~ MARCH 22, 1901.] 
training for any specialty rests upon the 
broadest foundation in the whole of scien- 
tific chemistry.”? Dr. Duisberg says further: 
‘in technical chemistry the sharp eye of the 
scientifically trained man is wanted in order 
to recognize the individual developments of 
the reactions in progress, which can be seen 
only through the accompanying indica- 
tions.” And Richard Meyer truthfully de- 
clared:: ‘‘if our technologists did not prop- 
erly appreciate the service rendered by men 
trained in the spirit of Liebig, chemical in- 
vestigation would miss the stately crowd of 
auxiliary powers, without which the heights, 
from which we may now look proudly back- 
ward and hopefully forward, could never 
have been attained.”” And W. H. Perkin 
says that ‘‘technical education will be of 
small value unless it is carried out on a 
very broad and scientific basis.” 
These views of the leaders in the science 
of chemistry must find an echo in the mind 
of every man who has had experience in 
the industries. In no department of hu- 
man activity is a thorough knowledge of 
the fundamental laws so needful, nor can 
the knowledge of any law be safely neg- 
lected if successful work is to prevail. For 
all the laws apply all the time and few 
cases will arise in which the more impor- 
tant can be avoided. To suppose that the 
industries can be carried on in the face of 
severe competition without such knowledge 
is to invite failure in every case. EHmpiri- 
cism may succeed in times of plenty, but 
adversity breeds rationalism and fosters 
the support it can bring. So then we may 
make no distinction between inorganic and 
organic chemistry, analytic and physical 
chemistry, for each one has its place in the 
world’s work and no one can predict when 
any one of these branches will be called 
upon to render material aid. 
But whatever may be the department of 
chemical study, the relation of the science 
to physics will be keenly felt and the de- 
SCIENCE. 
449 
pendence of each upon mathematics as the 
true foundation will become manifest. For 
this latter science is just as powerful an aid 
in the determination of the motions of the 
atom and molecule in matter as of those of 
the worlds and constellations in space. And 
if it cannot be neglected in astronomy, no 
more can it in chemistry and physics. In- 
deed, it illustrates the unity of all the 
sciences, even as it does the correlation of 
allthe forces. Dr. Lorenz set forth the need 
of all chemists in this particular when he 
said: ‘‘ Modern electro chemistry is an ex- 
act science and its principles and a knowl- 
edge of it rests upon a foundation of math- 
ematics. it is in every way desirable that 
every electrochemist shall be trained in the 
higher mathematics and be thoroughly 
able to utilize both differential and integral 
ealculus.”’ He particularly recommends as 
a preparation therefor the ‘ Introduction to 
the Mathematical Treatment of the Sciences 
of Nernst and Schonflies’ and says: ‘‘if the 
student have an intensive rather than ex- 
tensive training in mathematics, he may 
be thrown into the sea of natural science 
and left to swim.’”’ So also Foerster dis- 
cussing the character of the instruction 
in electrochemistry in the technical high 
school, while insisting upon ‘ thorough fun- 
damental work in organic and inorganic 
chemistry, physics and physical chemistry ’” 
does not fail to include in his plan of work 
‘the principles of higher mathematics.’ Dr. 
Koerner, discussing the ‘Importance of 
Physical Chemistry to the Industries,’ says: 
‘‘Tt is most characteristic of it (physical 
chemistry) that it utilizes the most power- 
ful of all natural aids to scientific investi- 
gation, the higher mathematies.”” And in 
the curricula of the technical high-schools 
in Germany we find almost without excep- 
tion that in the course of chemistry, as 
well as in engineering, the higher mathe- 
matics is taken up and completed before 
the end of the first part of the year, if not 
