REVIEWS 163 



that cane sugar, for example, can be hydrolysed by water alone : strictly speaking, 

 it is impossible to make the experiment. The statement is of the kind we are always 

 accepting, however ; we take what is offered us without question until, for some 

 reason, doubt arises — and then only do we become critical. The fact is life would 

 be unbearable if we were always critical — hence the difficulty of arriving at the 

 scientific attitude of mind. Dr. Fenton might, however, have drawn attention to 

 the many cases in which chemists of undoubted " reputation " as clean workers 

 have shown that two substances A and B are without action upon one another 

 which interact readily when brought into a system with a third component. 

 Writers of text-books on Physical Chemistry rarely deign even to refer to such 

 cases — Mellor stands alone in having drawn attention explicitly to them. 



We chemists need to go back to the land we were once so proud to cultivate — 

 to chemistry : to realise that the chief office of the chemist is to know chemical 

 materials— their qualities, their affections ; talead them into new ways. We also 

 need to bear in mind that the condition of solution is necessarily one of great 

 complexity and that accurate mathematical expression cannot be given to many 

 of the phenomena — that the seeming agreement between hypothesis and practice 

 is arrived at merely because cross influences are at work which counteract 

 one another. Our office should be to form definite ideas of things, even though 

 these cannot be seen or handled : we should learn to think of what may be 

 rather than to assume that we know what is. 



The mathematics thrown at chemical students is often of a very misleading if 

 not spurious character. They are rarely warned that the expressions used have 

 not necessarily any particular meaning — that they may be fitted equally well to 

 several totally distinct if not incompatible interpretations — that they more often 

 than not serve to mask ignorance rather than to define knowledge. 



We need to return to the good old times when we were not ashamed to deal 

 with plain acids and alkalies : modern indulgence in an obscure jargon is carrying 

 us more and more beyond the ken of the public ; if science is to be helpful in 

 education and to the public its ways must be mended and simplified ; realities 

 must be dealt with to a greater extent than has been customary of late years. 



Dr. Fenton has made an admirable beginning : the example he sets should be 

 of great value to all students who appreciate the spirit in which his book is written ; 

 if, in later editions, he will allow full play to his sense of logic and his desire to be 

 consistent, he will make his book of extreme value. And we would beg of him, 

 if possible, to put into it some of his knowledge of laboratory method, some of 

 that wonderful dexterity of hand and preparative skill that he has displayed in 

 the masterly series of studies associated with his name of late years, which have 

 gained for him world-wide appreciation. As he is one of the few chemists left to 

 us, we cannot spare him from chemistry. 



The only safe plan in scientific work, when conclusions have been drawn, is to 

 consider whether after all the facts have been properly stated — whether after all 

 the interpretation given be justified— whether other points of view may not be 

 adopted. The student who is trained to work on such lines, to use hypothesis but 

 to use it warily and not allow it to degenerate into dogma, will be a reasonable 

 being and of some use in the world : under the now fashionable system the 

 doctrines of unreason prevail and the men turned out are of little use in practical 

 affairs. The escape from Erewhon was made in a balloon : now that we have 

 flying-machines at our disposal, the escape from the pseudo-mathematical, pseudo- 

 physical fools' paradise in which we have tox) long been lounging should not be so 

 difficult. 



