528 SCIENTIFIC RECOftD - FOK- 18« I. 



The Deutsche cliemisclie Gesellschaft continues to prosper. At the 

 close of the year 1884 it Lad 2,901 members (including 13 lionorary 

 members), having gained 170 members during the year. In 1883 the 

 society received 535 original communications, and in 1884, 040; in 1883 

 it published 3,101 pages in its Bericlite, and in 1884 3,0Li5 pages, exclu- 

 sive of abstracts, a necrology, and an index, which have an independent 

 pagination. It received from all sources during the year 57,307 nmrks, 

 and expended about 4,000 marks less. It holds productive properly 

 valued at 08,000 marks. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Chemical Society (of London) held 

 March 31, 1884, the piesident called attention to the fact that notwith- 

 standing the increased number of laboratories in Great Britain, and 

 greater facilities for the prosecution of research through the aid of the 

 Government grant and the Chemical Society's fund, the number of 

 jiapers read before the society is declining year by year. 



Prof. W. N. Hartley, in Nature, considers somewhat at length the 

 circumstances which have brought about this "startling and anomalous 

 fact." In 1880-'81 the Chemical Society (of London) received from its 

 members 113 communications: in 1881-'82, ^7; in 1883-'84, 07. It is true 

 there are seven other societies which publish chemical papers, besides 

 two in Ireland. The Society of Chemical Industry received in the sec- 

 ond year of its existence (1883-'84) 08 papers. It is evident that the 

 number of communications to the Chemical Society has declined in pro- 

 portion as those to the younger Society of Chemical Industry increased. 

 Papers on industrial chemistry abound, those on pure research are rel- 

 atively few, and in this respect a great contrast is oflered to the work 

 of the German Chemical Society, which publishes 3,000 pages annually 

 of exclusively pure researches. 



Professor Hartley is not willing to admit that the decline of interest in 

 original researches is the fault of the teachers in England, though he 

 regrets that m~ny i^rofessors are obliged to teach several branches of 

 science. He recognizes the influence of the requirements for the de- 

 gree of doctor of philosophy in German universities upon originality of 

 thought, but thinks this alone insufficient to account for the difference. 

 " It is rather that which is not required which is so advantageous to 

 students; it is the Lehre und Lehen Freihcit which professors and pupils 

 both enjoy." On the Continent the motive for scientific education is 

 mental culture, while in Britain it is utilitarianism; while the former 

 tends to the advancement of teaming, the latter involves nothing further 

 than the diffusion of hioicledge. 



Does not the above criticism of English culture apply to a large ex- 

 tent to the system of education in America ? 



Cooperative Indexing in Chemistry. — At the Montreal meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science a committee was 

 appointed to devise and inaugurate a plan for the proper indexing of 

 the literature of the chemical elements. This committee reported in 



