346 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 296. 



tions,' by Louis Kahlenberg — Faraday's law 

 was found to hold approximately in such, solu- 

 tions ; ' Vapor-pressure Relations in Mixtures 

 of Two Liquids, II,' by A. E. Taylor; 'On the 

 Determination of Transition Temperatures,' by 

 H. M. Dawson and P. Williams ; ' The Driving 

 Tendency of Physico-Chemical Reaction, and 

 its Temperature Coeflacient,' by T. W. Rich- 

 ards. 



June. 'The Allotropic Forms of Selenium,' 

 by A. P. Saunders — an exhaustive contribution 

 to an illy investigated subject. The author 

 finds that selenium exists in three distinct 

 forms : 



1. Liquid (including vitreous, amorphous, 

 and soluble selenium). 



2. Crystalline red (including perhaps two 

 closely allied forms). 



3. Crystalline gray or metallic. 



'An Exposition of the Entropy Theory,' by J. 

 B. Trevor; 'Entropy and Heat-Capacity,' by 

 J. E. Trevor ; ' The Relation of the Taste of 

 Acid Salts to their Degree of Dissociation, II,' 

 by Louis Kahlenberg — showing that the theory 

 of electrolytic dissociation does not satisfactorily 

 account for the phenomena connected with the 

 sour taste of acid salts of weak acids. A re- 

 joinder to the work of T. W. Richards and of 

 A. A. Noyes. 



should think that at least thirty men of science 

 should be included among the one hundred. 

 Henry Montgomery. 

 Trinity University, Toronto, 

 August 20, 1900. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



EMINENT AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE. 



To THE Editor of Science : In Science of 

 August 17th I notice the names of about twenty 

 eminent Americans proposed as suitable to be 

 engraved in the Hall of Fame of the New York 

 University and also your question as to how 

 many men of science should be included, and 

 who they should be. In response to the query 

 I beg respectfully to suggest the following 

 names : Professor O. C. Blarsh, Professor E. 

 D. Cope, Dr. James Hall, Dr. D. G. Brinton, 

 Professor J. D. Dana, Professor Newberry, Pro- 

 fessor Orton, and Professor Alexander Win- 

 chell, in addition to those already mentioned. 

 I do not see how these eight names could 

 be omitted from such a list, nor do I see how 

 the names of Henry, Silliman, Torrey, Gray, 

 Hitchcock, and Baird could be left out. I 



INTEBNATIONAL COMMISSION ON AT03nC 

 WEIGHTS. 



Science for August 17th contained a resum6 

 of the report of the committee of the German 

 Chemical Society, giving the views of the In- 

 ternational Commission on . Atomic Weights. 

 On the chief point at issue, the selection of a 

 standard for atomic weights, with the exception 

 of six German members and one American 

 (Professor Mallet), the commission was unan- 

 imous for oxygen ^= 16. This point, at least, 

 would have seemed settled, but the German 

 minority have in the last Chemical News re- 

 opened the question. The essence of their 

 argument for H ^ 1 is comprised in the follow- 

 ing paragraph : 



"For the teacher, simplicity and clearness of 

 the foundation seem specially important ; in- 

 struction must suffer no harm with regard to 

 the enlightening construction of the law of 

 volumes, no shadow of doubt must penetrate 

 the doctrine of valency. Regard for the un- 

 derstanding of prospective chemists will com- 

 pel us therefore, under all circumstances, in 

 teaching and in our text-books, to retain Dal- 

 ton's numbers, and Professor F. W. Clarke, 

 the worthy editor of the Annual Atomic Weight 

 Tables of the American Chemical Society, au- 

 thorizes us to say that he recommends the re- 

 taining of the standard H = 1. For if numbers 

 were used in practice which were unsuitable to 

 use in teaching, confusion would be the natural 

 consequence, instead of the unanimity desired 

 by all." 



The German minority therefore calls upon 

 all teachers of chemistry in universities and 

 technical high schools to take a definite posi- 

 tion in regard to this matter, and to send their 

 answers to the subjoined questions to Professor 

 J. Volhard, Halle- a-S., Miihlpforte 1, at their 

 earliest convenience. The editor of the Chem- 

 ical News also desires to publish copies of these 

 replies. The questions are as follows : 



1. Shall the unity of hydrogen be retained 

 as the standard for reckoning atomic weights ? 



2. Shall the atomic weights be given approx- 

 imately with two decimal places in which the 



