Volume 1, Number 4

A particularly fine editorial graced the first page of the April, 1924 issue. Its author, G. H. Cartledge of Johns Hopkins University, argued persuasively that, "Every successful teacher must have an interest in research in chemical education." He also asked, "Is there any correlation between the course in chemistry and those in cognate sciences?" and stated that "...each course is a wide field for research: content, order, emphasis, demonstration experiments, correlation of laboratory and lectures, etc." He proposed that the Division of Chemical Education should outline a definite program in this area, and he found it "...stimulating to see here and there a laboratory which is producing new ideas along these lines."

One paper described qualitative analysis without hydrogen sulfide, and another reported on qualitative analysis in the freshman course. J. C. W. Frazer of Johns Hopkins described the new chemical laboratory being constructed there, which included two floors devoted to undergraduates and many research laboratories. The first photograph published in JCE was part of this article.

In the Journal's first letter to the editor, H. N. Holmes of Oberlin College argued persuasively that college professors should take advantage of the synergy between teaching and research.

Volume 25, Number 4

A paper by W. M. MacNevin chronicled the life of Theodore George Wormley, the first American microchemist and a contemporary of Pasteur. Several plates from Wormley's book "Microchemistry of Poisons" were reproduced, and the various crystal morphologies are still interesting and beautiful. MIT was featured in a continuing series on Chemical Education in American Institutions in a paper by Arthur C. Cope, who described the curriculum that all freshmen took in common before choosing one of the institute's 20 courses of study. Both organic and physical chemistry were presented to chemistry majors in their junior year. J. A. Campbell, then at Oberlin College, described structural molecular models, and his Figure 1 showed models of the nonmetallic elements arranged in their appropriate positions in the upper right of the periodic table.

As in this current issue, the April 1948 issue contained some lighter fare: a puzzle devised by a Swedish student, Pär Bergvall. Readers and their students were challenged to find as many chemical formulas as possible in a square array of symbols. It is reproduced on page 494. Books reviewed included "The Strange Story of the Quantum" by Banesh Hoffman and "General Chemistry" by Linus Pauling. About the latter the reviewer commented that adopters might be "surprised, and perhaps irked, to discover the laws of constant and multiple proportions relegated to a short, small-type section". The book's illustrations showing molecular and crystal structures were praised, as was its integration of up-to-date research topics and of some industrial processes. The reviewer gently suggested that the book would be beyond the abilities of many first-year students, but he found it an excellent way for practicing chemists to brush up on modern chemistry.

Volume 50, Number 4

The Journal's ability to minimize costs to subscribers depends a great deal on its ability to attract and hold advertisers. Some of the ads in April, 1973 are quite interesting for what they tell us about how things have changed since then. One ad was for a safe pipetting device designed to end the danger of mouth pipetting. Another offered a 300-W student hot plate for $13.80. A full-page ad from W. A. Benjamin, Inc. announced a Keller-Plan (Personalized System of Instruction) study guide keyed to the text by Dickerson, Gray, and Haight.

Two papers are noteworthy because they deal with subjects whose importance has stood the test of time. Kei-wei Shen of California State University, Los Angeles described the Hückel-Möbius concept and its relation to orbital symmetry and the Woodward-Hoffmann rules, in hopes that more chemists would become familiar with this idea.

J. E. Pearson of the University of London provided an introduction to Fourier transform NMR spectroscopy by drawing an analogy between nuclear spin systems and a set of tuning forks. The frequency spectrum of three tuning forks that had been set into motion by white noise was compared with the free-induction decay signal from an FT NMR experiment.

Two provocative opinions were expressed by Leallyn Clapp of Brown University and Henry Altmiller of St. Edwards University. Both dealt with the chemistry curriculum. The former indicated that the curriculum should be looking ahead as far as the year 2000 and, advocated among other things, more biochemistry. The latter argued for a combination of laboratory and lecture and for allowing students to discover things for themselves in first-year courses. Encouraging students to behave as scientists instead of verifiers of accepted dogma is a cornerstone of many of the current proposals for curricular reform as well.