SCIENCE 



Editorial Committee : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; K. S. "Woodwaed, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickeeing, 



AatroQOoiy; T. C. Mendenhall, Physics; E. H. Thueston, Engineering; lEA 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; N. L. Beitton, 



Botany; Heney F. Osboen, General Biology; H. P. Bowditch, Physiology; 



J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology ; 



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



G. Beown Goode, Scientific Organization. 



Friday, August 28, 1896. 



CONTENTS: 



The Address of the President before the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science : A Com- 

 pleted Chapter in the History of the Atomic Theory : 

 Edwaed W. Moeley 241 



Fast and Present Tendencies in Engineering Educa- 

 tion : Mansfield Meeeiman 255 



An Ozark Soil: OscAE H. Heeshey 261 



Current Notes on Anthropology : — 

 Social Organization of the Incan Government ; TJie 

 International Congress of Americanists; Word- 

 coupling Languages : D. G. Beinton 263 



Scientific Notes and News : — 



Membership of the International Congress of Ap- 

 plied Chemistry ; ' Squirting ' Iron and Steel and 

 other Metals; The Sanitary Value of Sunlight; 

 General 264 



University and Educational News 269 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Protest against Quadrinomialism : Witmee 

 Stone. Impossible Volcanoes : Olivee C. Fae- 

 EINGTON. On the Notation of Terrestrial Mag- 

 netic Quantities : L. A. B AUEE 270 



Scientific Literature : — 



Memoirs of Frederick A. P. Barnard: W. Hal- 

 LOCK. Legend of Perseus: Geo. St. Claie 273 



Scientific Journals : 



Terrestrial Magnetism 276 



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

 for review should be sent to the responsible editor. Prof. J. 

 McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



A C03IPLETED CE AFTER IN THE HISTORY 

 OF THE ATOMIC THEORY* 



The great discovery of tlie law of gravita- 

 tion was left reasonably complete by its au- 

 thor. The explanation of this fact is obvi- 



* Address by the retiring President of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Science at 

 the Buffalo Meeting. 



ous. No other force of sensible magnitude 

 complicates the action of gravitation ; its 

 law appeals to simple geometrical relations; 

 and the facts had been well observed and 

 reduced to order. Accordingly, by a few 

 numerical comparisons of the hypothesis 

 with the facts, Newton established the truth 

 of his conjecture, so that it has been gener- 

 ally accepted as a law of nature. The 

 first suggestion of the theory was quickly 

 followed by its final triumph. 



Very different has been the history of the 

 discovery which most chemists regard as 

 next in importance to that of Newton. The 

 discovery that matter consists of an aggre- 

 gation of infinitesimal units or individuals 

 was made by Dalton; but the first sugges- 

 tion of this kind had been made at least 

 twenty-two centuries before Dalton. Leu- 

 cippus and Democritus were the earliest 

 recorded believers in this doctrine; Epi- 

 curus adopted it; Lucretius expounded it 

 in strains of noble eloquence. But all the 

 early suggestions were quite barren and un- 

 fruitful for the advancement of science, for 

 no one before the present century was in a 

 position to make any verifiable hj^pothesis ; 

 and science grows by means of hypotheses 

 so closely in touch with facts as to ,be veri- 

 fiable. In later times, Leibnitz accepted 

 the notion of a certain kind of atomic 

 structure of matter ; Newton accepted, and 

 reasoned soundly upon, a view which Dal- 

 ton recognized as akin to his own. Kant 



