MODERN CHEMISTRY. 2O9 



Modern Chemistry.— Little more than a decade has 

 passed since the scientific world was stirred by the first dis- 

 coveries of that striking series which has gone far to revolutionise 

 modern thought on the subject of the constitution of matter. 

 The researches called forth by these discoveries have, in their 

 turn, opened up fresli vistas, and these again have resulted in 

 further ramifications of research. The new conceptions of 

 chemistry and physics have not only borne fruit in readjustments, 

 of scientific theory, but have also been accompanied by practical 

 out-workings sufficient to content the most matter of fact 

 utilitarian. lUit so swift has been the advance that present-dav 

 science lias become as a sealed book, in respect of some of its 

 basal principles, to many whose college curricula ended as re- 

 cently as a dozen years ago. Alost of the latter lack the leisure 

 for continuous study needed to keep themselves abreast of the 

 rapid bounds with which physical and chemical discovery is 

 leaping forward. From the press there have already issued many 

 publications dealing with various aspects of that advance; but 

 even the student of the earl}- nineties, who has not kept up his 

 scientific study, now finds an unbridged chasm between his own 

 knowledge of science and the stages arrived at jn the latest 

 printed records. ]\Iuch greater is the difficulty for the general 

 reader who never had any acquaintance with chemistry and 

 physics, but in whom the marvellous developments of the last 

 ten years have awakened an interest in molecules, atoms, and 

 electrons. For such as these Dr. ( i. Martin, of Birkbeck College, 

 London, has endeavoured to put into popular language some of 

 the chemical conceptions which now find favour, and he has 

 placed before his readers a few of the practical consequences of 

 accepting these conceptions as working hypotheses, and of 

 actin-g along the lines which they indicate.''" \\'hether the author 

 has invariably succeeded in clothing the intricacies of the loftiest 

 branches of science in such language as to be intelligible to the 

 populace, may be open to doubt. Probably such a result would 

 be found impossible of attainment. Indeed many of the subjects 

 dealt with are scarcely more capable of " popular " treatment 

 than the Integral calculus or the Cartesian philosophy, and so 

 the man in the .street will unquestionably be puzzled to follow 

 some of the lines of thought in all their details. The book 

 nevertheless goes far in the direction of rendering the latent 

 mvsteries of chemical science comprehensible to general 

 readers. The language used is less formal and conventional than 

 in scientific text-books, and if, from a scientific standpoint, tlie 

 sequence of subjects is somewhat disjointed, it is not more so 

 than, for instance, in liumboldt's " Cosmos." Relative to the ability 

 of the author to treat scientific probleuis with acceptance, it may 

 be noted that his own researches in theoretical chemistry once 



* G. Martin, B.Sc, Ph.D., " Triumphs and Wonders of Modern 

 Chemistry," pp. xx, 358. 8vo, 191 r. London: Sampson Low. Marston 

 & Co., Ltd. /s. 6d. 



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