552 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 405. 



from their student days to the high positions 

 which they all attained, with an interest which 

 never flags. The personal relations of those 

 who were contemporaries are also happily 

 stated, and the hook, as a whole, gives us a 

 living picture of the growth of chemical sci- 

 ence which difl^ers, most fortunately, from 

 most of the systematic treatises on the history 

 of chemistry. 



In the controversial address, inspired by 

 Berthelot's ' La Revolution Chimique,' in 

 which he claimed for Lavoisier the right to 

 the discovery and coordination of those gen- 

 eral ideas relating to the composition of air 

 and water. Dr. Thorpe is a sturdy and con- 

 vincing defender of the claims of Priestley and 

 Cavendish. And yet we cannot help feeling 

 that his task would have been an easier one 

 if the English chemists had not held on so 

 tenaciously to the fantastical idea of phlogis- 

 ton, which prevented them from grasping the 

 true and simple relation of oxygen and nitro- 

 gen in air and oxygen and hydrogen in water. 

 That this controversy does not blind the au- 

 thor to seeing Lavoisier in his true position as 

 the founder of modern chemistry is shown in 

 his article on Lavoisier in the Contemporary 

 Review of December, 1900, in which he speaks 

 of him as ' the dominant figure in the chemical 

 world of the last century.' 



The addresses are all of such great interest 

 and value that it is not easy to select one or 

 more of especial merit. And yet it is perhaps 

 noticeable that the author is most attracted 

 by the personality of Graham among the Eng- 

 lish chemists and of Wohler, Kopp and Victor 

 Meyer among the German. Admirable they 

 all are, and well worthy of collection in the 

 permanent form now before us. 



The concluding addresses on 'The Rise and 

 Development of Synthetic Chemistry,' 'On 

 the Progress of Chemistry in Great Britain 

 and Ireland during the Nineteenth Century,' 

 and 'On the Development of the Chemical 

 Arts during the Reign of Queen Victoria' are 

 worthy of a place in the volume, but they lack 

 the life of the addresses which deal with the 

 personality of the masters of the science. 



The history of chemistry is not often suc- 

 cessfully taught in oiir technical schools, for 



the reason, perhaps, that not many teachers 

 are able to make it interesting. With this 

 collection of essays as a basis for reading, the 

 average teacher would find his students much 

 more receptive of systematic instruction in 

 the subject. 



T. M. Drown. 

 Lehigh Universitt. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



Contents of September, 1902, number of 

 Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Elec- 

 tricity : 



Portrait of General Sir Edward Sabine, Frontis- 

 piece; ' Ueber Die Meteorologische Natur der 

 Variationen des Erdmagnetismus,' A. Nippoldt; 

 ' Work in Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric 

 Electricity in Soutli Africa,' J. C. Beattie ; ' Wilson 

 and Gibbs's Vector Analysis,' E. W. Hyde ; ' Note 

 Sur L' Amplitude de L'Oseillation Diurne de la D6- 

 elinaison Magnetique et Son In^galitS Mensuelle,' 

 J. de Moidrey; 'Note Sur la Variation Seculaire 

 de la Dficlinaison a Zi-ka-wei (Chine), J. de 

 Moidrey ; ' Biographical Sketch of General Sir Ed- 

 ward Sabine, F.R.S., K.C.B.' ; ' Magnetic Deflec- 

 tion of Long Steel Wire Plumb-lines,' W. Hallock; 

 ' Divergence of Long Plumb-lines at the Tama- 

 rack Mine,' F. W. MeNair; Notes, Abstracts and 

 Reviews, Recent Publications. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



INVESTIGATION VERSUS ERUDITION. 



To THE Editor of Science : It is very 

 natural and desirable that scientific men of 

 experience should give counsel upon the edu- 

 cation of those to whom their labors, finished 

 and unfinished, must be bequeathed. On the 

 other hand, it will be a misfortune if they who 

 have surrounded themselves with facilities for 

 investigating their respective subjects forget 

 the condition of the beginner and mislead him 

 either with vain hopes or with unwarranted 

 discouragement. Both these dangers seem to 

 inhere in a proposition advanced in many of 

 the addresses before scientific bodies, with 

 which the columns of Science abound. Pro- 

 fessor Thurston's able paper furnishes a 

 recent and excellent example of the bogus 

 educational axiom to which exception is taken. 



