Forty-second Annual Meeting. 31 



chemistry; and while he failed in anticipating the work of 

 Newlands, of Mendelleef and of Lothar Meyer, he did catch a 

 glimpse of. the great truth "that we must not merely separate 

 out here and there the so-called related elements, but must 

 grasp the fact that there is a relationship even between the 

 apparently dissimilar." This ability to grasp a subject is 

 seen in his books, "The New Chemistry" and "Chemical Phys- 

 ics," which were remarkably clear and adequate presentations 

 of the fundamental conceptions of chemistry. Of Professor 

 Cooke's investigations, time permits us only to recall the 

 determination in 1877 of the atomic weights of antimony, and 

 ten years later, with T. W. Richards, the work on "The Rela- 

 tive Values of the Atomic Weights of Oxygen and Hydrogen." 



These papers from the Harvard laboratory were the inspira- 

 tion of that most brilliant series of researches by Richards and 

 his pupils, which are marvels of careful and painstaking work, 

 so that the efforts of these men, coupled with the classic memoir 

 of Morley on "The Relation between Hydrogen and Oxygen," 

 and the labors of W. A. Noyes, have given to American science 

 the foremost place in this phase of scientific investigation. 



Lastly, Professor Cooke stood as one of the best exponents 

 of "scientific culture." His address on that subject, written 

 in 1875 and published in the Popular Science Monthly, de- 

 serves to be read and reread by every follower of science. His 

 breadth of view is well illustrated by the following sentence 

 from the address, which was delivered at the opening of the 

 summer school at Harvard : "Moreover, I hope, my friends, 

 that you will come to value scientific studies, not simply because 

 they cultivate the perceptive and reasoning faculties, but also 

 because they fill the mind with lofty ideals, elevated conceptions 

 and noble thoughts. Indeed, I claim that there is no better 

 school in which to train the esthetic faculties of the mind, the 

 tastes and the imagination than the study of natural science." 



These men then are the three great names among the Ameri- 

 can chemists of the nineteenth century, and they are surpassed 

 by none for their services in promoting scientific methods, 

 ideas and ideals. The value of the past is largely in the light 

 it gives to the present, and it seems to me that there are two 

 lessons which can be drawn from even this brief account of 

 their life activities. 



The first is that they stood for rigid accuracy in observation 

 and thinking. In an experience of almost two decades of 



