98 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 472. 



■until more systematic direction and prose- 

 cution of the worlv come about. Investiga- 

 tors in pure cliemistry as a rule hold pro- 

 fessorships, or other positions making equal 

 demand upon their.time. Furthermore, it 

 is extremely rare that one man can become 

 a master of the various delicate operations 

 hinted at. Mallet* made a proposition for 

 systematizing atomic weight work and F. 

 W. Clarke in this eountryf and abroadj 

 has urged the establishment of an institute 

 for its prosecution. This appeals to all in- 

 terested in what we are pleased to term the 

 exact sciences, and doubtless in time will 

 come about. For the time being, however, 

 it is not unreasonable to suppose that a 

 concerted appeal of the chemists of this 

 country to the direction of the munificent 

 endowment recentlj^ made American science 

 for funds to clarify the elemental enigma 

 presented above would not be in vain. 

 There are splendidly equipped chemical de- 

 partments in some of our great American 

 universities which would make room for, 

 and cordially welcome, I am sure, a selected 

 corps of supported researchers, who would 

 test the claims of each of these and other 

 elemental aspirants. Such a community of 

 effort should receive even greater substan- 

 tial assistance from governments and cor- 

 porations than has been accorded individ- 

 uals. I need only refer to the aid given 

 the Curies by the Austrian government, 

 and generosity shown by the "Welsbach 

 Lighting Company in this country to sev- 

 eral investigators, especially myself. 



It must be evident to all that we are not 

 indulging in special pleading, for every 

 phase of that division of science designated 

 chemistry rests upon Avhat we choose to 

 term the elements. 



* Stas memorial leeture, Cliemical Society (Lon- 

 don), delivered December 1.3, 1892. 



t Presidential address before the American 

 Chemical Society. 



t Wilde lectnre at the Dalton Centenary, ;Man- 

 chester, 1903. 



Victor Meyer,* referring to the phan- 

 tasies of science, said: "He, however, who 

 only knows chemistry as a tradition of per- 

 fectly clear facts, or who thinks to see the 

 real soul of chemical study in measuring 

 physical phenomena which accompany 

 chemical transformations, feels no breath 

 of this enjoyment." Reflecting upon the 

 good and ill that have come to us through 

 unrestrained imagination, we may give a 

 careful acceptance of Newton's 'Physics, 

 beware of metaphysics' for as Clifford 

 wrote, 'Doubtless there shall by and by be 

 laws as far transcending those we know as 

 they do the simplest observations.' 



The graphic representation of the ele- 

 ments, 'the foundation stones of the ma- 

 terial universe which amid the wreck of 

 composite matter remained unbroken and 

 unworn,' as Maxwell gracefully spoke of 

 them, has often been mistaken for the 

 periodic law. Carnelley's 'reasonable ex- 

 planations' of the periodic law were given 

 a respectful hearing and forgotten, f 



"Granting that the chemical character- 

 istics of an element are connected with its 

 atomic weight, we have, however, no right 

 to assume them to be dependent upon that 

 fact alone" (Liveing). Hinrichs says 

 weight and form, + concerning the latter of 

 which I am ignorant. No doubt the pen- 

 dulum lately has swung back toward Ber- 

 zelian thought revivified by the like mas- 

 ters, van't Hoff and Arrhenius. 



Le Verier predicted the planet Neptune 



* Lecture on ' The Chemical Problems of To-day ' 

 before the Association of German Naturalists and 

 Physicians at Heidelberg, September, 1889; 

 Chemical News, 61, 21. 



t He regarded the elements as compounds of 

 carbon and ether analogous to the hydrocarbon 

 radicals, and suggested that all known bodies are 

 made up of three primary elements — carbon, 

 hydrogen and ether — truly an assumption which 

 can not be disproved. Aberdeen meeting, British 

 Association. 



J 'Atom Mechanics,' Hinrichs, Vol. I., St. Louis, 

 1894, p. 242. 



