at . C 0 . . ........................................... Investigator.. ...................... Orig. Ref.. .............................
.....
............................................................................. This particular one was designed for the assignment covering the various works containing compilations of physico-chemical constants. The name or formula of the substances assigned for the various parts is written on the first blank line in each case, indicating any special conditions, such as temperature. In parts 3 to 6 a check mark is placed a t the particular values desired. The student indicates on the dotted line the source of the information, including in two of the six parts the name of the investigator making the determination and also the original journal reference where the details of the work may be found. The latter requirement necessitates the use of a work like the "Tabellen of Landolt-Bornstein." Having completed the shorter, special assignments on the various types of literature, the author gives, as the final assignment, the compilation of a bibliography on some specified subject. This subject must be carefully selected to give the desired training in the time available. The compilation of an accurate and complete bibliography on the scientific study of amalgams, for example, requires weeks if one goes through the indexes and then reads all the articles thus located in order to ascertain whether the refer-
ences included in each of these are relevant to the subject being investigated. On the other hand, the literature on "anti-knock materials is still comparatively meager. The bibliography may he limited by specifying some definite interval of time to be covered, or by requiring only the references found in certain places, as those listed in the index of Chemical Abstracts during the last ten years.
