UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 75 
chemistry but for so many of the other branches of natural 
science?” Harry C. Jones of Johns Hopkins University 
aptly answers these questions. He says: * “We 
know matter in three states of aggregation, solid, 
liquid and gas. A solution is a homogeneous mixture of 
matter in the given state of aggregation with matter in 
the same or a different state of aggregation ; the component 
parts of which cannot be separated mechanically. In terms 
of this definition we can have solid, liquid or gas acting as 
a solvent, and every state of aggregation dissolved in its 
own or in any other state of aggregation. We would con- 
sequently have nine types of solution. Bearing in mind 
this broader definition of solution, the whole science of 
chemistry is only a branch of the science of solutions. 
Think of all the chemical reactions you can, and see how 
many do not take place in solutions in the broader sense of 
the term. Of course, all reactions that take place at high tem- 
peratures between fused masses are reactions in solution, 
because the term solution does not raise any question as to 
temperature’. 
“But let us turn to geology. ‘The rocks are either pre- 
cipitated from aqueous solutions or aqueous suspensions, 
colloidal or otherwise, or else crystallized from molten mag- 
mas—and the latter are as true solutions as the former; the 
difference being chiefly a difference in temperature. Thus, 
solutions underlie geology.” But what would geology be 
without the aid it has received directly from the biologist? 
How far can the geologist go in the proper placing of his 
strata without being able to classify his fossils? And as 
biological knowledge is developed, how soon do we find its 
application in historical geology! Only within the past 
decade has the botanist discovered that the most of the so- 
called ferns of the paleozoic era were not ferns at all, but 
really plants more closely allied to the Gymnosperms. To 
this group of plants has been given the name Cycado-fili- 
cales. What were formerly thought to be fern sporangia 
on the leaves are now known to be the microsporangia of 
*The Bearing of Osmotic Pressure on the Development of Physics 
and Chemistry. Harry C. Jones in The Plant World 16:79. 1913. 
