chemistry are put into the same course in college it is not a case of those without high-school chemistry catching up, it is a plain case of keeping those back who entered with high-school chemistry. I am quite certain that I was the first one, out here anyway, who separated the two groups and treated those who had had high-school chemistry as if their one hundred eighty hours of high-school chemistry had meant something to them. I have never regretted it. What I contend is that the college first-year course does not stand on its own feet-it stands on the toes of the high-school course. The high-school course does not need to copy a college course; the textbook writers have seen to that and so successful has been their effort that the books are all but idatical. As for the statistics, they are not lies at all-they are too cruelly and graphically true. Chemistry has stood still for forty yearssomething must be the matter. I insist that my suggestion is not only real chemistry, but realistic chemistry; a course that will teach the ninety-eight per cent. of our young people who do not go into scientific pursuits what chemistry is, what it does, and its glorious history. When a course in highschool chemistry or physics in your town makes it necessary for the salesmen and merchants of the community to go to school to study the articles of their trade so as to be prepared to meet the skilful .scmtiny of the boys and girls of the homes, that comes near being a case of putting high-school science on the map. That's what happened in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Merchants and salesmen have had to study in self-defense to meet the intelligent questions and arguments of their prospective customers. This idea that you are giving the class a substitute or that you are putting something over on them by teaching them what is useful, what they will never forget, instead of thousands of facts to be forgotten next year, is the old argument of fifty years ago which had to be fought out before chemistry was allowed in the curriculum a t all. P The person who is not teaching high-school chemistry as a glorified general science is out of step by fifty years --chemistry is the General Sciace: it underlies every scienceand that means it forms the basis of all life. Let us make high-school chemistry a Glorified General Science Course with a capital G. I t is interesting that several letters commending my article came from the bailiwick of the College Entrance Examination Board and the Regents of the State of New York. P. M. GLASOE ST. O M COLLEGE N O R T ~ E LMmmso'rn D,
To the Editor DEARSIR: I thoroughly enjoyed Professor Glasoe's article in the January issue on "A High-School Course in Chemistry
Which Does Not Lead to Repetition in College." With most of his points I agreed heartily. However, in his suggestions for the new procedure, on page 14, I feel that his example of the sort of thing to teach in the high-school chemistry course was not well chosen-it is doubtful in my mind whether a detailed, lengthy study of the Weather Bureau, high and low pressure areas, trade winds, tornadoes, whirlwinds, and so forth, is appropriate for the chemistry course. Since no chemistry is involved in that subject, it should be given in general science, physics, or meteorology (geography), and a better example for Professor Glasoe's purpose would have been something dealing with chemistry and chemical changes. GRANTW. SMITH TEEUNIVERSITY OF KANSAS CITY KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
"MNEMONIC DEVICES IN CHEMISTRY" To the Editor DEARSIR: I read with interest Lieutenant Bermingham's article, "Mnemonic Devices in Chemistry" (J. CKEM. Enuc., 16, 516 (1939)). I would like to call yow attention to another interesting mnemonic device which I have found quite useful. I t is, "Oh my, such good apple pie, sweet as sugar." The initial letters of these words comprise in orde.: the initial letters of the names of t4e saturated aliphatic dibasic acids. This device is not original with me, but was passed on to me several years ago by a student from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. HOWARD M. TEETER
"FLUORSPAR-ITS CHEMICAL AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS" T p the Editor DEARSIR: In my article, "Fluorspar-Its Chemical and Industrial Applications," in the April issue of the JOURNAL I failed to give credit to Martin Schwerin for the ideas embodied in the following sentences. "The deposit operated by Victory Fluorspar Mining Company is a replacement of the limestone, the banding of the ore, typically illustrated in Figure 3, being a relict structure due to physical and chemical differences in the layers of the original limestone resulting from seasonal changes while it was being laid down. The comb structure of pure bands is due to a decrease of volume, the CaF2 molecule being more dense than the CaCOa molecule which is replaced."
