484 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol,. -XL. No. 1031 



Hn, the validity of some may be questioned, 

 others are obvious errors which escaped the 

 proofreader and will doubtless be corrected 

 in the future editions the book is sure to de- 

 mand, while the remainder dei)end upon the 

 standpoint of the reviewer. It is the latter 

 point to which I wish especially to refer. 



If " A New Era in Chemistry " was written 

 as a scientific text-book or as a contribution 

 to scientific knowledge, then any departure 

 from the utmost scientific accuracy of state- 

 ment would be justly open to criticism, but 

 such is evidently not the purpose of the book. 

 It is rather a singularly successful attempt to 

 give in sparingly technical language a resume 

 of the salient chemical developments of the 

 last quarter of a century. As such it is of 

 great value, not only to workers in other 

 branches of science, but also to some of us 

 whose work is in other departments of chem- 

 istry. 



Of course it is desirable that every state- 

 ment in such a book should be scientifically 

 accurate, and this is a result somewhat diffi- 

 cult of accomplishment, unless the writer 

 takes all the " juice " out of his style by con- 

 fining himself to a strictly scientific terminol- 

 ogy. To take an example : Dr. Franklin is 

 inclined to cavil at the following language: 

 " Radium is naturally radio-active as it is 

 called ; " "A radio-active substance is one that 

 gives off radiations " (and then follows in the 

 book a description of the different kinds of 

 radiations). Granted that this language 

 might be objected to in a text-book, it makes 

 the author's meaning clear to the reader, and is 

 obviously i)ermissible in a book of this char- 

 acter. 



In other words, the author seeks to convey 

 certain ideas of modern chemistry to readers, 

 many of whom have but limited chemical 

 knowledge, and he does it successfully, even 

 if the language is not that of scientific preci- 

 sion. 



Regarding the criticism that Ota " accom- 

 plished nothing more remarkable than the 

 measurement of the freezing points of solu- 

 tions," it is to be recalled that these measure- 

 ments opened up the solvate theory. 



Nor do we think it remarkable that an 

 author, in suggesting the consultation of some 

 fuller work on radioactivity, should refer to 

 his own book on the subject, where fuU refer- 

 ences to the literature of radioactivity may be 

 found. 



It is unfortunate that in the popularizing of 

 chemistry as well as other sciences, so few who 

 know, write, and so few who write, know; and 

 one reason, I apprehend, why so few who 

 have competent knowledge, translate that 

 knowledge into language for the people, is 

 because they know it is almost impossible so to 

 do, without exposing themselves to just such 

 criticisms as that of Professor Franklin. 



" A New Era in Chemistry " gives evidence 

 of being an enthusiastically written labor of 

 love, and is remarkably successful in giving a 

 living bird's-eye view of the development of 

 the chemistry of to-day. As such, I was glad 

 to cormnend it — perhaps extravagantly — in my 

 review in the American Chemical Journal. 

 Had it been more slowly and painstakingly 

 written, it might have presented fewer oppor- 

 tunities for scientific criticism, but I am sure 

 it would have been far less delightful reading. 



Jas. Lewis Howe 



Dune Cottage, 

 Gushing, Mass. 



INCOMES OF COLLEGE GRADUATES TEN AND FIFTEEN 

 YEARS AFTER GRADUATION 



Science for February 4, 1910, printed a 

 statement of the incomes of sixty-seven of 

 the hundred men in the Dartmouth class of '99 

 the tenth year out of college. At the quin- 

 decennial reunion last June the net incomes 

 of fifty-six of the ninty-five now living were 

 recorded. Practically all of the fifty-six were 

 included in the group five years ago. Those 

 from whom the facts were not secured un- 

 doubtedly would lower the average for the 

 class somewhat, but the two groups are directly 

 comparable. The figures five years ago were 

 used editorially in at least one metropolitan 

 paper to prove the wasted expense of a coUege 

 education when the earning capacity ten years 

 after graduation was so small. The present 

 figures show that there is a very rapid rise in 



