SCIENCE 



Friday, November 5, 1909 

 contexts 



The Quantilative Study of Organic Reactions : 

 Professok S. F. Agree 617 



Bacteriology as a Non-technical Course for 

 Public Schools: Db. H. W. Hill 625 



Teaching by the Lecture System.- Db. Nob- 

 man A. i3uB0is 628 



Kakiehi Mitsukuri: Pbesident David Stabe 

 JOBDAN 630 



The Western Excursion foUoic-ing the Winni- 

 peg Meeting of the British Association: 

 Db. F. p. Gullivee 632 



Forest Products Investigation 633 



The American Association of Economic Ento- 

 mologists 635 



The Rockefeller Commission for the Eradica- 

 tion of the Hookioorm Disease 635 



Scientific Notes and News 636 



University and Educational News 638 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Reply to Mr. Percival Lowell: Pbofessob 

 F. R. MouLTON. The Development of the 

 Planetesimal Hypothesis: Pbofessobs T. 

 C. Chambeblin and F. R. jMoulton. An 

 Association of American Chemical Research 

 Laboratories: Pbofessob M. A. Rosanoff. 

 Family Records: Db. C. B. Davenpobt . . . 639 



Scientific Books: — 



Kofoid on the Plankton of the Illinois 

 River: C. Juday. Friend on the Theory of 

 Valency : Pbofessob Louis Kahlenbebg . . 646 



The Mechanics of Biology : Pbofessob Vebnon 

 L. Kellogg 649 



Notes on Entomology: Db. Nathan Banks . . 650 



Special Articles: — 



The Possible Effects of Cement Dust on 

 Plants: Professor Geobge J. Peiece. The 

 Algce of the Ithaca Marshes: H. A. Andeb- 

 SON. The Molecular Constitution of Solids: 

 J. E. SlEBEL 652 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Anthropological Society of Washing- 

 ton: John R. Swaxton. The New York 

 Section of the American Chemical Society: 

 Db. C. M. Joyce 656 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N, Y. 



TBE QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF OROANIO 

 REACTIONS'- 



Before this body of chemists it is not 

 necessary to call attention to the impor- 

 tance of many of the great researches in 

 the field of so-called pure organic chem- 

 istry. The investigations of Liebig and 

 Woehler and Fischer on uric acid deriva- 

 tives, of Friedel and Kraft and others on 

 the use of aluminium chloride, ferric chlo- 

 ride and zinc chloride in effecting many 

 condensations; of Sandmeyer and Gatter- 

 man, Hantzsch, and Bamberger on the 

 formation of diazo compounds and their 

 derivatives; of Baeyer, Greene, Nietzki, 

 Fischer and others on the formation of 

 dyes; of Willstaetter, Pictet, Koenigs, and 

 Pschorr on the alkaloids ; of Wallach, Tie- 

 mann, Semmler and Harries on the ter- 

 penes; of Fischer, Kiliani, Tollens, Bruyn, 

 Wohl and Ruff on the sugars, and of 

 Fischer, Abderhalden, Neuberg, Curtius, 

 Kossel, Osborne and Chittenden on the 

 proteid compounds— all of these great re- 

 searches speak for themselves in their im- 

 portance to pure science, technology, medi- 

 cine and the biological branches. 



However much the physical chemist may 

 turn up his nose, or hold it, in the organic 

 laboratory and call us pot-boilers and stink- 

 prodiicers and mere compound-makers; 

 however much the clean-working analytical 

 or inorganic chemist may rail at us because 

 we do not, as a rule, collect and weigh our 

 organic precipitates accurately to within 

 0.10 per cent., yet these same deluded col- 



' Address of the chairman of the Division of 

 Organic Chemistry in Section C of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, Bal- 

 timore, 1908. 



