SKETCH OF FRANK WIGGLESWORTH CLARKE. 



"5 



Another side of scientific advancement to which Professor 

 Clarke's working life has proved him much attached is presented 

 in this address at the American Association meeting of 1878, and 

 more minutely as to the particular point we have in mind in an 

 article on Laboratory Endowment, in the tenth volume of the Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly. In the association address he insisted strongly 

 upon the physical side of chemical research, stated briefly as the 

 study of the phenomena which occur during the reactions in chem- 

 ical experiments, or of the transformations of energy, and upon the 

 importance of the co-ordination of studies separately pursued to the 

 systematic and permanent advancement of the science; for which 

 purpose he considered endowed laboratories for research extremely 

 desirable. In such laboratories adequate corps of thorough special- 

 ists should co-operate in those investigations which individuals could 

 not undertake; every worker should be assigned to definite, positive 

 duties, the accurate and careful performance of which would eventu- 

 ally be sure to advance exact knowledge. The work would be hard 

 routine, and the real value of the institution would be independent 

 of everything sensational, and would rest upon considerations of the 

 most severely practical kind. As an example of such work he men- 

 tioned the study of the connection between the composition of a 

 substance and its physical properties. Supposing this taken up sys- 

 tematically by a well-organized body of investigators, the first step 

 would be to determine, carefully and with the utmost rigor, the 

 physical properties of the elements. Each one of these substances 

 would have to be isolated in quantity and in a chemically pure con- 

 dition, such as has never been attained as to some — a labor which 

 would of itself involve a great amount of research. Then would 

 come the measurement of physical relations, thermal, electrical, op- 

 tical, magnetic, mechanical, and so on; and the determination of all 

 their " constants " under widely varied conditions, notably of pres- 

 sure and temperature; labors which would in many cases involve 

 the comparative testing of various methods of research, and often 

 the invention of new experimental processes. The number of ele- 

 ments and of their compounds which should be taken up in some 

 regular order, series by series, would afford almost illimitable fields 

 of research to large numbers of students; all of whom, if labor- 

 ing under some plan of systematic co-operation, might contribute 

 directly and efficiently to the perfection of the science. " One chem- 

 ist might undertake to furnish certain of the elements in a perfectly 

 pure condition; another might carefully determine under varying 

 circumstances their densities and rates of expansion; a third could 

 work up their latent and specific heats; a fourth their electrical 

 relations, and so on. Failure to attain grand results would be ini- 



