Abstract
AT the fifty-sixth annual general meeting of the Institute of Chemistry held on March 1, the president, Prof. Jocelyn Thorpe, in moving the adoption of the annual report of Council, said that the register of the Institute contains the names of 6,176 fellows and associates, and more than 750 students. The number of members known to be disengaged is not more than 3 per cent, so that the profession does not appear to be seriously overcrowded. Rather than endeavouring to restrict entrance to the professions generally, he believes in insistence on a high standard of entrance examinations to the universities and colleges in order to eliminate those who are not likely to make really good professional material. The Legal and Parliamentary Committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Christopher Clay ton, has rendered useful assistance in matters of public importance in which the profession was concerned. The new Pharmacy and Poisons Act has placed beyond doubt the right of those who practise chemistry, as well as those who practise pharmacy, to use the title ‘chemist’. The examinations for National Certificates in Chemistry, conducted jointly by the Institute and the Board of Education and the Scottish Education Department respectively, are having a beneficial effect on the training in science afforded in technical institutions throughout the country. Lately, the Council has discussed the place of chemistry in general education. It seems that in some places chemistry is regarded as too difficult a subject for boys less than sixteen years of age, and that physics and biology should be given the preference as school subjects; the Council proposes to publish the discussion and to invite members to express their views thereon. Prof. Thorpe was re-elected president of the Institute.
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Institute of Chemistry. Nature 133, 355 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133355a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133355a0