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I N D U S T R I A L AAVD ENGINEERING CHElWISTRY
Vol. 16, No. 5
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES subject with the same freedom and intimacy with which they talk about the ordinary relations of life. t h e discides learn their An Appreciation subject and many other important things. Those were the days of individual recitations-quizzes, we called them. They were dreadful experiences, those quizzes. N E hundred years ago, a group of devoted men with little money and less knowledge of science but with a n abun- How we worked! A single simple laboratory experiment, or dance of zeal organized among the Chenango Hills of New a lecture accompanied by superb demonstrations (Professor McGregory was a master at t h a t ) reYork State a country college and theologquired broad reading if the succeeding ical seminary t o train men for the Baptist quiz was t o result satisfactorily. Scattered ministry. They brought together a small over this country today are college profaculty of zeal similar to their own, men fessors of chemistry, state chemists, inof stirring personality and fervid religious dustrial chemists, and teachers of chemthinking. In those days there was little istry in secondary schools who date their science anywhere, and even a half-century first ideas of t h e value and importance of later what science there was had hardly perusing chemical literature from Proaffected the limited curriculum of this fessor McGregory’s oral quiz methods. institution. B u t the men of zeal upon Our educational system, and especially whom rested the responsibilities for progt h e college part of it, will never see imress in this little college were in the provement in t h a t sort of pedagogy. main broad-minded and far-seeing inLarge instructional groups have almost dividuals. As scientific knowledge excompletely removed it from the experience panded and the efficacy of the scientific of the modern undergraduate, much t o his method was recognized, science took its disadvantage. It is not the grand total place in the courses of study, and for the of student attendance t h a t is a menace t o small group of students, numbering up t o the high quality of college work, b u t the t h e last decade of the nineteenth century size of the instructional group. Obstacles less than two hundred, the majority of are now in the way of intimate personal whom were preparing for the ministry, contact with a professor. Large laborathere came gradually a n opportunity t o tory groups follow cook-book recipes for get a glimpse of the wonderland of science. reactions, and there are other influences J. F. MCGREGORY One of the presidents especially had a broad which tend t o reduce t o a mechanical procoutlook and courageous spirit. He gave ess t h e fine a r t of teaching. All these things cheapen t h e of his private means t o make a chemical laboratory posprocess and the products of teaching. College authorities can sible in which the mind of the young minister and of other do nothing better for the undergraduate than t o p u t him, students beginning t o show themselves in t h e college could be especially in his freshman and sophomore years, under t h e opened t o the mysteries and wonder of this great and promising admirable and inspirational teaching of the McGregory kind. field of study. To Ebenezer Dodge there never could be a clash This is written in the past tense, as if i t were all over. T h a t between religion and science. H e prayed for and worked for is far from the fact. Some of i t is in the past. Madison Uniand encouraged his faculty t o pray for and work for t h a t vaster versity is now Colgate. A student body of less t h a n two hunknowledge, always with t h e unshakable confidence t h a t “mind dred is now over seven hundred. A little chemical laboratory and soul according well” would ever make “one music.” of four or five rooms, one of which was devoted t o physics, is This is where Professor McGregory comes in. There could now a well-equipped, expanded building with separate apartnot have been a better choice of a man for t h e situation and the ments lor each branch of t h e science. The chemical raculty of opportunity at Madison University in the early eighties. He one man is now a departmental faculty of six men. These are came in 1884 fresh from his studies in Germany. H e brought gratifying evidences of progress, b u t the most satisfactory thing enthusiasm for a great subject, and energy t o make his enthusiasm take a real form in t h e permanent progress of the depart- about the chemistry department a t Colgate to students of t h e past and the present, as well as to those men everywhere who are ment and the college. He had the inspiration of great teachersinterested in the development of chemists, is the fact t h a t ProWohler and Victor Meyer in chemistry, Klein and Rosenbusch fessor McGregory is still there, and teaching. in mineralogy. B u t Professor McGregory brought t o Madison EDWARD ELLERY University more than fresh enthusiasm, boundless energy, and accurate knowledge. He was born to teach. He had a magnetic personality and a n understanding sympathy. H e coirProfessor Donnan Honored prehended the mental difficulties of the undergraduates and the At the annual meeting of t h e Chemical Society of London, struggles t h a t were made t o overcome them. His was the kind held a t Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, t h e Longstaff of character which could stand the test of intimacy. Famll- Medal was presented t o F. G. Donnan, F. R. S.,for his distiniarity breeds only respect when t h e intimates are of the Mcguished services t o chemistry. W. P. Wynne, the president of t h e society, in making t h e presentation called attention t o t h e Gregory type. In the days of those small classes a t Madison University close association of enthusiastic and admiring students f a c t t h a t Professor Donnan had conducted research work for twenty-five years, during which time he had covered t h e diversiwith this man, working single-handed t o build a department fied fields of the nature of colloidal systems in their thermodyof science, was permitted and invited. There is no teaching namical, electrical, and chemical aspects, in t h e application of superior to that. When disciple and teacher talk over their thermodynamical principles t o chemistry, and in ionic chemistry.
Joseph Frank McGregory
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