NOTES BY THE EDITOR. XI 



chemist, Dumas, who was eminently fitted to perform this duty, 

 not only on account of his having been an intimate friend of Far- 

 aday, but also on account of his great eloquence, and on account 

 of his eminent position among the chemists of his own countr}'. 

 He began with an admirable eulogy of him whom his discourse 

 commemorated, and then reviewed, from the stand-j^oint of the 

 present day, the progress of chemistry from its first beginnings. 



He paid tribute to the labors of Lavoisier, Dalton, and Prout, 

 and, pointing out the analogies existing between the elements of 

 mineral chemistry and the compound radicals of organic chemistry 

 (so called), and at the same time the relations between the 

 atomic weights of those bodies which are now accepted as ele- 

 ments, he argued the probability of their being themselves j)roved 

 to be complex. , 



The limits of chemistry he defines in these words: "The ex- 

 isting chemistry is, therefore, all powerful in the circle of mineral 

 nature, even when its processes are carried on in the heart of the 

 tissues of i^lants or of animals and at their expense ; and she has 

 advanced no further than the chemistry of the ancients in the 

 knowledge of life and in the exact study of living matter ; like 

 them she is ignorant of the mode of generation. 



" The ancients were mistaken when they confounded, under the 

 name of organic matter, sugar and alcohol, which have never lived 

 with the living tissue of plants, or in the flesh of animals. Sugar and 

 alcohol have no more share of life than bone-earth, or salts con- 

 tained in the various liquids. The chemist has never manufac- 

 tured anything which, near or distant, was susceptible even of 

 the appearance of life. Everything he has made in his laborato- 

 ries belongs to ' brute ' matter ; as soon as he approaches life and 

 organization, he is disarmed." 



The medal which accompanies the Faraday lectureship is struck 

 m palladium, and, in addition to this medal, Dumas carries back 

 to France with him a medal struck in the alloy of palladium and 

 hydrogen to commemorate the discovery of the alloy by Graham. 



The subject of the disposal of the seVage of towns becomes 

 daily of more importance. At the meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion at Exeter, a report was presented, in which were collected 

 statistics showing the various methods adopted in towns and cities 

 on the continent for utilizing the sewage, and that committee has 

 issued circulars to the town authorities throughout England ask- 

 ing for aid in collecting information and in making experiments 

 in regard to this matter. The earth-closet is finding favor, and, 



