24 THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



Lavoisier knew that when phosphorus burns, the acid body 

 formed by the combustion weighs more than the phosphorus did. 

 But it takes a long time for a naked fact to destroy a theory in- 

 trenched in argument, and defended by dialectics. Yet already the 

 casket of Phlogiston was being prepared, and Lavoisier was the 

 immortal undertaker. 



Oxygen was discovered by Priestley and Scheele, nitrogen was 

 found by Rutherford, the air was analyzed by Cavendish, and a 

 great light illumined the mind of the French chemist, and the 

 death-knell of the doctrine of Becher and Stahl was rung. Hitherto, 

 combustion was thought to be due to a chemical decomposition in 

 which Phlogiston escapes, but Lavoisier now accounted for the 

 phenomenon of combustion by chemical combination, oxygen or 

 another element being taken up. 



The lid was ready to be nailed to the coffin. And the talented 

 wife of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, — Liebig has told us so, — robed 

 as a priestess committed to the flames on an altar, while a solemn 

 requiem was chanted, the phlogistic system of chemistry. 



{To be Continued'). 



REPORT OF BOARD OF CONTROL ON STANDARDS 



AND TESTS. 



{Continued from Dec. ipop). 



Mr. Plant : — In reference to the third resolution, "That standards 

 of chemicals, while excluding or reducing to a minimum impurities 

 considered harmful, shall permit a small given percentage of a 

 harmless constituent, where its elimination would add unduly to 

 the cost," it gives me pleasure to state that we will have the in- 

 fluence of Dr. Wiley, an influential factor in Washington in matters 

 of that sort. That is the principle enunciated by the Geneva Con- 

 gress, to which Dr. Wiley was a delegate, and he supports it and 

 it will receive the support of Prof. Baskerville, chairman of the 

 Committeee on Tests of the American Chemical Society, and it 

 will certainly serve to make unconscious infractions of the Food 

 and Drugs Act very difficult hereafter. I feel that this is a very 

 important matter. We do not judge by analytical laboratory stand- 

 ards, but by the standards of the requirements of the users of 

 these chemicals. 



