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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATUEE. 



CHEMISTRY. 



Theee Presidential addresses, deliv- 

 ered recently in this country and 

 abroad, give admirable surveys of the 

 present status, of past growth and of 

 the future needs of chemistry. The 

 address of Professor F. W. Clarke to 

 the American Chemical Society, given 

 December 30, 1901, on ' The Develop- 

 ment of Chemistry ' deals with the 

 four principal agencies that have been 

 instrumental in building the chemical 

 structure of to-day; these are: private 

 enterprise, the commercial demand, 

 governmental requirements, and uni- 

 versity teaching. At the beginning all 

 these agencies had not been established, 

 the two great stimuli to chemical re- 

 search were the intellectual interest of 

 the problem to be solved, and practical 

 utility; these still have great influence, 

 but the most important need at the 

 present time, says Professor Clarke, is 

 a well equipped and endowed research 

 laboratory, in which to conduct sys- 

 tematic and thorough investigations. 



Dr. Ira Remsen chose for his ad- 

 dress to the same society, given a year 

 later, ' The Life History of a Doc- 

 trine.' In a scholarly and witty way 

 he sketched the early history, develop- 

 ment and modern phases of the atomic 

 theory, saying that in the light of late 

 advances we must enlarge our concep- 

 tion of atoms. He pointed out that 

 the many obituaries on the electro- 

 chemical theory of Berzelius were prob- 

 ably premature, since in the latest 

 conception of atoms electrical charges 

 play an important part. An atom 

 charged with electricity is called an 

 ion, and only then is it ready for action. 

 At the same time President Remsen re- 

 fers to physicists the explanation of 



some of the features of the theory of 

 ions. 



Professor James Dewar, in his ad- 

 dress as president of the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, delivered September 10, 1902, was 

 of a more comprehensive nature, re- 

 viewing many aspects of science. In- 

 cidentally he compared the chemical 

 equipments of England and Germany 

 to the decided disadvantage of the 

 former, stating that Germany possessed 

 a professional staff one third larger in 

 numbers and superior in quality. One 

 firm in Germany, employing 5,000 

 workmen, has a staff of 160 chemists, 

 260 mechanics and engineers, besides 

 680 clerks. Owing to the high educa- 

 tion and practical character of their 

 chemists German manufacturers enjoy 

 a monopoly. Passing from this theme, 

 Professor Dewar gave some of the in- 

 teresting results obtained in his re- 

 searches on low temperatures, espe- 

 cially in liquefying hydrogen and 

 helium. The whole address, which is 

 very readable, can be found in the Octo- 

 ber numbers of Science. Besides these 

 addresses another one by Dewar must 

 not be overlooked, the ' Centenary Com- 

 memoration Lecture ' at the Royal In- 

 stitution. 



The Bi-Centennial of Yale Univer- 

 sity, celebrated in 1901, was appro- 

 priately marked by the publication of 

 several superb volumes containing 

 chemical research conducted by pro- 

 fessors and instructors in that institu- 

 tion. Two of these are from the Kent 

 Chemical Laboratory, and embody the 

 labors of Professor F. A. Gooch, and 

 of some of his assistants; the other 

 two are from the Sheffield Scientific 

 School, and contain chiefly the labors 

 of Professor Horace L. Wells. The 



