laws
of combining weights and volumes, thus giving him the idea that
chemistry is exact and that quantitative relations always obtain when
chemical action takes place. At the same time the quantitative
exercises lay the basis for the proper comprehension of the laws of
combining weights and volumes and the atomic and molecular theories.
At least three periods of two consecutive hours each should be spent
in the laboratory per week, and the laboratory exercises should be
made so interesting and instructive that the student will feel
inclined to work in the laboratory at odd times in addition if his
program of other studies permits. The laboratory should at all times
be, as its name implies, a place where work is done. Order and
neatness should always prevail. Apparatus should be kept neat and
clean, and in no case should slovenly habits of setting up apparatus
be tolerated. The early introduction of a certain amount of
quantitative experimentation in the course makes for habits of order
and neatness in experimentation and guards against bringing up
"sloppy" chemists.

=The student's laboratory record=

The laboratory notebook should be a neat and accurate record of the
work in the laboratory. To this end the entries in the notebook should
be made in the laboratory at the time when the experiment is actually
being performed. The writing of data on loose scratch paper and then
finally writing up the notebook later at home from such sheets is not
to be recommended, for while thus the final appearance of the notebook
may be improved, it is no longer a first-hand record such as every
scientist makes, but rather a transcribed one. The student, in making
up such a transcription, is only too apt to draw upon his inner
consciousness to make the book appear better; indeed, when he has
neglected to transcribe his notes for several days, he is bound to
produce anything but a true and accurate record, to say nothing about
being put to the temptation to "fake" results which he has either not
at all obtained in the laboratory, or has recorded so imperfectly on
the scratch paper that he can no longer interpret his record properly.
The only true way is to have the notes made directly in the
permanently bound notebook at the time when the experiment is actually
in progress. The student ought not to take the laboratory notebook
home at all without the instructor's knowledge and permission. Each
experiment should be entered in the noteb