December 31, 1009] 



SCIENCE 



963 



else, is that, (/' there be terms, which he 

 calls points, and might as well call "roints" 

 or "raths" or "momes" or any other name 

 (what's in a name?), that satisfy the given 

 postulates, then they satisfy certain propo- 

 sitions called theorems. The only existence 

 asserted by or in geometry is thus the exist- 

 ence of certain implications. As to subject- 

 matter, that of geometry, as Russell has, I 

 think, shown beyond a reasonable doubt, is 

 multiple series or, more radically, the rela- 

 tions by which such series are generated or 

 in which they extensionally consist. 



I wish to add in closing that this address 

 had not been possible but for the far-reach- 

 ing i'e.searehes and brilliant expositions of 

 Schroder, Russell and Couturat in the 

 works already cited. C. J. KeySeb 



CoLiisiBiA University 



CHEMISriiY AT HARVARD UNIVERfilTY 



The following letter has been prepared by 

 the coinmittee of overseers to visit the chem- 

 ical laboratory of Harvard University and by 

 several others who are especially interested in 

 the subject : 



Harvard Univer.sity is in urgent need of the 

 endowment of modern facilities for cliemical in- 

 struction and research. 



Some progress toward such an endowment has 

 already been made by the conditional offer of 

 contributions for the con.struction of a special 

 laboratory for research in physical and inorganic 

 chemistry, as a memorial to Wolcott Gibbs. 



Wolcott Gibbs was a pioneer in scientific re- 

 search in the field of inorganic and physical chem- 

 istry, and for many years was considered the 

 foremost chemist of America. He died on Decem- 

 ber 9, 1908, in his eighty-seventh year. The 

 greater part of his useful life was spent as Rum- 

 ford professor at Harvard University, and it is 

 eminently fitting that any memorial to this great 

 and good man should take a form which would 

 further that branch of chemistry to which he had 

 devoted his splendid abilities. 



This project forms a highly suitable beginning 

 of the much-needed endowment of modem facili- 

 ties for chemical instruction and research at 

 Harvard University, because in precise investiga- 

 tions of this kind Harvard is among the leading 



iublitutions uf the world. Such work deiimnds, 

 for its highest development, construction and 

 facilities superior to any now in cxintence; and 

 above all this laboratory should be designed for 

 research only, and separated from the rooms in 

 which elementary teaching is conducted. The new 

 liuilding would also partially relieve the verj- dis- 

 advantageous and unhygienic condition of Boyls- 

 ton Hall, now one of the most crying evils in 

 Harvard University. 



This Wolcott Gibbs ilemorial Laboratory would 

 form part of the group of several buildings neces- 

 sary for the adequate accommodation of the de- 

 partment of chemistry. The report of the Com- 

 mittee of Overseers to Visit the Chemical Labora- 

 tory contains a provisional plan of this projected 

 group, which offers a magnificent opportunity for 

 other large gifts. These would form dignified 

 memorials of benefactors or those named by them, 

 as well as permanent sources of usefulness to 

 Harvard and to America. 



The report just mentioned calls attention to the 

 important role played by pure chemistry in almost 

 all departments of industrial science which con- 

 tribute towards the health and prosperity of man- 

 kind, and concludes: 



" The last centurj' has been a century of power, 

 by the perfection of machinery and the develop- 

 ment of electricity. The coming century promises 

 to be a chemical century. Should Harvard, if all 

 this be true, be content until it has obtained the 

 best chemical laboratory in the world 1 " 



Towards the erection of the Wolcott Gibbs Me- 

 morial Laboratory subscriptions of nearly $.53,000 

 have already been made, most of them upon the 

 condition that $47,000 more be immediately se- 

 cured. Checks either for this fund or as contribu- 

 tions toward one of the other laboratory buildings 

 may be drawn to the order of Charles Francis 

 Adams, 2d, treasurer of Harvard College, 50 State 

 Street, Boston. 



J. Collins Warren. Charles W. Eliot, 



James M. Crafts. Aijjxandeb Aoassiz, 



Ei.iin: Thomson, Henrv P. Walcott, 



K. D. Pearce, Henrv L. Higginson, 



Clifford Richardson, Alexander Cochrane. 

 Charles H. W. Foster, Frederick P. Fisn, 

 Morris Loeb, Harrison S. Morris. 



A. Lawrence Lowell, E. 1L\llinckbodt. Jr., 

 Committee of the Overseers to Visit the 

 Chemical Lahoraiory 



President Lowell's interest is emphatically 

 expressed in the following letter, which he 

 kindly permits to be published : 



