TRANSACTIONS OF SCIENTIFIC SECTION. 53-(23) 



blue calcite, iron pyrite, stibnite, rabellite, hematite, 

 magnetite, galenite, granite and garnet from Dr. \Y. (t. 

 Stevenson. 



For the Library: Chamber's Encyclopaedia, J. T. Jack- 

 son, Esq. ; Vital Statistics and Reports of the State 

 Board of Health of Michigan, 1871-1879, Mr. H. R, How- 

 ard ; Journal of Social Science Association, from Mr. P. 

 B. Sanborne ; (rood's Animalia and Flora, from Dr. 

 Stevenson. 



JANUARY 25, 1882— SECOND STATED MEETING. 



L. C. Cooley, Ph. D., Chairman, presiding ; twenty 

 members present. 



The following donations were received for the Museum: 



Iron pyrite (nodular form) from Mr. W. A. Da vies ; 

 wood of the yucca draconis from Mr. (4. F. Wilson ; 

 cucumis acutangulatus from Dr. J. Elmendorf ; Papilio- 

 thoas;from Prof. W. B. I) wight. 



The Section meetings were formally opened with an 

 address on 



CHEMISTRY AND THE QUESTION OF LIFE. 



BY PROF. LEROY C. COOLEY, PH. D. 



In the early part of this century Organic Chemistry 

 w;i s ^understood to include the study of sul (stances, such as 

 may be found in or may be obtained from the bodies of 

 animals and plants, whose composition was believed to 

 be determined by the influence of life. Herein was the 

 supreme distinction between mineral and organic com- 

 pounds. In the chemical elements they had a common 

 origin, but no identity could be traced among the condi- 

 tions or forces by which the two classes of products 

 arose. The simplest constituents, as well as the most 

 complex organism, were believed to have been built from 

 their chemical elements by the so-called vital force act- 

 ing in obedience to principles which transcend the laws 

 of combination in the inorganic world. And this belief 

 was at the time well grounded, because, while mineral 

 substances could be made in the laboratory by processes 

 founded upon the laws of chemical action, the simplest 

 substance of a distinctively organic nature defied the 



