Repository: UIHistories Project: Booklet - Addresses from Inauguration of Noyes [PAGE 37]

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about as Van'! Boff has well said, " atirelj

by a hearty cooperation between the :ientiiie laboratories of the nation and the

technical and industrial work." Bui other nations have urn versities. Why have they not done Cor their respective countries what the German universities have done for Germany? The United States, for instance, lias more universities than Germany. Why then is the United States behind Germany in this industrial race? The answer, I believe, may be found in the fact that the American universities and colleges as a whole have not until recently fully realized the fact that the old idea of scientific culture in this present materialistic age is not what is demanded by the nation. University men now fully realize that scientific training of the old culture type, and more especially in chemistry, is worthless to the nation and worthless to the individual except in so far as the mental discipline goes. But simple discipline is not the sole aim in the study of any science. I t must embrace experience and a true knowledge of the subject, such as will enable the individual to apply the principles in practical life. It is only when this training is applied that its full value is appreciated by the individual himself and by the nation. Didactic chemistry as taught twenty-five or thirty years ago can no longer be accepted by the universities of to-day. A -lance into the history of chemistry will show that no scion, tific investigation has ever been made. either in the so-called lirld of p m v o r j„ that of industrial chemistry, whirl, I, no had its influence on the material develop-