organic, food, and physiological) which can be made vital to the girls in our high schools today-in classes to themselves. It seems to me that every girl in our country should have some such specially worked out course in chemistry sometime between the ages of fourteen and nineteen. I t is deplorable how little women of my own generation, who are mothers and directors of homes, know of chemistry and all its valuable helps. If they studied chemistry in high school or college, they invariably tell me that they hated it and got nothing out of it but their credit. I t seems to me that we must right' this situation by properly preparing our next generation of women in high-school chemistry. AGNESP. J A Q ~ E S 3212 PLEASANT AVENUE, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
I have just read with interest the April number of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION, and particularly the editorial, "The Inarticulate Scientist," and Dr. Bancroft's article, "Pandemic Chemistry." Perhaps you may not have noticed it, but there seems, a t least to me, quite a close bond of union between these two articles. After reading both of these, the question occurred to me, "Why not assign the lectures which Dr. Bancroft enumerated to the students and have them report upon them to the class?" During my regency a t John Carrol University, Cleveland, Ohio, I assigned topics to my students and had them report upon them. My reasons were several. The students would thereby acquire a facility in expressing their thoughts in writing and an ease in speaking before a group of people. Again they would learn how to use magazines and various books of reference and lastly they would take an added interest in chemistry. I am glad to be able t'o report that, without an exception, the results which I anticipated were obtained. I regret that I did not then have such a splendid list of subjects as I now have after having read Dr. Bancroft's article. In looking over this list, I notice that there are some topics which the student could not handle. In such instances I would suggest that the teacher develop these subjects. As to the time when these lectures could be worked in; it would depend upon local circumstances. In some places an extra hour could be added provided the Dean were willing; in other places the time could be taken
from a laboratory period or even, now and then, from a lecture period. I was obliged to take one of the lecture periods. I limited the length of the report to 200 words and thus about five students were able to report in one period. Comments were made and questions asked after each report. The students were required to do this twice a year. Of course, not all of the students were able t o report to the class, but they were required to hand in their papers and then t o report for a criticism of the same. I think that, with a few modifications, this plan could be carried out with larger classes as well. I would be glad to exchange opinions with you or any of the readers of the JOURNAL on this subject. ADAM J. KBLLER ST. Lours U~rvensrru, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
