and be able ultimately to take advantage of his theoretical knowledge, so as to aspire to make discoveries that will place him in the rank of inventors—the dream of every chemist of any ambition. The young student who presents himself in industry with such a supply of knowledge will be sure to find for himself a most honorable place at once, and will have every encouragement to continue his studies for a year or two longer rather than present himself insufficiently equipped; for once in conflict with the daily difficulties inherent in every exploitation he will have no more time to learn.
It is not necessary to say that the "ideal" chemist does not exist in France, and with the kind of teaching that is given can not exist. Young men may indeed be found possessing a remarkable stock of theoretical knowledge and in every way capable of brilliantly sustaining their graduating theses, and some can even perform a mineral analysis or an organic analysis correctly. But I do not think I am too severe when I say that I believe that further than that they have only the vaguest smattering—and there is nothing surprising in that, for nobody has taught them more. For this I do not blame the science of the masters or the motive of the students. The teachers have not had their attention directed toward industrial affairs, and have not therefore been able to teach their students with reference to them.
The reform we need can not be introduced by the personal initiative of the students; for even if they should awake to the necessity and turn their minds to industrial research and the acquisition of practical knowledge available in the shops, they are powerless so long as they have to prepare for the examinations. Might we hope that the manufacturers should be disposed to favor special laboratories for the training of industrial chemists? Their effort would invoke our sympathy, but it would be many years before it would yield results; and all that time our rivals would be gaining on us.
The best remedy, it seems to me, is to look to the existing schools for measures to improve their methods and give their teaching a more practical, more industrial direction. Since I first called attention to this subject in 1878 a number of schools have been established where chemistry is specially and practically taught; but the results they yield will, I fear, always be incomplete so long as the direction of them is intrusted to purely scientific men. However eminent they may be, they are not familiar with what is wanted in chemical industries, and they can not familiarize themselves with it except by placing themselves in constant relations with the heads of great manufactories and studying their requirements, as is done everywhere in Germany.
A reform of the kind sought could be brought about without
