JACOBUS HENRICUS VAN'T HOFF 97 



only exact branch of science — mathematical physics — and Van't Hoff 

 showed that we can deal with solutions in the same manner. 



This raises the further question why is it so important to have a 

 satisfactory theory as to the nature of solutions ? A moment's thought 

 will furnish the answer. The whole science of chemistry is a branch of 

 the science of solutions. Similarly, the biological sciences are dependent 

 upon solution for their existence, and geology, in dealing both with the 

 sedimentary and the igneous rocks, is vitally concerned with solution in 

 the broader sense of that term. There are, then, few branches of 

 natural science that are not dependent upon solution for their existence. 



Van't Hoff made a number of other contributions to science, second 

 in importance only to those named above. He told us what is meant by 

 " Solid Solutions." His last work was an experimental study of the 

 conditions under which the great salt beds at Stassfurth were laid down 

 from a desiccating inland sea. 



Van't Hoff published a number of books on physical chemistry 

 but it would lead us too far here to discuss them in any detail. 



The writer knew Van't Hoff in the relation of student to teacher. 

 He was one of the most modest, frank, honest and unselfish of men. 

 He lived to see his work properly understood and appreciated. He 

 was elected a member of most of the learned societies and academies in 

 the world. He was awarded the first Nobel prize in chemistry in 1901. 



The name of Van't Hoff will undoubtedly go down in the history of 

 science along with those of the very greatest — with Maxwell and Sir J. 

 J. Thomson; with Laplace and Pasteur, and with Helmholtz and 

 Lorentz. 



VOL. lxxix. — 7. 



