188G.] NEW YOKK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 109 



raised against the slavish worship of picturesque formula; but 

 against the molecular tlieory underlying the symbolic system so 

 depicted, few earnest arguments are advanced. The whole aim 

 of organic chemistry is directed to the discovery of the arrange- 

 ment of atoms witiiin the molecule, and Uie success -obtained 

 justifies the hypothesis. Tiie edifice erected through these achieve- 

 ments, though young in years, is too substantial to tolerate dis- 

 placement of its corner-stone. The absolute truth of the atomic 

 theory is beyond man's ])ower to establish; even admitting tliat 

 it necessitates absurd assumptions, it is, nevertheless, indisputa- 

 bly the " best existing explanation of the facts of chemistry as at 

 present known." 



A noteworthy feature of existing chemical research is the 

 recognition of tlie necessity of a more intimate knowledge of the 

 connection between physical characters and chemical constitu- 

 tion, in the past, chemists increased the number of new com- 

 pounds so rapidly, that they often neglected detailed examina- 

 tion of their physical properties, their relations to known bodies 

 and to each other, preferring to satisfy their amljition by fresh 

 discoveries. This race after new bodies still continues, but 

 l)arallel with it are zealous investigators striving after a knowl- 

 edge of the innate qualities and bearings of these same bodies; and 

 the latter class of students is gaining prizes no less valuable than 

 those secured by the former. 



Chemists are also recognizing the necessity of a more minute 

 study of the simpler phenomena of chemistry, and it is in this 

 direction they look for many laurels in the future. Priestley's 

 day of great discoveries by the simplest means has in one sense 

 passed; the opportunities for isolating nine new gases, or of rec- 

 ognizing by chemical tests half a dozen new elementary bodies 

 in the space of a lifetime, are gone; only by the employment of the 

 most delicate appliances, by the closest scrutiny of phenomena 

 and the conditions governing them, by availing themselves of all 

 the resources of physics, by an unshrinking expenditure of time 

 and of money, to say nothing of the necessity of trained mental 

 powers of no low order and of skilled hands, shall chemists in 



