SCIENCE 



Friday, January 14, 1910 

 contents 



Th^ American Association, for tUe Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 The Past and Future of the Study of Solu- 

 tions: Pkofessob Louis Kaheenberg .... 41 



On the Nature of Response to Chemical 

 Stimulation: Professor H. M. Richards.. 52 



Public Lectures at the Harvard Medical School 62 



The Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- 

 ment of Teaching 63 



Scientific Notes and News 64 



University and Educational News 67 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



Cotton Anthracnose: H. W. Barbe. Meta- 

 physics and Mendelism: J. F. Abbott. 

 Hydrogen Polysulphide as a Reducing 

 Agent : Dr. Alfred Tingle 68 



Scientific Books: — 



Greene's Landmarks of Botanical History: 

 Professor Charles E. Bessey. Fauth on 

 the Moon in Modern Astronomy, Olcott's 

 in Starland with a Three-inch Telescope: 

 C. L. P 69 



Scientific Journals and Articles 72 



The First Cruise of the " Carnegie " and her 

 Equipment : De. L. A. Bauer 73 



Special Articles: — 



The Pleistocene of the Missouri Valley: 

 Professor B. Shimek 75 



The Boston Meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science: — 

 Report of the General Secretary: Pro- 

 fessor Dayton C. Miller 76 



Societies and Academies: — ■ 



The Botanical Society of Washington: W. 

 W. Stockbeegee. The Philosophical So- 

 ciety of Washington: E,. L. Faris. The 

 Washington Chemical Society: J. A. Le 

 Clerc. The New York Section of the 

 American Chemical Society: Dr. C. M. 

 Joyce. The Association of Teachers of 

 Mathematics in the Middle States and 

 Maryland: Eugene R. Smith; New York 

 Section : Lao G. Simons 78 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., Intended for 

 review sbould be sent to the Editor of Sciehce, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson. N. Y. 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 I ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



THE PAST AND FUTURE OF THE STUDY 

 OF SOLUTIONS^ 



Solutions have been known since earli- 

 est times, and the problems which they 

 represent have been studied by a long line 

 of very able investigators. All of the early 

 work on solutions has been inseparably 

 linked with the study of chemical phenom- 

 ena. . Indeed, up to the year 1887 chemical 

 views of solutions have predominated. So 

 for example, in his lectures delivered at 

 Yale College in 1837, Benjamin Silliman, 

 Sr., considered solutions as chemical com- 

 pounds; and in his memorable work on 

 theoretical chemistry which appeared in 

 1863, Herman Kopp treated solutions as 

 chemical compounds that exhibit variable 

 proportions, which mode of treatment was 

 retained by A. Horstmann when in 1883 

 he wrote the second volume of the new 

 edition of Kopp's work, now known as 

 Graham-Otto's "Lehrbuch der physikal- 

 ischen und theoretischen Chemie. " Ever 

 since the days of Lavoisier, when the so- 

 called law of definite proportions was first 

 recognized, a distinction has been drawn 

 between compounds which follow that law 

 and combinations that do not. Chemical 

 combinations which exhibit definite quali- 

 tative and quantitative composition that 

 can not be varied gradually by small incre- 

 ments arbitrarily chosen were soon termed 

 definite chemical compounds, whereas so- 

 lutions, whose composition may be varied 

 gradually, quite arbitrarily— at least 



•Address of the vice-president and chairman of 

 Section C — Chemistry — American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, Boston, 1909. 



