Januaey 15, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



115 



labor to dimiuisli. We labor to save life — 

 human life with all its ties. Were I to see a 

 man tortured with facial neuralgia, and knew 

 that I could relieve him by inflicting equal 

 pain on a dog or horse, I hardly know what my 

 decision would be. I suppose I should decide 

 in favor of the man. But that is not the ques- 

 tion which faces our profession in regard to 

 experiments on animals ; it is how we may 

 better our knowledge and increase our power 

 to save the life of husband and father — of wife 

 or mother — of the child in whose life the hearts 

 and hopes of its parents are bound. 



"Certain of our opponents have their sym- 

 pathies greatly excited by the occasional cry of 

 a dog enduring pain from pharmacological ex- 

 periment. Have they listened to the wail of 

 the new-made widow ? Some of them use their 

 fiercest invective to calumniate those who have 

 kept animals alive a few days after an experi- 

 ment, that the causation of disease may be 

 better understood and its prevention made 

 possible. Have they realized the years of 

 penury and misery too often the lot of the or- 

 phan? They have not felt personal responsi- 

 bility for the life of the bread winner, or they 

 would surely say with us, kill a hundred, kill 

 a thousand animals if you have any reasonable 

 hope of thereby preserving to one wife her hus- 

 band, to one child its mother." (p. 254.) 



Since the greater part of the above was writ- 

 ten, the unexpected news of Newell Martin's 

 death has come from England Our consolation 

 for the relatively early loss of so brilliant a phy- 

 siologist can only be that in the time given to him 

 for scientific work he obeyed his own exhorta- 

 tion at the close of the lecture inaugurating the 

 biological work of the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity: "Let us, then, each work loyally, 

 earnestly, truthfully, so that when the time 

 comes, as it will come sooner or later, in one 

 way or another, to each of us, to depart hence, 

 we may carry with us a good conscience, and 

 be able to say that in our time no slipshod piece 

 of work ever left the laboratory ; that no error we 

 knew of was persisted in ; that our only desire 

 was to know the truth. Let us leave a re- 

 cord which, if it perchance contain the history 

 of no great feat in the memory of which our 

 successors will glory, will at least contain not 



one jot or one tittle of which they can be 

 ashamed." 



The isolation of the mammalian heart will 

 always remain one of the triumphs of experi- 

 mental physiology. F. S. Locke. 



Haevaed Medical School. 



Anleitung zur Mikrochemischen Analyse der 

 wichtigsten Organischen Verbindungen. Von 

 H. Beheens, Professor an der Polytechni- 

 schen Schule zu Delft. Zweites Heft. Leo- 

 pold Voss, Hamburg und Leipzig. 1896. 

 106 pp. 



The second part of Behrens' text-book of 

 microchemical organic analysis deals with the 

 important fibres : those of woven goods ; wool, 

 silk, cotton, linen, hemp, jute and others ; and 

 those of paper ; the cellular fibres of straw, 

 alfalfa and wood. The microchemical study of 

 these substances with reagents and in polarized 

 light, and methods for examining woven goods 

 and paper, complete the book. It is well printed 

 and illustrated and a complete work in itself. 

 Besides the illustrations in the text, three beau- 

 tifully colored plates reproduce the appearance 

 of the diflPerent fibres in polarized light and 

 when stained with different dyes. It is well to 

 remember that Prof Behrens is not only an au- 

 thority on this subject, but is the only authority 

 for the student, as he has written the only text- 

 books. The organic analysis is a worthy con- 

 tinuation of the author's inorganic analysis. 



E. R. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



CHEMICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 91st meeting of the Society was held 

 Thursday evening, December 10, 1896. The 

 President, Dr. de Schweinitz was in the chair, 

 with thirty members and several guests pres- 

 ent. 



The first paper of the evening was by Prof. 

 H. W. Wiley on ' The Mechanical Analyses of 

 Phosphatic Slags. ' 



The second paper was by Prof. Charles 

 E. Munroe, entitled ' An Early Specimen 

 of Gun Cotton.' Prof. Munroe called atten- 

 tion to a sample of gun cotton which he had 

 received from Dr. W. A. Hedrick, some two 

 years ago, and which had been for many years 



