442 
haze which surrounded and covered the 
truths already developed and opened the 
way for further promotion of the newly- 
born science. Lavoisier had led, by the in- 
troduction of systematic and accurate ob- 
servation and record, to the crystallization 
of what had so far concentrated, and his 
associates, imbued with his spirit and in- 
spired by his genius, were ready and will- 
ing to carry forward what he had so nobly 
begun. x 
And so the science was launched. 
it has progressed during the century now 
closing has been told in many ways by many 
men, and the history seems ever new. New 
laws and new truths found applications in 
the industries and increased the material 
wealth, and the industries in turn furnished 
the material, the data, the incentive, for 
much of the additional investigation neces- 
sary to the development of the further laws. 
The activity of the last decade of the last 
century has its counterpart in that of the 
century just closing. If the former century 
established the foundations, the closing cen- 
tury has furnished a superstructure worthy 
of the great minds who began the work. 
And whether we consider the later achieve- 
ments from the side of abstract science, or 
from that of the applications of the great 
laws to the material needs, the glory is 
equally manifest and the wonder no less pro- 
found. Whether we consider argon, and 
helium, neon, krypton and xenon, and 
the beautiful researches which led to their 
discovery, polonium amd radium, and their 
remarkable properties, the Rontgen re- 
actions or the liquefied gases, and the at- 
tainment of the almost lowest limit of low 
temperatures ; or the wonderful advances 
in illumination, the production of high tem- 
peratures in the electric furnace, the de- 
velopment of new compounds and forms of 
matter through the aid of these tempera- 
tures, the applications of high electric ten- 
sions to the production of new reactions, 
SCIENCE. 
How 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 325. 
even those most familiar with them must 
- feel the influence of the mighty strides and 
look into the future with enthusiastic hope. 
The interest manifested in the new 
science in the old world was quickly ex- 
tended to the new, and it found most active 
lodgment here. Students and associates 
of Black in Scotland, Fothergill in Hng- 
land and of the French chemists of the 
last quarter of the century in Paris started 
the work, and the names of Rush, Hutch- 
inson, Woodhouse, McLean, Franklin, 
Rumford, Priestley, Silliman, Hare, Sey- 
bert, Norton, Dana and others, will ever 
find affectionate memories in the minds of 
the chemists of America. What these 
men started has been actively developed by 
those who followed them, until to-day the 
science and its applications find more ac- 
tual workers in our country than are to be 
found in any other country within the 
bounds of civilization. 
The first half of the century had com- 
paratively few men in the United States 
who could be classed as working chemists. 
Chemistry had, it is true, been taught in a 
way in many of the colleges. But syste- 
matic work, as we know it to-day in many 
of the institutions of learning, was practi- 
eally unknown. Those who felt the spe- 
cial need of, and had a desire for, such 
instruction were constrained to seek the 
facilities in other lands, until generous and 
at the same time practical men, such as 
Lawrence, Sheffield, Packer, Pardee and 
Harrison, with enterprising eyes and pro- 
phetie vision, saw the advantages to be de- 
rived from the further development of the 
sciences and provided the means whereby 
well-furnished laboratories could be opened 
up, and facilities for the profound study of 
the science could be made possible. But 
the industrial needs of the country for 
more exact knowledge of the natural laws 
extended beyond private munificence, and 
the national legislatures early recognized 
