OCTOBER 27, 1899.] 
cational organizations where it is pretended 
to be taught. 
United States. 
It is my duty on this occasion to give 
some expression to this subject in its rela- 
tion to America or to the Western Hemis- 
phere. The length of this address precludes 
an exhaustive examination. The student or 
reader might, before proceeding further,read 
the address delivered before this Section, the 
first by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton* at New York 
in 1887, the title being ‘A Review of the 
Data for the Study of the Prehistoric Chro- 
nology of America’; and the second that of 
Dr. C. C. Abbott at Cleveland in 1898, the 
title being ‘Evidence of the Antiquity of 
Man in Eastern North America.’ 
The conditions under which the begin- 
nings of our knowledge of prehistoric man 
were made, were quite different in America 
from those of Europe. In western Europe 
the historic period began with the invasion of 
Caesar, fifty or more years before the Chris- 
tian era, and the prehistoric period with 
which we have had to deal came to a close 
about that time. 
On the contrary, in America the prehis- 
toric period continued until the discovery 
of the country by Columbus, and its subse- 
quent occupation by the white man who 
was thus brought face to face with the pre- 
historic man. The superstitions, myths 
and folklore concerning stone hatchets and 
flint arrow heads so prevalent in western 
Europe, had no place in America. It was 
useless to talk to the white man of the 
heavenly origin of the stone hatchet or the 
flint arrow head, when he knew by the evi- 
dence of his own senses that these were 
the implements and weapons of the prehis- 
toric savage with which he had to deal. 
Tuomas WILSON. 
U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
(To be concluded. ) 
* Died at Atlantic City, July 30, 1899. Resolutions 
of condolence were adopted by Section H at the meet- 
ing after the delivery of this address. 
SCIENCE. 
601 
CHEMISTRY AT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
_ FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
As has been the custom for several years, 
the American Chemical Society united with 
the Section in its meetings, the program on 
Monday and Tuesday being in charge of 
the Society and on the other days in charge 
of the Section. This has resulted very 
favorably to both parties and never more 
so than this year when over fifty papers 
were on the program and the attendance of 
chemists has been only once if ever sur- 
passed. 
The address of the Vice-President, Dr. 
F. P. Venable, on ‘The Definition of the 
Element,’ has already been published in 
this JOURNAL. 
On Monday morning after the adjourn- 
ment of the general session of the Associa- 
tion, several reports of committees were 
read. The most important was that of the 
Committee of the Chemical Society on Coal 
Analysis. This was presented by W. A. 
Noyes, the chairman of the committee and 
was the final report, and took up chiefly 
the matters of sampling and of moisture. 
Much discussion was elicited. The reading 
of papers began on Monday afternoon and 
continued until Thursday afternoon, when 
the Section adjourned. 
A number of the papers read presented 
special interest in the field of inorganic 
chemistry. One of these was by W. R. 
Whitney on the nature of the change in 
chromium salts from violet to green on 
heating. It has of late been quite generally 
recognized that the chromium salt, say the 
sulfate, is decomposed on heating its solu- 
tion into free acid and a more basic salt. 
The hitherto unsolved problem has been to 
determine the amount of free acid formed. 
This Mr. Whitney solved in a very inge- 
nious manner. By enclosing the salt be- 
tween gelatine walls in a U-tube the acid is 
made to diffuse, under the influence of an 
electric current, completely into the jelly, 
