OcTOBER 6, 1898. ] 
minism and free will does not exist for the 
naturalist—not because he doubts his freedom 
and responsibility, but because he knows nothing 
of determinism. 
We cannot be surprised that some students of 
science should confuse their reasonable expecta- 
tions that the future will, on the whole, be 
essentially like the past with belief that it must 
so be, when we remember how often they have 
been told by philosophers like Ward that the 
scientific conception of the mechanism of nature 
is the conception of ‘an unbroken and unbreak- 
able mechanism,’ which ‘ absolutely determines’ 
the order of events, and ‘banishes spirit and 
spontaneity,’ ‘holding all things fast in fate’; 
although most men of science are now as em- 
phatic as Berkeley in the declaration that natu- 
ralism means nothing of the sort. What they 
assert that it does mean is that we know nothing 
of ‘catastrophes.’ As Sir Thomas Browne tells 
us: ‘‘It was the ignorance of man’s nature that 
begat this very name, and by a careless term 
miscalled the providence of God; for there is 
no liberty for causes to operate in a-loose or 
careless way.’’ 
W. K. Brooks. 
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. 
MEDICAL SCIENCES IN THE UNIVERSITY. 
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE.—Permit me to 
call attention to a somewhat inaccurate state- 
ment made by Professor Minot in his very inter- 
esting address delivered at the Medical Com- 
mencement of Yale University and subsequently 
published in SctencE. Professor Minot says: 
“Tf a young man wishes to make a scientific 
career, if his interest is chemistry, physics, 
botany or zoology, he is received at one of our 
universities started upon a well-planned course 
properly systematized, he gives for two or three 
years most of his strength to his main subject, 
but he follows probably two cognate subjects as 
minor studies, and at the end of his time, if 
successful in his work, he receives a degree, 
which attests his proficiency in his special sci- 
ence. Should the same young man elect to 
study one of.the medical sciences, physiology, 
pathology or bacteriology, no university will 
give him corresponding recognition. The ut- 
most he can find is opportunity for advanced 
SCIENCE. 
499 
work in his special subject, but with no univer- 
sity guidance, no plan of correlated studies, and 
he can look forward to no degree, nor even to a 
certificate from the university.’’ . 
In this University, from its foundation in 
1876, physiology has been given complete uni- 
versity standing. Its courses are coordinate in 
every way with those in chemistry, physics, 
botany or zoology, and many students have 
offered it, after three or more years of continu- 
ous study, as a major subject for the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy. The same may be said 
with regard to pathology and bacteriology. 
I speak only for the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity, but there are other universities in this 
country in which physiology is also accorded 
every privilege in the philosophical faculty. 
W. H. Howe tt. 
JoHNS HopKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE, MD. 
September 28, 1899. 
NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
Owine to the difficulties in the way of using 
acetylene on a large scale as an illuminant, and 
in part perhaps also owing to the opposition 
raised by those interested in other methods of 
lighting, the new illuminant has not made the 
rapid progress predicted for it. Some towns on 
the continent of Europe, however, have adopted 
it, as the town of Veszprim in Hungary, and in 
a recent number of the Chemiker Zeitung, Pro- 
fessor J. Vértess gives a paper on some of the 
drawbacks which attend the use of acetylene. 
In the first place the calcium carbid from which 
it is generated is in commerce never pure, but 
contains at least 20 per cent. of impurities. 
Theoretically, 350 liters acetylene per kilo car- 
bid should be obtained, but as a matter of fact 
in practice hardly more than 280 or 290 liters 
can be depended upon. Again, the carbid con- 
tains sulfur, phosphorus and nitrogen, so that 
we have as impurities in the acetylene, hydro- 
gen sulfid, phosphin and ammonia; hence it 
follows that acetylene must be purified in much 
the same way as ordinary coal gas. While burn- 
ing from an ordinary burner, after a time the 
flame becomes smoky and carbon is deposited 
on the burners. This seems to be owing to the 
burner attaining a temperature higher than that 
of the decomposition of acetylene. Vértess also 
