SCIENCE 



Editoeial CoMiniTEK : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodwaed, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickeeing, 



Astronomy; T. C. Mendknhall, Physics; E. H. Thueston, Engineering; Iea Eemsen, Chemistry; 



J. Le Conte, Geology; "W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. Maesh, Paleontology; W. K. Beooks, 



C. Haet Meeeiam, Zoology; S. H. Scuddee, Entomology; C. E. Bessey, N. L. Beitton, 



Botany; Heney F. Osboen, General Biology; C. S. Minot, Embryology, Histology; 



H. P. Bowditch, Physiology; J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeest Cattell, 



Psychology; Daniel G. Beinton, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, August 12, 1898. 



CONTENTS: 



Note on the Age of Basil Valentine : C. S. PIEECE..169 



Studies from the Zoological Laboratory of Harvard 

 University : Peofessoe E. L. M aek 176 



Raised Shore-lines on Cape Maysi, Ciiba: OSCAE 

 H. Heeshey 179 



Current Notes on Anthropology : — 



Archive of the Science of Beligion; ArcJtasology of 

 Corsica ; The Races of Europe : Peofessoe D. 

 G. Beinton \ 1 180 



Notes on Inorganic Chemistry: J. L. H 181 



Scientific Notes and News : — 



The Chicago Academy of Sciences; General 182 



University and Educational News 185 



IHscussion and Correspondence : — 



Stability in Generic Nomenclature: O. F. Cook.. 186 



Scientific lAteraiwre: — 



Some recent WorTcs on Mechanics: E. S. W. 

 Britton and Brown' s Illustrated Flora of the North- 

 ern United States: Peofessoe Chaeles E. 

 Bessey 190 



Scientific Journals 195 



Societies and Academies : — 



Engehnann Botanical Club: J. B. S. NoETON. 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia: 

 De. Edw. J. Nolan 196 



New Books 196 



MSS. intended for publication and tooks, etc., intended 

 for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Profes- 

 sor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrisou-ou -Hudson, N. Y. 



NOTE ON THE AGE OF BASIL VALENTINE. 

 Basil Valentine is usually reckoned as 

 the earliest of the scientific chemists and a 

 great light of human culture.* He is sup- 

 posed to have lived nearly a hundred years 

 before Paracelsus, or at some time in the 

 15th century. One of the works which 

 bears his name certainly embodies a toler- 

 ably correct conception of the behavior of 

 antimony. Popular writers erroneously at- 

 tribute to him the discovery and the name 

 of that metal,t together with some of the 

 most elementary and ancient operations of 

 the chemist. But Hermann Kopp, the least 

 unsatisfactory of the historians of Western 

 alchemy,! has emphasized certain doubts 



* Thus, one historian, Schmieder, opens his chapter 

 on Valentine -with the words : ' ' Ein Nordlicht lodert in 

 farhigen Strahlen an Deutschlands Horizont empor." 



t Even accepting the works attributed to him as 

 authentic, it remains true that antimony had been 

 used in type-founding before Basil Valentine's book 

 on that metal was written. Berthelot finds the name 

 applied to the same metal by Greek alchemists, to 

 say nothing of its occurrence in the same sense in the 

 encyclopedia of Vincentius Bellovaeensia. 



J Berthelot confines himself to Egyptian, Greek 

 and Arabian authors. The work of Dr. Latz, himself 

 a 19th century alchemist, affords some insight into 

 the matter of alchemy. Kopp's book is of great 

 value, although he does not pretend to have pene- 

 trated deep below the surface. Hoefer's history never 

 had a high critical value. Schmieder and Gmelin are 

 quite superseded. In his earlier Beiiriige Kopp dis- 

 believes in a real 15th Century Basil Valentine. In 

 his Geschichte der Alchemie he admits the existence of 

 such a chemist. 



