Apeil 10, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



539 



Germany, we may well hope for further fruits 

 of this initiative here. Perhaps this building 

 will house joint laboratories for the solution 

 of questions aifecting all manufactures alike; 

 or experimental stations for the study of 

 natural products not yet utilized; or a coop- 

 erative bureau of standardization for analy- 

 tical methods; or a national welfare bureau 

 for employees in chemical factories. This 

 building does not owe its erection to some 

 benevolent demigod, extending his protecting 

 wing over people unable to care for them- 

 selves ; it is a building by the chemists, of the 

 chemists, and for the chemists. May it ever 

 serve as an exemplar of unselfish patriotic 

 cooperation ! " 



Pages 128-129 : " . . . For, strange as it may 

 seem to the layman, who has seen the ugliest 

 blots on a landscape designated as chemical 

 factories, who has sniffed with disgust a chem- 

 ical odor, has been urged to believe that the 

 chemist's shadow contaminates pure foods, and 

 has been taught in school that alchemy spelled 

 fraud and sorcery, our science is one calculated 

 to develop the ideal side of human nature, and 

 the chemist, more perhaps than the votary of 

 natural science or the devotee of the so-called 

 humanities, is led to an intense interest in 

 human development. . . ." 



Page 129 : "... Our science aspires not 

 only to know, but also to do. On the one 

 hand, it leads us to delve into the secrets of 

 natiire, in the minute atom as well as in the 

 far distant stars, in the living cell as well as 

 in the crystallized relics of the convulsions 

 from which this earth was born; on the other, 

 it leads us to apply this knowledge to the 

 immediate needs of man, be it in safeguarding 

 his health, in ministering to his material or 

 esthetic wants, or in regulating his commerce 

 and in facilitating his utilization of the 

 earth's resources. . . ." 



"... There are two ways of aiding a man 

 or a cause: by addition to the income or re- 

 duction of the expense. The pecuniary result 

 to the beneficiary may be the same, but the 

 moral one is far different; it is not only the 

 beggar who is pauperized by the cash gift and 

 uplifted by the aid which enables him to earn 



his own livelihood. Arts and sciences may be 

 stimulated by prizes and scholarships beyond 

 a doubt, but the relation between donor and 

 recipient is not free from restraint and the 

 probability of human error in the selection of 

 the right incumbent makes the method a 

 wasteful one at best. . ." 



Part I. contains also his lectures on the 

 " Fundamental Ideas of Physical Chemistry," 

 " Osmotic Pressure," " Electrolytic Dissocia- 

 tion," " Atoms and Molecules," " Hypothesis 

 of Radiant Matter," all models of clear exposi- 

 tion of difiicult subjects. 



The 170 pages of the second part of the volume 

 relate exclusively to original experimental in- 

 vestigations carried out by Morris Loeb since 

 1885. His latest contribution " Studies in 

 the Speed of Reductions " was read by him at 

 the International Congress of Chemistry in 

 1912, a few days before his untimely death, 

 which took him away in the prime of life, 

 from his family and his many friends. 



L. H. Baekeland 



TONKEKS, N. Y. 



Curious Lore of Precious Stones. By George 

 Frederick Kunz. Philadelphia and Lon- 

 don, J. B. Lippincott Company. 1913. Pp. 

 xiv -f- 406. Six color plates, 22 double tones 

 and 24 line cuts. 



The object of this book, as stated in the pref- 

 ace, is to " indicate and illustrate the various 

 ways in which precious stones have been 

 used at different times and among different 

 peoples, and more especially to explain some 

 of the curious ideas and fancies which have 

 gathered around them. Many of these ideas 

 may seem strange to us now, and yet when 

 we analyze them we find they have their roots 

 either in some intrinsic quality of the stones 

 or else in an instinctive appreciation of their 

 symbolic significance. Through manifold 

 transformations this symbolism has persisted 

 to the present day." 



To the interesting task thus outlined Dr. 

 Kunz has brought a lifelong familiarity with 

 gems, knowledge gained by the formation of 

 several collections illustrating the folk-lore of 

 precious stones and the possession of what is 



