Makch 25, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



513 



quoting Locke's complaint as to the neglect 

 of the mother-tongue; and he has returned to 

 the theme again and again. At Harvard he 

 has built up an English department that has 

 been a stimulus to every other college and to 

 schools of all grades. 



In this vast enterprise, President Eliot him- 

 self, the moving spirit, has had neither the 

 authority nor the will to force the action of 

 faculties or comm.ittees. More than once he 

 has seen his opinions thrown into the arena of 

 open debate and voted down. But, convinced 

 that his views, if sound, will ultimately tri- 

 umph, he has waited with Olympian calm for 

 the march of events. Thotigh the immediate 

 effect of the changes has in some cases seemed 

 to be chaos, he has never been discouraged; 

 he has shown that, to rearrange a curriculum, 

 to train competent instructors in new subjects, 

 to establish traditions of mental discipline, 

 will be the task of generations yet to come. 



In his discussion of public questions he has 

 insisted upon the right of the individual to 

 attain his highest intellectual and moral de- 

 velopment, unchecked by a cast-iron regimen 

 of studies, or by intolerance in church or 

 state. His criticisms of organized labor have 

 voiced the conviction of our sanest publicists, 

 that ' democracy must profoundly distrust the 

 labor union's too frequent effort to restrict the 

 efficiency and the output of the individual 

 workman.' This doctrine of individualism, a 

 tenet of the liberals of the old school, is fall- 

 ing into temporary decay; it is opposed by 

 certain captains of industry, who want to 

 crush out the individual and pile merger upon 

 merger; it is opposed by the trades unionists, 

 who condemn all laborers to the lock-step; 

 yet President Eliot has steadily, with candor 

 and courage, striven for the basic principle 

 of our Declaration of Independence. 



These are the achievements, these the quali- 

 ties that have won him, year by year, a wider 

 recognition; have transmuted cold respect 

 into affection. In the earlier days of his pres- 

 idency a reserve of manner, absorption in 

 details of administration, and a frank indif- 

 ference to the gusts of undergraduate senti- 

 ment made students regard him with an un- 

 comfortable awe, as if he were a sort of Iron 



Chancellor in an empire of education, or — to 

 recur to a former comparison — as if he were 

 really a glacier. Time has proved the falsity 

 of this first impression; has shown that no 

 college president has endured with more se- 

 renity and good humor the criticism of his 

 colleagues; that the springs of his kindness 

 are as unfailing as the waters that melt from 

 the eternal ice. He has reached the goal of 

 his ambition. In describing- Dr. Asa Gray's 

 life as ' happy,' he declared : " It is the great- 

 est of human rewards to be enfolded, as years 

 advance, in an atmosphere of honor, gratitude 

 and love." That greatest of rewards Presi- 

 dent Eliot himself has reaped in full measure, 

 while his eye is not dim nor his natural force 

 abated. — New Torh Evening Post. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



WATER GAS IN THE CHEMICAL LABORATOEY. 



A PAPER was recently read before the So- 

 ciety of Chemical Industry by Masume Chi- 

 kashige and Hitoshi Matsumoto on the defects 

 of uncarburetted water gas as a fuel for labo- 

 ratory use. Inasmuch as water gas is more or 

 less extensively used in cities and as small 

 local water-gas plants are easily installed, ex- 

 tended studies of its use have been made by 

 the authors, resulting in its condemnation. 

 Among the reasons given for these conclusions 

 are the following, which seem most important. 



While the water-gas flame is non-luminous 

 and always powerfully reducing, it is often 

 desired to have a smoli^r flame temporarily, 

 which is impossible with this gas, nor is it 

 possible to produce a flame to any consider- 

 able extent oxidizing in its nature. The air 

 openings in a Bunsen burner are useless, as it 

 is not possible to mix more than a very slight 

 proportion of 'air with the gas without pro- 

 ducing an explosive mixture. The intense 

 heat of the flame, far higher than can be ob- 

 tained with coal gas, is not an unqualified ad- 

 vantage, as it occasions the rapid destruction 

 of wire gauze and copper vessels; copper air 

 baths and water-baths are rapidly destroyed, 

 unless provided with cast-iron bottoms. Ow- 

 ing to the presence of carbon monoxid, nickel 

 vessels are quickly corroded, some crucibles 

 being burnt completely through in a single 



