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SCIENCE 



FEh 



Friday, February 21, 1919 



CONTENTS 

 The American Association for ihc Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 Faience: Professor William Albert Noyes 175 



Some Secent Contributions to the Physics of 

 the Air: Dr. W. J. Humphreys 182 



Scientific Events : — 

 The History of Medieval Institutions; Activ- 

 ity of Kilauea Volcano; A Proposed Ameri- 

 can Society of Mammalogists 188 



Scientific Notes and Ne^us 189 



University and Educational News 191 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Standard Scientific Alphabet: J. C. Rup- 

 PENTHAL. Nonsilverablc Containers for Sil- 

 vering Mirrors: Dr. W. W. Coblentz. Sys- 

 tematic Papers published in the German 

 Language: G. F. Hampson 191 



Scientific Bools: — 



Grinnell's Synopsis of the Bats of Cali- 

 fornia: Walter P. Taylor 193 



Botanical Abstracts: J. R. Schramm 195 



Special Articles: — 



Non-specific Protein Antigens prepared 

 from Shattered Hemo-proteins : Dr. Clyde 

 Brooks. A Bio-chemical Theory of the 

 Origin of Indianaite: Willl\m N. Logan 196 



The American Physical Society: Professor 

 Dayton C. Miller 197 



M6S. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 rtview should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garriaon-on- 

 Hudjon. N. Y. 



VALENCEi 



The theory of valence is one of the most 

 important theories of chemistry. Scarcely 

 any other except the atomic theory, with 

 which it is inseparably connected, has been so 

 fruitful in results which have led to industrial 

 applications and also to the development of 

 chemical knowledge. In spite of these re- 

 sults, which no one can dispute, the theory is 

 more or less in disrepute, especially among 

 physical chemists and students and teachers 

 of inorganic chemistrj'. In many of our ele- 

 mentary text-books structural formulas are 

 used so sparingly that they make no impres- 

 sion on the student and in some of them they 

 are not even mentioned. 



This attitude is due, in part, to a reaction 

 from the overemphasis given to the subject 

 at a time when nearly all chemists were work- 

 ing on the structure of organic compovmds. 

 It is due, also, to confused and conflicting 

 ideas about the philosophy of science. 



Some have gone so far as to claim that 

 si>eculations and hypotheses form no part of 

 genuine science. To such i)ersons science is 

 only an orderly description of phenomena 

 which we can see and handle, which we can 

 weigh and measure and connect by mathe- 

 matical processes. An attempt to acquire 

 knowledge about atoms and electrons and 

 molecules, so long as they remain beyond the 

 direct cognizance of our senses, may be inter- 

 esting but to followers of this school such 

 attempts form no part of science. 



To an organic chemist the achievements in 

 the determination of the structure of carbon 

 compounds demonstrate the falsity of such a 

 claim. It may be remarked, in passing, that 



• Address of the chairraaji and retiring vice- 

 president of Section C — Chemistry, American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, Baltimore, 

 December 27, 1918. 



