schools or to enter professional schools for which certain courses are prerequisite. As a tentative curriculum in chemistry the writer suggests a three-year course designed to follow a t least one year of general science. Such a curriculum would include the following: one semester each of advanced general chemistry, of qualitative analysis, of quantitative analysis, and of inorganic chemistry; to be followed by a year each of organic and of physical chemistries. It is now possible to summarize the objectives of the chemistry courses. F i s t , to train the mind in the various aspects of the scientific method; second, to increase the student's power and enjoyment in the art of living; third, to broaden his horizon regarding the nature of the physical world; and fourth to equip him with such basic training as he may require for admittance to professional schools. It remains to discuss the instructional methods suitable for the attainment of these objectives. These methods are considered a t length in a paper by the writer entitled, "The Course in General Chemistry."' The following is, in part, a modified summary of what is contained in that paper. It is clear that the objectives may be achieved only by a combination of lecture, recitation, and laboratory work. Generally speaking, the second, third, and fourth objectives mentioned are to be attained by suitable course content, but training of the mind is to be achieved by method of presentation. In the matter of course content, certain criteria may be set up. These are (1) Is the topic of general signi6cance as regards all or a t least many chemical phenomena? (2) Does the topic touch everyday experience so closely as to arouse natural curiosity, or even so closely as to be taken for granted? (3) Is the topic essential to what is generally discussed in the next courses in the subject? (4) Can the student be expected to grasp the topic with his present factual and technical equipment? However, inculcation of "scientific method" depends, not on course content, but on approach. In the lecture and recitation rooms efforts should be made to foster the saentific attitude by noudogmatic presenta-
tion, by insistence on the occasional necessity for suspended judgment, and by written exercises designed to relate multiple observations by inductive thinking to general principles. But the best place to teach "scientific method" is in the laboratory. Here, too, the objective is to be achieved by form rather than by content of the experiments carried out. It is therefore possible to adopt experiments which achieve the minor objectives of the course provided they are adapted to the primary objective. This adaptation may be done as follows. The first requirement is a clear, concise statement of the purpose of the experiment, followed by strict limitation of the work to that one purpose. The experiment must have an end. The student should be able to do ihe experiment, or, better, solve the problem, with the mental and manual equifiment already at his disposal. He should not have to rely on instructor or text for information needed to complete understanding of the problem. He should go, like a research worker, with a certain amount of knowledge and he should ask of and receive from nature an extension of that knowledge. The writer wishes to conclude with a reference to the use of research as an instructional device. "Is it not too much assumed that productive scholarship must be conlined to the large universities and bodies organized for research?" (Lowell.) The small college can scarcely hope to compete with the large university in intrinsic value of the discoveries made. But in the small college, research is to be considered as primarily an instructional device rather than as a device for securing new knowledge. The educational values of research are to be found in the inspiration and training to be obtained by contact with men actively engaged in making discoveries. "A large part of educated American youth are trained in our colleges, where their attitude is largely determined by the intellectual enthusiasm of their teachers, and is not this spirit much heightened by the presence among those teachers of men flushed with the ardor of discovery?" (Lowell.) In large universities the art of teaching'is often neglected for the sake of research, and not even research as an educational tool, but as a means to promotion. The writer believes that small liberal arts colleges too often fail to see in research one of their most powerful instructional devices.
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SUMMER COURSES I N CHEMICAL MICROSCOPY AT CORNELL Instruction in chemical microscopy .. will be offered at Cornell Universi* during the coming Summer Session. The introductory course includes work on micrometry and pmticle-size determination, optical properties of crystals and their behavior. lens systems, illumination, ~tramiwoscopJi,photomirrograp~y, and studies of textile and paper fibers. A course in microscopical inorganic qualitative analysis will also be given.
The session hegins July 8th and continues for six weeks. By correspondence in advance, persons not desiring University to cover, in a shorter period, those portions of may the fieldmost suited to their needs. Inquiries should be addressed to C. W. Mason. Department of Chemistry. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
