OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 175 



extract information from the resulting curves was a failure ; iu plot- 

 ting their cube roots, however, he found a logarithmic curve with per- 

 turbations which showed a distinct law of increase for perissads and 

 aitiads. The abstract was not discovered until most of this paper was 

 written, and, from its indefinite statements, it would require much time 

 to construct the curves and divine the inferences. 



At the close of his paper of 1854, Professor Cooke said : " To my 

 conceptions Chemistry will then have become a perfect science, when 

 all substances have been classed in series of homologues, and when we 

 can make a table which shall contain, not only every known substance, 

 but also every possible one, and when by means of a few general 

 formula? we shall be able to express all the properties of matter, so 

 that, when the series of a substance and its place in the series are 

 given, we shall be able to calculate, nay predict, its properties with 

 absolute certainty. . . . Then the dreams of the ancient alchemist 

 will be realized, for the problem of the transmutation of metals will 

 have been theoretically, if not practically, solved." 



