THE HISTORY OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES FROM 1870 TO 1914*
In recording the history of chemical education in America from 1870 to 1914 notice must be taken of (1) the great advances made in the schools themselves in buildings, equipment, personnel, and number of students. This period includes also (2) the rise in influence and importance of the land-grant colleges and the institutes of technology, (3) the combat on behalf of the sciences for recognition by those who had been devoted to the classics, (4) the beginning of most of our distinctly cbemical American publications, (5) the founding of the American Chemical Society, and lastly (6) the general recognition of the value of research and the firm establishment of the American graduate schools. In summarizing his excellent and comprehensive article on "The History of Chemistry Teaching in American High Schools" just published, Paul J. Fay (1) states: Its position in the curricula of high schools was firmly established shortly after the middle of the nineteenth century. This is confirmed by the earlier statement of S. R. Powers ( 2 ) :
It appears that chemistry bas OCcupied nearly as large a place in the program of studies of the early high schools as it does today. Most of the "standard" schools have always Provided a place for it.
,
WIG.LEswOnTH Chief chcmiet for the U. S. Geological Survey, 18B-1925. ~ m "hairman g of the Internstional Committee on Atomic Weights. Author of "Data of $~;~$~~t~~,?,","d
articles of educational, historical, and popular nature.
Both these writers refer frequently to the official report of the United States Bureau of Education prepared by F. W. Clarke ( 3 ) ,president of the American Chemical Society in 1901, whose death a t the age of eighty-four occurred May 23, 1931. This report, based upon information collected by the Commissioner of Education in 1878, was published in 1880 and states (4) :
* Presented before the Divisionsof Chemical Education and of History of of the A. C. S. at Buffalo. New York. September 1, 1931. 729
Chemistry
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In high schools and academies the teaching of chemistry and physics varies between widely separated limits. In a great majority of cases mere textbook work is done, only a few experiments being performed by the teacher. After making a strong argument for laboratory instruction, Clarke ( 5 ) declares: Twenty years ago the difficulty would have been to secure competent teachers. Today this want is being met. . . . Every year the number of teachers competent to give laboratory instruction is greatly increased, and before long the supply will equal any demand which is likely to arise. The fulfilment of this prophecy is noted in the Report of the Census Committee (6) at the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the American Chemical Society: What then, have we found in high schools as the result of our inquiry? In 1876 a prevalent view that chemistry has little educational value. In 1901 chemistry was found in every high-school curriculum. In 1876 school committees were very loath to expend anything for laboratories or equipment. In 1901 the laboratory and lecture room were among the first considerations in constructing a high-school building. Whether those of us now in colleges and universities like it or not, the f a d remains that these institutions gave a much more tardy recognition to the claims of chemistry than did the high schools. In 1870 no college accepted chemistry for admission (77. Fay says, "Utilitarian aims dominated the early academies more than they did the colleges," and Powers (S), "As late as 1875 the provision which had been made for chemistry in most of the colleges was quite meager." I n speaking of normal schools Clarke (9) states: By far the larger number of them treat these sciences exactly as they are treated in secondary institutions and the smaller colleges; that is, they teach the elements of both subjects, partly by textbooks and partly by lectures. A few experiments are exhibited and laboratory work on the part of the students is entirely ignored. Almost as had is the fact (10) that As a rule, the ordinary college course leaves the sciences for the junior and senior years, an arrangement which. . .renders advanced electives in either chemistry or physics out of the question. This was still true in the writer's experience as a student a t one of the better southern colleges in the closing years of the last century. A statement of exact conditions a t one of the best institutions makes the situation more evident. In 1878 in the School of Arts at Columbia
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College, Professor C. F. Chandler (President of the American Chemical Society in 1881 and again in 1889) states (11): The sophomore class attends one class a week in chemistry, throughout the year. Instruction is given chiefly by lectures. General chemistry is also taught during the senior year three times a week, as an elective, by lectures. No lahoratory work is reported. In 1876 only the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Universities of Pennsylvania and of Virginia reported laboratory work in organic chemistry and all three institutions had a total in this work of eleven students (12). The condition in professional schools in 1880 is reflected in the statement by Clarke (13): Although the medical schools were among the earliest institutions to give chemistry a fair recognition, they have by no means kept up with the recent growth in scientific teaching . . . Pupils having barely the rudiments of a common school education are taken, lectured to for five months in the year during two or three years, carried through a series of clinics and a course of dissections, and then are dismissed with a diploma entitling them to "practice medicine." In such a training neither chemistry nor physics can receive proper attention. In 1874, according to Benjamin Silliman, Jr., of Yale, in his essay read a t the Priestley Centennial (14) Harvard had "the largest number of undergraduates devoted to chemistry studies in their+well-appointed chemistry lahoratory which have been assembled a t any academical institution in this country." In 1901 it was reported (15) that since 1876 "accommodations for students and teachers have increased as one to twenty-five." Assuming this to he correct, the increase from 1870 to 1914 must have been nearly fifty-fold. With so little material help and in spite of handicaps and difficulties so much was done and sufficient results obtained to serve as the broad foundations upon which today's science rests. In thinking of this, there comes a growing appreciation of the spirit of our predecessors and a pride in their achievements. Besides the spirit of the chemists themselves, many other powerful factors were a t work to make possible the growth shown in this period. Outstanding among these was the development of technical institutes and of the land-grant colleges. Arising both from private generosity and hecause of legislative act these had a common origin in the desire to make the discoveries of science of practical benefit While the Morrill Act, which made possible the land-grant colleges, was passed in 1862 (16) and several of the institutes were founded a t an early date, the growth and influence of these institutions came largely
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after 1870. In the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1880 (17) the "Statistics of Agricultural Schools in the United States" appear just before those for "deaf, dumb, insane, blind, and asylums for idiots and inebriates." The number of the schools was less than the number of asylums. Kentucky, with 283 students, was then the largest of the land-grant colleges by more than 100. Only twenty of these were opened to students by 1870 (18). In that year there were 144 teachers and 1413 students, while in 1914, 6374 teachers and 61,212 students (19), an increase in forty-four years of forty-fourfold. From their very beginning, chemistry, because of its practical nature, occupied an honored and outstanding place in these institutions. Here no combat with the classics was necessary, and chemistry was never in danger of being crowded out of the curriculum. At Columbia, when Professor Chandler was able to offer only two courses with no laboratory in the School of Arts, he offered numerous required and elective courses in the School of Mines, and in the building built in 1874 the laboratories were said to be "superb" (11). The field of service of these institutions, both state and private, has steadily widened, a growth made possible by gifts and increased federal and state funds. By this means the development of research has made steady progress, not only in chemistry but in all the sciences. In 1870 probably four-fifths of .the college graduates who studied professions entered law or divinity schools+ The medical student had "little more than a common school, or a t the most an academic education, as a preliminary to his professional studies" (20). Whether this condition was the cause or the effect of another fact, i t was undoubtedly true that although chemistry and the other sciences were given a place, they were not considered in the minds of very many of like rank with the classics. In my own Alma Mater, Emory College, thirty years later one might take three, and possibly four years of Latin and of Greek if he had had the necessary years of high-school work in these languages required for entrance, but only one year of physics and one of chemistry in the junior and in the senior years were possible, the chemistry with very little laboratory work by the student. Enrolments in language courses were many times those in science, and the student hours in the Greek classroom far exceeded those in the chemical laboratory. At the beginning of the period the difference in favor of the classics was even more pronounced. By its close conditions were entirely reversed, with the number studying Greek reported as "deplorably small" (21). In this time of the complete triumph of chemistry it is well that we give careful thought to making the utmost use of the splendid facilities now placed a t our disposal, for already there is questioning on the part of
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some educators of the value of laboratory work in chemistry as now given (22). Periodicals devoted t o chemistry appeared about the beginning of the period under discussion: The Boston Journal of Chemistry and the Journal of Applied Chemistry in 1866; The Chemical N m s in 1867; and The American Chemist in 1870, the three last in New York City (23). The announcement of the beginning of this last-mentioned journal strikes a new note of American chemical independence which was not fully achieved until several decades later. It reads (24): The publishers of the American reprint of The Chemical News havinp decided to discontinue that publication, we venture to offer to theiubscrihers of that journal, and to all who are directly or indirectly interested in the progress of chemistry a new journalTHE AMERICAN CHEMIST.
This journal will be devoted to theoretical, analytical, and technical chemistry.. . . As we have purchased the subscription list andstock of the American reprint of The Chemical N m s , we shall make it our duty to present everything of value in the English edition to the end of the current year. After this year, The American Chemist will be conducted as AN ENTIRELY INDEPENDENT JOURNAL.
A summarv of "Recent Chemical 1 or"!, r > X,,l,,k 11 Si, K r r . Publications" noted in its first volume CKARLES 1'. C H A N I L ~ contained 133 titles, of which 84 were German, 34 English, 8 American, and 7 French (25). But this journal lived only until 1887, long enough to print the early Proceedings of the American Chemical Society (26). The vital importance of a journal of chemistry published in this country is clearly brought out by the statement of Treat B. Johnson (27) made in 1926:
It is undoubtedly trne that these two men-Michael and Nefare the outstanding figures of the older school in the field of theoretical organic chemistry in this country. Unfortunately, their work is not so well known to our present American investigators as it should he, as most of their papers were published in German journals. Too few of us realize how much several of the German journals owe to Ameri-
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can contributors of our first quarter-century, 187&1901, for their past success. The two most interesting and important conceptions which have enriched organic chemistry within the last fifty years were formulatedby these two American organic chemistsMichael and Nef-but their ideas were developed in German publications. Germany was the leader of the chemical world a t the time they were most active, and naturally their papers were sent to those journals where they were assured prompt publication and were read by chemists in Europe who were recognized as leaders in their profession. American chemists will ever owe a' debt of gratitude to Ira Remsen "for his organization, support, and service weditor of the American Chemical Journal during its period of publication from 1879-1913." Johnson's statement (27) continues: The'Anzerican Chemical Journal offered a medium for publication of original research which was greatly needed in this country. It acted as an important stimulus to American research in both organic and inorganic chemistry and received the support of the best workers in our American universities. It was one of the chief factors which served to develop or create a national interest in the contributions of American investigators; it stimulated a competition which led to a decided increase in the amount of published work in this country, and discouraged the habit of foreign investigators of ignoring and belittling American chemistry. At the time that the journal was started practically all the results of the best research work done in this country were published abroad. Today the tables have been reversed, and the fact that a condition has been developed whereby only an occasional American investigator publishes in a foreign journal is due in no small degree to the vision, love of American institutions, and scientific interest of Ira Remsen. He has ever been a strong supporter of original research, and his pleas for more thorough study in our country of modern organic chemistry have always been received with enthusiasm and met with prompt support.
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The American Chemical Journal was naturally largely devoted to organic chemistry. The Journal of the American Chemical Society appearing first in 1879 as an independent monthly publication, as a matter of course, was claimed also hy other phases of chemistry (26). "In January, 1893, the Board of Directors accepted the proposition of Edward Hart to suspend his Journal of Analytical and A$&& Chemistry and to take over the publication and editing of the Journal of the American Chemical Society." Dr. Hart, whose death in his seventy-seventh year occurred June 6, two weeks after that of Dr. Clarke, continued as editor until 1902. In 1914 the American Chemical Journal was incorporated with the Journal
of the American Chemical Society. Chemical Abstracts, first published
SAMUEL
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