5o8 Biochemical News, Notes and Comment [Mar. 



possible to read his works without mingling personal affection with 

 the respect inspired by his intellect." 



On the value of classical instruction. In an article on the value 

 of classical instruction in the preparation of young people for the 

 technical schools, M. Henry Le Chatelier, professor at the Sorbonne 

 and member of the Academie des Sciences, emphasizes the impor- 

 tance of pure and clear style in scientific writings, and compares 

 American and English scientific papers, saying that most of the 

 latter are absolutely unreadable ; all the American papers are clear 

 and comprehensible, even monotonously so, as if written by the 

 same pen. " I have more than once," declared M. Le Chatelier, 

 " on receiving an unreadable thesis for the doctor's degree in chem- 

 istry, Said to its author, ' Open the Journal of the American Chem- 

 ical Society, select one of the papers in this publication and imitate 

 the style of the American chemist in describing your own results.' " 



Artificial prodnction of larvcc of Lcpidoptcra. The experiments 

 which were performed by Tichomorow on the effects of sulfuric 

 acid in inducing the development of eggs of Lepidoptera have been 

 recently repeated by Mr. L. B. Ripley, of Trinity College, with posi- 

 tive results. The eggs were taken f rom females which had been iso- 

 lated since their emergence from the pupal cases and treated for 

 five seconds with concentrated sulfuric acid, after which they were 

 washed in water. Larvse resulted which are now feeding upon wild 

 cherry. Tichomorow did not succeed in obtaining living larvse. 



Therapentic research. It is often said that therapeutics, and 

 especially drug therapeutics, have not kept step with the progress 

 of medical science. The reiteration of the fact may become some- 

 what tiresome, but it serves a useful purpose, in that it will gradu- 

 all)^ lead to a correction of the fault. An attempt in this direction 

 is being made by the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, through 

 the appointment of a Committee on Therapeutic Research, and the 

 Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association has made 

 an appropriation for this work. This is in direct line with the basic 

 objects of the Council — namely, the advancement of therapeutics 

 by substituting definite knowledge for vague impressions and gen- 

 eral " belief s." . . . The number of practical urgent problems in 



