To the Editor: The role of research in undergraduate chemistry education is being frequently discussed today. It would seem to me that undergraduate research can play an especially significant role in institutions such as my own. Our chemistry department provides chemical training for agriculture, engineering, and medical students. This means that we have a very large number of students taking chemistry courses (and hence a large staff in chemistry) but only a few chemistry majors. We are therefore in a position to give more individual attention to our chemistrv majors and heln them set started on small research prohiems while tgey are still undergraduates. A senior research problem is re> .
quired for graduation. Some typical problems studied have been construction and testing of fractionating columns, correlation of pKb values of pyridine derivatives with structure (pKb values measured on a Beckman DU), polarographic reduction of nitroso derivatives, hydrogenation of cottonseed oil, extraction of licorice, etc. In many cases the research problems are part of a larger program of one of the staff members and some of the work is ultimately published. We feel that undergraduate research is a very valuable experience for our students and helps them make the transition from laboratory manual exercises to facing and solving chemical problems in their later professional life. ROBERTH. LINNELL
Amnrc.4~UNIVEE~ITY OF BEIRUT BEIRUT, LEBANON
To the Editor: Your associate editor, my fellow townsman, Elbert C. Weaver, has aided and abetted the propagation of a very common error in his article on page 386 of your August, 1953, issue. I refer to his second example of Pearson's square. Proper usage of this device is restricted to problems
