Russia's Contribution to Science. 223 



tory in 1748 and in 1756 was the first to explain what we now 

 understand as oxydation by converting tin into stannic oxyde, 

 antedating the work of Lavoisier on a similar subject by 18 years. 

 Lomonossoff was one of the pioneers in work on atmospheric 

 electricity and shares with Franklin the honor of the discovery of 

 the lightning rod. He made the suggestion that electricity is 

 responsible for the aurora borealis. In astronomy he was the 

 first to discover the presence of an atmosphere around the planet 

 Venus. He elucidated the nature of amber as balsam of extinct 

 vegetation. He taught that anthracite originated from peat. 

 All this was done at a time when science was looked upon as 

 almost of the Devil by the Russian Church and in his paper about 

 the planet Venus, Lomonossofif took therefore particular pains to 

 explain that there is no contradiction between science and the 

 Bible. 



But the activity of Lomonossofif was not limited to natural 

 sciences alone. He was a historian with two important works in 

 this field to his credit. He was a philologist and wrote a book on 

 "Rhetoric," a "Grammar" and "Rules of Russian Versifica- 

 tion." He was an orator and a poet. He was a statesman and 

 prepared a project concerning trade, industry, agriculture and 

 education and another project for the foundation of a university 

 in Moscow which he planned to open to students in 1755 and was 

 unable to do so only because of the imexpected death of Empress 

 Elizabeth. He died in 1765 at the age of 54 years in the fullness 

 of his powers and at the height of his mental activity. 



I take another example, that of the great composer Alexander 

 Porphirievitch Borodin. To Americans he is known only as the 

 composer of "Prince Igor," but although he achieved greatness 

 in music he was by education and profession a chemist, a pro- 

 fessor of this science at the University of St. Petersburg. He 

 worked chiefly with haloides and to his credit are no less than 

 21 papers in chemistry. He was the first to produce benzoyl 

 fluoride. He lectured for ten years to women students of medi- 

 cine. He was a forefighter for education for women and when 

 he died, his former students placed a wreath on his monument 

 with the inscription: "To the founder, defender and guardian 

 of the medical classes for women, to the friend of pupils — from 

 women physicians of ten classes." 



And how about Nicolai Petrovitch Wagner, the discoverer of 



