Abstract
SIB JAMES IBVINE, principal of the University of St. Andrews, in replying to the toast of the profession of chemistry at the Ramsay Chemical Dinner held in Glasgow on December 7, gave his views on some aspects of modern research. Sir James reviewed the changes which have taken place in chemical industry since the beginning of the century and referred par ticularly to Scotland. He said that a country which produced men like Neilson, Young, Tennant, Town-send and Watt appeared to have nothing to fear from changes in industrial conditions. But the new conditions have formed themselves too quickly, and their impact on a disorganised world has been too swift for readjustment to be entirely satisfactory or even possible. In regard to scientific training, Sir James finds himself at variance with the spirit of the times because he cannot resist the thought that scientific training in Great Britain is already over regimented. He did not refer particularly to under graduate instruction but more to the extreme special isation and almost mechanical quality of much of the work termed research. The ladder of research was once difficult of access and steep to climb. Only the zealots made the attempt, impelled by a force they could not control, and only the strongest sur vived. To-day no training is reckoned complete on first graduation, and in consequence research students, sometimes singly, more often in teams, work towards the goal of a higher degree.
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Present-day Scientific Research. Nature 134, 926–927 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134926c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134926c0