554 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol,. I. No. 20. 



author to preacli rather than to guide is 

 often noticeable. After most properly bid- 

 ding the student accept as fact no scientific 

 statement capable of easy demonstration 

 until he has proved it such, the book con- 

 tains several chapters with hardly a single 

 one of the statements made supported by 

 experiment. For instance, we find (p. 179) 

 that " we have now become somewhat 

 familiar with," among other elements, 

 " aluminum and iron ; and we have inci- 

 dentally become acquainted with a number 

 of their more important compounds." Ex- 

 perimentally, how ? Thus : The student is 

 bidden to look for iron ore in soil, to write 

 down what he already knows about iron, to 

 examine the physical properties of siderite, 

 to heat a piece of pyrite, and to note the 

 physical properties of slate and of feld- 

 spar. That is all. Now, this is not experi- 

 m.ental chemistry ; it is boiled-down ency- 

 clopsedia. 



On the other hand, after having studied 

 Ice, Water, Fire, Air, Earth and Quartz, 

 molecules and atoms and all the other fas- 

 cinating mysteries are brought in in a chap- 

 ter called A Lesson in Chemistry (!); later, 

 atomic weights are given and symbols in 

 plenty. After having stated as facts the 

 Laws of Chemical Combination, the author 

 later, without further explanation, gives the 

 following formulae for some of the minerals 

 the student is to work with — of course, with 

 their names: Fe^Sg, (FeMnZn),©^, (CaMg 

 AlFe)Si03, (KFeMgAl), SiO„ Li.AlsSi.^O,^, 

 (CaMg)e(AlFe),SiAs. 



The directions are in some cases almost 

 tediously explicit, and this is right ; fre- 

 quently, however, they err on the other 

 side. The student is given directions to 

 use phosphorus, and occasionally other dan- 

 gerous substances, without a word of cau- 

 tion. Considering the inexperience of the 

 student, and the fact of his working proba- 

 bly alone, this is a matter of some impor- 

 tance. 



To sum up, if all the theoretical portion 

 of the book, all symbols, atomic weights, 

 etc., had been left out, and a few experi-^ 

 ments on the chemical properties of substances 

 like iron and aluminium — to mention but 

 two — put in to fill the vacuum, Mr. Bal- 

 lard's book would have filled a lack. It 

 cannot at present — at least, unassisted. 



Wyatt W. Eajsdale. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At the meeting of the trustees of Colum- 

 bia College, on Maj^ 6th, President Low sub- 

 scribed one million dollars for the construc- 

 tion of the new librarj^ building. He stated 

 that it is to be a memorial to his father, the 

 late A. A. Low, ' a merchant who taught 

 his sou to value the things for which Colum- 

 bia College stands.' The trustees passed 

 the following resolution : 



liesolved, Tliat the trustees accept -svitli the deepest 

 sense of gi-atitude the offer conveyed by President 

 Low in his letter of May 6, 1895, subject to all the 

 conditions therein expressed ; and that the Clerk of 

 the Board be instructed to convey to the president the 

 thanks of the trustees for this most munificent and 

 opportune gift, unprecedented in the scale of its gen- 

 erosity, and affording fresh evidence of the president's 

 unbounded devotion to the interest of the College. 



President Low's gift was accompanied 

 by the following conditions which add to 

 rather than detract from its value: That 

 twelve BrookljTi scholarships for boys be 

 established in Columbia College, and twelve 

 Brooklyn scholarships for girls in Barnard 

 College ; that eight university scholarships, 

 to be kno-OTi as the President's University 

 Scholarships, be established; that a uni- 

 versity fellowship, the Class of '70 Fellow- 

 ship, be established. President Low gradu- 

 ated in the class of '70. 



At the same meeting Mr. W. C. Scher- 

 merhorn, chairman of the trustees, sub- 

 scribed three hundred thousand dollars for 

 the Natural Science Building, or other build- 

 ing or part of building that may be more 

 needed. 



