942 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1017 



we obtained our results from " the same iden- 

 tical preparations." Montgomery never saw 

 my preparations, nor I his. For a minor part 

 of his work he used some material from the 

 same individual I had worked on, but this 

 jnaterial had been standing in alcohol some 

 two years before he obtained it from me, so 

 that it is to be expected that he would not get 

 as clear-cut preparations as from freshly fixed 

 material, to say nothing of the fact that fixa- 

 tion may have been unequal in different bits 

 of the tissue. 



Concerning the question of sex chromosomes 

 in fowls, I may say that in my opinion the 

 final word has by no means yet been said. 

 I hope in the near future to contribute some 

 further evidence in the matter. 



M. F. GUYER 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Chemistry in America. Chapters from the 



History of the Science in the United States. 



By Edgar F. Smith, Blanchard Professor 



of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania. 



Illustrated. New York and London, D. 



Appleton and Company. 1914. Pp. xiii + 



354. Price $2.50. 



In his preface the author says : " The writer 

 has lectured for several years to his graduate 

 students on the development of chemistry in 

 the United States. A mass of material has 

 been collected, most of which is not only in- 

 teresting but valuable. Eepeated requests 

 have been made for the publication of these 

 facts as a history of chemistry in the United 

 States. To the writer's mind the information 

 in his possession is not sufficiently complete 

 to warrant such an important undertaking. 

 The earliest endeavors of our country's scien- 

 tists require even more careful and extended 

 research." 



The earliest contribution to chemistry from 

 this country appeared September 10, 1767, in 

 the Transactions of the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society. The title is " An Analysis of the 

 Chalybeate Waters of Bristol in Pennsyl- 

 vania." The author is Dr. John de Nor- 

 mandie. Liberal quotations from the article 

 are given which show that the author used the 



balance. Then follow quotations from an 

 article by James Madison, who was professor 

 of chemistry and natural philosophy at Wil- 

 liam and Mary College as early as 1774, and 

 from an article by Dr. Robert McCauslin. 

 The author of the book thereupon remarks : 

 " These communications testify to a spirit of 

 inquiry, at least, on the part of our early de- 

 votees to science. They are, further, interest- 

 ing in that they show the use of the balance as 

 early as 1768 and indicate the steps of analy- 

 sis." 



In 1792 the Chemical Society of Philadel- 

 phia was founded by James Woodhouse. The 

 fact is noted that the members of this society 

 favored Lavoisier's doctrine of combustion. 



According to Dr. Smith " the arrival of 

 Joseph Priestley in America in 1794, and his 

 frequent presence among the men of science 

 of that day, greatly stimulated scientific 

 studies." But Priestley's thoughts appear to 

 have been on theological subjects fully as 

 much as on scientific in these latter years of 

 his life. He was elected professor of chemistry 

 in the University of Pennsylvania in 1794 but 

 felt obliged to decline the honor. In a letter 

 to Dr. Eush in regard to this he says : " Noth- 

 ing could have been so pleasing to me as the 

 employment, and I should have been happy in 

 your society, and that of other friends in the 

 capital, and, what I have much at heart, I 

 should have an opportunity of forming an 

 Unitarian congregation in Philadelphia." 



Thomas Cooper, professor at Dickinson Col- 

 lege and afterwards at the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, was the first one to make metallic 

 potassium in this country. He was also the 

 editor of Thomas Thomson's " System of 

 Chemistry." From 1820 to 1834 he was presi- 

 dent of the College of South Carolina, " at- 

 taining distinction as an extreme advocate of 

 the States' Eights doctrine during the nullifi- 

 cation period." 



Eobert Hare, who was born in Philadelphia 

 in 1781, was without doubt the most influential 

 chemist of his time in America. In 1801, when 

 he was only 20 years old, he communicated to 

 the Chemical Society of Philadelphia a de- 

 scription of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe which 



