614 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 225. 



compounds been made which cannot be pro- 

 duced at lower tempei'atures, but the ac- 

 cessibility of many elements and compounds 

 has been greatly increased. The reductions 

 which Wohler and Deville effected gram- 

 wise in glass and porcelain tubes can now 

 be carried out in the electric furnace pound- 

 wise and even ton-wise. The manipulation 

 of the current for electrolytic purposes, ren- 

 dered possible by increased knowledge of 

 the laws of electricity, as well as by ease of 

 its production, is yielding results chiefly in 

 the domain of inorganic chemistry, while 

 the organic chemist is but tardily utilizing 

 the current as a means of oxidation and re- 

 duction. Besides the extraordinary devel- 

 opment of electro-metallurgy, the prepara- 

 tion of soda and chlorates and other tech- 

 nical processes, the application of electricity 

 to purposes of analysis and for the synthesis 

 of new compounds, such as the rare metal 

 alums, percarbonic and persulphuric acids, 

 and the isolation of fluorine, may be men- 

 tioned. 



Passing to the opposite extreme of tem- 

 perature, we find the development of high- 

 temperature chemistry accompanied by the 

 growth of a chemistry of low temperatures. 

 The very recent improvements in the art 

 of producing cold have made liquid air a 

 cheap material, and with its aid Eamsay 

 has been able to fractionally distil liquefied 

 argon and to separate from it the contam- 

 inating elements of the same group, neon 

 and xenon, as well as krypton and met- 

 argon. 



The part played by the spectroscope in 

 chemistry is more or less familiar to every- 

 one. From the further development of the 

 science of spectroscopy it is clear that inor- 

 ganic chemistry has much to gain. Whether 

 or not the view first suggested by Clarke 

 and long defended by Lockyer be true, that 

 the elements undergo partial decomposition 

 in the stars and nebulte, it is upon this in- 

 strument that we must rely for our knowl- 



edge of the high-temperature chemistry of 

 these bodies, a chemistry which is wholly 

 inorganic. 



The rapid growth of these sciences into 

 which chemistrj' enters is producing an 

 ever increasing demand upon the chemist 

 for new researches. While the biologist must 

 rely mainly on the organic chemist for his 

 chemical data, no less must the mineralogist 

 and geologist appeal to the inorganic chem- 

 ist for the solution of many problems in 

 their field. The formation and decomposi- 

 tion of minerals, the disintegration of rocks, 

 the behavior of rock magmas, the phenom- 

 ena of metamorphism, of ore deposition and 

 vein formation, the influence of high tem- 

 peratures and pressures— all these afford 

 problems the solution of which is hopeless 

 without the assistance of inorganic chem- 

 istry either alone or aided by physical 

 chemistry. The chemist who has to meet 

 the inquiries of the geologist, and who must 

 too often confess our ignorance of the causes 

 of even the simplest phenomena, can not 

 help feeling what a splendid field is here 

 open, awaiting only the advent of workers 

 suitably trained and of laboratories properly 

 equipped for research in chemical geology. 

 The demands of the geologists are unques- 

 tionably destined to be among the most 

 potent factors in the revival of inorganic 

 chemistry. 



It is not to be expected, nor is it to be 

 desired, that inorganic chemistry will at 

 once sweep organic chemistry from its posi- 

 tion of preeminence. The causes to which 

 this is due may outlast our generation, but 

 that the inorganic tide is rising, and that 

 this branch will finally attain its due 

 position, can not be doubted. The re- 

 cent establishment of a Zeitschrift fur an- 

 organische Chemie, while it may be de- 

 plored as increasing the already too great 

 number of chemical journals, and as tend- 

 ing to widen rather than diminish the gap 

 between the organic and inorganic branches, 



