EARLY AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETIES. 819 



economic forces, but tlie best results have accrued wlien states- 

 men liave frankly recognized the tendency of those forces and 

 have sought to make their operation useful to society. The force 

 which tends toward the consolidation of railway properties is one 

 of the most powerful, and it is now recognized that such consoli- 

 dation is in the public interest. All provisions forbidding or 

 hindering the various forms of consolidation of parallel or con- 

 necting railways, whether contained in State Constitutions or in 

 Federal or State statutes, should be repealed, and public and legis- 

 lative encouragement so far as practicable should be generously 

 accorded to every step that tends toward the complete harmoni- 

 zation of the railway system. If this somewhat radical change 

 in the attitude toward the railway monopoly can be eifected it 

 will not be long before favoritism will become as rare in railway 

 rates as in the rates of taxation. 



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EARLY AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETIES.* 



By Pbof. H. CAEEINGTON BOLTON, Pn. D. 



THREE chemical societies were organized in the United States 

 before the close of the first quarter of this century : 1. The 

 Chemical Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1792, 2. The Co- 

 lumbian Chemical Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1811. 

 3. The Delaware Chemical and Geological Society, founded in 

 1821. These societies were short-lived, local in jurisdiction, and 

 without much influence on the progress of the science ; but it is 

 interesting to note that professional, teaching, and amateur chem- 

 ists in America formed associations for mutual improvement and 

 for the advancement of their calling forty-nine years earlier 

 than their brethren in England. American chemists were not 

 impelled to form independent societies owing to a lack of organ- 

 izations for men of science, but they early felt the advantages of 

 specialization. Both the society of 1792 and that of 1811 were 

 formed in a city honored by the presence of the venerable and 

 dignified American Philosophical Society, established by Benja- 

 min Franklin in 1743. 



1. The Chemical Society of Philadelphia was undoubtedly the 

 earliest organized body of chemists in either hemisphere ; it does 

 not appear to have published records of its meetings, but in 

 1801-2 it was presided over by Dr. James Woodhouse, the vice- 

 presidents being Felix Pascalis and John Redman. Dr. Wood- 



* Abstract of a paper read to the Washington Chemical Society, April 8, 1897. 



