SCIENC 



Editoeial CoiriMiTTEE : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodward, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickering, 



Astronomy; T. C. Mendenhall, Physics; R. H. Thurston, Engineering; Iea Remsbn, Chemistry; 



J. Le Conte, Geology; AV. M. Davis, Physiography; Henry F. Osborn, Paleontology ; W. K. 



Brooks, C. Hart Mereiam, Zoology; S. H. Scuddee, Entomology; C. E. Eessey, N. L. 



Britton, Botany; C. S. MiNOT, Embryology, Histology; H. P. Bowditch, Physiology; 



J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology; Daniel G. Brin- 



TON, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Fkiday, April 28, 1899. 



CONTENTS: 



The Beoival of Inorganic Chemistry: Dr. H. N. 

 Stokes 601 



On the Total Solar Eclipse of 3Iay SS, 1900 : PRO- 

 FESSOR Teoman Henry Safford 615 



Reception and Exhibition of the New York Academy 

 ■ of Sciences: Professor WILLIAM Hallock.. 616 



Scientific BooJcs : — 



Campbell on the Evolution of Plants : Profes- 

 sor Charles E. Bessey. Groos's Die Spiele 

 der Menschen: Hieam M. Stanley. Books 

 received 618 



Scientific Journals and Articles 620 



Societies and Academies : — 



The National Academy of Sciences. Tlie Philo- 

 sophical Society of Washington : E. D. PRES- 

 TON. Geological Society of Washington: Dr. 

 W. F. Moesell. Chemical Society of Wash- 

 ington : De. W. H. Keug. 3Iinnesota Academy 

 of Natural Sciences: Charles P. Beekey. 

 ITie Academy of Sciences of St. Louis : Peofes- 

 SOR William Trelease. Boston Society of 

 Natural History : Samuel Henshaw 621 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



T/ie Action of the Coherer : M. F. LoCKWOOD, 

 E. B. Wheelee. Two-Headed Snakes : Eos- 

 well H. Johnson. Duplication of Geologic 

 Formation Names : F. B. Weeks 624 



Notes on Inorganic Chemistry : J. L. H 626 



Current Notes on Meteorology : 

 Frost Prediction and Protection ; A Fog Dis- 

 peller; Notes: R. DeC. Ward 627 



Scientific Notes and News : — 



The American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science ; Creologieal Survey Work in Alaska: 

 W. F. M Scientific Positions under the Gov- 

 ernment ; General 628 



University and Educational News : — 

 Assistants in Physiology in Harvard Medical 

 School; General 631 



MSS. mtended or publication and books, etc., intended 

 tor review should be sent to the responsible editor. Profes- 

 BOr J. McKeen Cattell, fiarrtaon-on-Hudson N. Y. 



THE REVIVAL OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY.* 

 Nothing can be more instructive to the 

 student interested in the results of intel- 

 lectual cross-fertilization than the effect of 

 the recent fecundation of chemistry by 

 physics. Through the application of phys- 

 ical methods and ideas to chemistry, the 

 latter has given birth to a new branch of 

 study, physical chemistry, which prom- 

 ises to produce as radical a change in 

 our conceptions of molecular phenomena as 

 did the overthrow of the phlogiston theory 

 or the introduction of the conception of 

 valency at a later period. 



The attempt of BerthoUet to introduce 

 dynamical conceptions into chemistry, a,t 

 the beginning of the century, fell on thorny 

 ground, and from that day until very re- 

 cent years the growth of chemistry, great 

 as it has been, has been most remarkably 

 one-sided. The Periodic Law has been dis- 

 covered, many new elements have been 

 found, new compounds without number 

 have been prepared, the rules governing 

 their formations and transformations have 

 been ascertained, and even their micro- 

 scopic anatomy has been studied to such an 

 extent that for countless of them we have 

 established formulas which express, sche- 

 matically, the relative arrangement of the 

 atoms in the molecule. In stereochemistry 

 we have even gone so far as to be able to 



*Anunal address of the President of the Chemical 

 Society of Washington, delivered March 30, 1899. 



