THE NATURE OF CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL EDUCATION
"... the ultimate value o f chemistry may rest somewhat more in the lessons to be learned from the intellectual struggles of chemists with nature than in the facts and theories their combined effortshave produced." 45,549 11968)
WTL SYMPOSIUM PAPER
Derek A. Davenport Purdue Un\vers,tv West Lafayette. IN 47907
I
I
Mattersmiths, Metaphysics and the Editorial Eye: A partial tribute to WTL
S i monumenturn requiri.~,circumspice. So runs the trihute t o Christopher Wren above the North Door of St. Paul's Cathedral. In a similar manner t h e famous injunction t o S t . Augnstine tollp irge, tollq irge inscribed on the last twelve volumes of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION mieht serve t,omemorialize theeditorshio of WilliamThomas Lippinrott. But happily Tom is in noneed rrf an epit,aph. Like S t . Augustine hefore him he lingers somewhere het.ween enlightenment and continence, adding new chapters t o "The Lerend of the Cactus Chemist" whose earlv historv he has already chronicled. Warmed without by t h e sunshine of his cnlleaeues'resuect and affection, and fortified within hv the nectar of his f a k i t e plant he seems singularly untrouhl& by t h e knowledge that, a s a former editor, he has scant hope of heaven and none of sainthood. After all we already have b o t h a douhting and a martvied St. Thomas and hagiographers are easilv confused In many ways t h e JOURNAL O F CHEMICAL EDDCAT l O N 1s a throwhark t o a n earher era-to the davc. when bath Nirholson and Silliman had their .Journnl and t h e d n n o l r n d r r Physik was either Popg's or Wied's. Were he hoth immodest and bilingual T o m might well have cried "Le JOlJRNA I,. c'est moi" and nbither the Board of Publication nor the Editorial Board would have had ground for complaint. T h e former meets twice a year, larrelv . . in order to find out what has happened in t.he interim, and t o express sympathy and support if the suhscrihers are restless and urge caution if the tumbrils of insolvency are rumhling through the streets. Its brief moment of glory comes a t fortunately infrequent intervals when it presides over t h e Act of Succession, when Lipp. J. CHEM. EDUC. is ineluctably sucreeded by Lag. .I. CHEM. 2 1 Journal of Chemical Education
EDUC. T h e Editorial Board is even more fugitive, never meeting h u t available as a sounding board and on call for the rare second opinion demanded hy a n author unpersuaded by one of Tom's compassionate and constructive rejection letters. For instancet.he fnllowing response hy a Board memher t o a n author scorned
in my close to ten years of service the Editorial Board has never met. To my knowledge there is no written statement of Editorial Policy. Nor do I think such a statement would be particularlv useful. I am reminded of Napol~on'sremark, "A good constitution should he short, vague and unenforceable." His codifiersobviouslythought otherwise. Almost inevitably a publication surh as ours refleets the judgement (not the taste) of the Editor acting on advice given him by rbviewers. Tom Lippinrim rarely I suspect rpjerts any manuscript out of hand. Certainly to judge by s o b e of the dogs he has sent to me (perhaps memhers of the Editorial Board are especially privileged in ,this)almost evervane is given their dm with the reviewers. The reiection rate ~ i ~ l ~ ~ . l O l ~ l t ~N. .ulul m . ~ lhgh .v h u ~ theqw~lity,~nri< < s ! IWI ~1 *uhrm~redrnnnu:
