THE REVIVAL OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 305 



art of producing cold have made liquid air a cheap material, and with 

 its aid Eamsay has been able to fractionally distil liquefied argon and 

 to separate from it the contaminating- elements of the same group, neon 

 and xenon, as well as krypton and metargon. 



The part played by the spectroscope in chemistry is more or less 

 familiar to everyone. From the further development of the science of 

 spectroscopy it is clear that inorganic chemistry has much to gain. 

 Whether or not the view first suggested by Clarke and long defended 

 by Lockyer be true, that the elements undergo partial decomposition 

 in the stars and nebula?, it is upon this instrument that we must rely 

 for our knowledge of the high-temperature chemistry of these bodies, a 

 chemistry which is wholly inorganic. 



The rapid growth of these sciences into which chemistry enters is 

 producing an ever increasing demand upon the chemist for new 

 researches. While the biologist must rely mainly on the organic 

 chemist for his chemical data, no less must the mineralogist and geolo- 

 gist appeal to the inorganic chemist for the solution of many problems 

 in their field. The formation and decomposition of minerals, the dis- 

 integration of rocks, the behavior of rock magmas, the phenomena of 

 metaruorpbism, of ore deposition and vein formation, the influence of 

 high temperatures and pressures — all these afford problems the solution 

 of which is hopeless without the assistance of inorganic chemistry either 

 alone or aided by physical chemistry. The chemist who has to meet 

 the inquiries of the geologist, and who must too often confess our 

 ignorance of the causes of even the simplest phenomena, can not help 

 feeling what a splendid field is here open, awaiting only the advent of 

 workers suitably trained and of laboratories properly equipped for 

 research in chemical geology. The demands of the geologists are 

 unquestionably destined to be among the most potent factors in the 

 revival of inorganic chemistry. 



It is not to be expected, nor is it to be desired, that inorganic chem- 

 istry will at once sweep organic chemistry from its position of preemi- 

 nence. The causes to which this is due may outlast our generation, but 

 that the inorganic tide is rising, and that this branch will finally attain 

 its due position, can not be doubted. The recent establishment of a 

 Zeitschrift fiir anorganische Ghemie, while it may be deplored as 

 increasing the already too great number of chemical journals, and as 

 tending to widen rather than diminish the gap between the organic 

 and inorganic branches, is helping to produce a feeling of solidarity 

 among inorganic chemists which never existed hitherto. Even in Ger- 

 many, the stronghold of organic chemistry, the address of van't Hoff is 

 exciting wide interest, and the Chemiker-Zeitung, in urging the estab- 

 lishment of independent chairs and laboratories of inorganic chemistry, 

 is advocating what will in time unquestionably be realized. 



Inorganic chemistry is fortunate in that its renaissance is coming 

 about at a time when physical methods are in vogue. The prediction of 

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