II. Purpose of Requiring Daily Reports. A. To enable the student to get more from his laboratory work than is generally possible by the usual method.
III. Mechanics of the System. A. Laboratory results and note-books of each student are inspected after each experiment.
B. If work is found satisfactory a card bearing instructor's initials is issued. C. On this card is reported a brief statement of the object, results, and conclusions of experiment. D. Each card is graded and handed back the following day, which would be impossible in the case of the usual note-book.
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A&da?ztages Gained. A. The note-books are kept written up t o date in about 98 per cent of the cases. B. Better note-books are kept since a summary must be placed on the report cards. C. The student has a daily report of his work. D. The manner of obtaining the report card has an excellent psychological effect. E. The pointing out of mistakes is facilitated. F. The laboratory reports almost of necessity represent actual work done by the student making the report. G. Less time is required for grading the cards than is required for grading note-books in the usual way.
Search for New Element Described by Discoverer. For the first time in its history, the members of the American Chemical Society were told of the discovery of a new element by one of their fellow members. Prof. B. S. Hopkins, of the University of Illinois, told of his work in collaboration with J. Allen Harris and L. F. Yntema, which recently resulted in nlinium, element No. 61 in the list of the elements, the first t o be discovered in the United States. The element was obtained from monazite, a material used in the manufacture of gas mantles, but it was necessary t o repeatedly dissolve and crystallize it to get the portions in which the new element was found. Finally, by photographs made with the aid of X-rays, spectral bands were obtained which corresponded t o the missing element, for many of its properties were known long before its discovery. The wave lengths of the lines on the plate were within four twentyave billionths of an inch of those calculated in advance, said Prof. Hopkins, and though they were faint, their presence was verified by a number of disinterested observers. Doubtful plates were rejected.-Science Service
