CHEMISTRY AT HARVARD.

The prominence given in the daily press to the recent discoveries of a government chemist accentuate the importance of chemistry in the industrial field. Processes have been discovered which are said to revolutionize the manufacture of gasoline, and to render the United States independent of Germany in the preparation of important dye-stuffs. This illustrates strikingly the now well confirmed fact that on scientific investigation, especially in chemistry, will depend our comparative advantage in manufacture and agriculture.

With this in view, it would seem as if the Chemistry Department at Harvard should have every facility for carrying on its experiments and for instructing future chemists. Yet while the special research laboratories, used only by professors and very far advanced students, are excellent and adequate, it must be admitted that the facilities for instructing the undergraduate are perhaps the worst in the country, and that, in comparison with some other departments, the chemistry department is at a distinct disadvantage. Boylston Hall is not fire-proof; its store-room is inaccessible; it is dark;--in fact it is hopelessly inadequate.

But what is more discouraging is the lack of funds. The experimental work is costly and the Chemistry Department is severely handicapped in its work by lack of material to work with. Consequently the laboratory fees are high. For any course the laboratory fee alone, without breakage, is $12. Statistics show that the average cost per student for the year 1912-13 was $28. Obviously a degree with distinction in Chemistry would come rather high.

What is needed, then, is new buildings, and an endowment for keeping their equipment up to date. Until these are had, chemistry at Harvard can not be taught with that degree of efficiency which a science of such great importance demands.