304 THE REVIVAL OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 



offered inducements to a large number of workers. The long- wan ting 

 leading idea or motive has been in large part furnished by the Periodic 

 Law. The comparison of the chemical and physical properties of the 

 elements and their compounds, the search for new elements, the fuller 

 investigation of those already known, with the view of more firmly 

 establishing their place in the system, and the redetermination of the 

 atomic weights, are evidence of its influence. Witness, for example, 

 the great activity in the subject of the rare earths, the work on the 

 relative position of nickel and cobalt in the system, and the investi- 

 gations of the atomic weight of tellurium, having for their object the 

 decision of the question whether this element actually has an atomic 

 weight greater than that of iodine, as the best determinations thus far 

 seem to indicate, or whether it is less, as its chemical analogy to sulphur 

 and selenium requires. 



Organic chemistry, with its limited range of temperature, is essen- 

 tially a chemistry of the beaker, the Liebig condenser, and the bomb 

 oven; it demands but comparatively simple and cheap apparatus of 

 glass, not calculated to withstand high temperatures, and as such is 

 within the means of the humblest laboratory. The reverence of the 

 organic chemist for the platinum crucible is something astounding. 

 With improvements in apparatus for producing and materials for 

 resisting high temperatures, new vistas have opened to the inorganic 

 chemist, while the province of the organic chemist, limited as it is by 

 the instability of his compounds, has derived no benefit therefrom. 

 Not only do we owe to this the beautiful investigations of Victor Meyer 

 and others'on high-temperature vapor densities, but with the recent 

 development of electrical technology the electric furnace has appeared, 

 and with it a new chemistry, the chemistry of a temperature of 3,500° 

 0. Not only have new compounds been made which can not be pro- 

 duced at lower temperatures, but the accessibility of many elements 

 and compounds has been greatly increased. The reductions which 

 Wohler and Deville effected gram-wise in glass and porcelain tubes 

 can now be carried out in the electric furnace pound- wise and even 

 ton-wise. The manipulation of the current for electrolytic purposes, 

 rendered possible by increased knowledge of the laws of electricity, 

 as well as by ease of its production, is yielding results chiefly in the 

 domain of inorganic chemistry, while the organic chemist is but tardily 

 utilizing the current as a means of oxidation and reduction. Besides 

 the extraordinary development of electro-metallurgy, the preparation 

 of soda and chlorates and other technical processes, the application of 

 electricity to purposes of analysis and for the synthesis of new com- 

 pounds, such as the rare metal alums, percarbonic and persulphuric 

 acids, and the isolation of fluorine, may be mentioned. 



Passing to the opposite extreme of temperature, we find the develop- 

 ment of high-temperature chemistry accompanied by the growth of a 

 chemistry of low temperatures. The very recent improvements in the 



