SCIENCE. 



237 



SCIENCE: 



A Weekly Record of Scientific 

 Progress. 



JOHN MICHELS, Editor. 



Published at 



229 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



P. O. Box 3838. 



SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, iE 



At the request of Col. W. A. Ross, of England, 

 we publish his open letter to Professor Sorby, 

 who was President of the Chemical Section of 

 the British Association recently, when that body 

 declined to permit a paper, prepared by Col. 

 Ross, to be read. 



Col. Ross forwarded this paper to us, and we 

 published it on the 16th ultimo, so that those who 

 desire to judge of the propriety of its rejection, may 

 form their own opinion. 



A writer in the last number of the Chemical 

 News, of London, a journal well able to appreciate 

 good chemical work, who gives Col. Ross credit 

 " for his interesting and valuable chemical re- 

 searches," offers in detail an instance of their utility, 

 and acknowledges that Col. Ross's two works, 

 Manual of Blowpipe Analysis, and Pyrology, are 

 the standard English authorities on this branch of 

 analytical chemistry. It appears to be a strange 

 state of things when such a man must contend 

 against a system of repression and bitter anta- 

 gonism from those following the same line of 

 investigations, and would seem incomprehensible 

 if similar cases were not continually coming to 

 the surface ; thetreatment of Prof. Mohr, and other 

 instances mentioned in Dr. Akin's letter, which 

 recently appeared in " Science," however, gives a 

 key which solves much of the mystery. 



We are not prepared to offer an opinion in re- 

 gard to the dispute which gave rise to the letter of 

 Col. Ross to Professor Sorby, but the mere fact of 

 a man suggesting " boric or phosphoric acid as a 

 fluid menstruum, instead of borax or microcosmic 

 salt," hardly appears to justify this ostracism from 

 the society of scientists, unless such an innovation 

 is an indictible offense. We have heard of the con- 

 sequences of speaking disrespectfully of the Equa- 

 tor, but we should have thought that the conduct 

 of a man who insists on using "an aluminium 

 plate " instead of " sticks of messey and obscuring 



charcoal," would arouse the compassion, rather 

 than the resentment of his fellow chemists, if he 

 be in error. 



Seriously, we regret any obstruction to Col. 

 Ross's work ; when we consider that the studies 

 which he so ably describes may be conducted with 

 apparatus costing only a few shillings, and that re- 

 sults of the highest order in analytical chemistry 

 may be arrived at, who cannot desire to see en- 

 couragement extended to such a practical scientific 

 pursuit? We advise Col. Ross to quietly continue 

 his work, and cease to notice any apparent opposi- 

 tion ; if he is ignored by authority, let him on his 

 part ignore authority, and trust to the sterling 

 merit of his work for its ultimate vindication ; his 

 time is surely too valuable to devote to a useless 

 correspondence. 



We published, in our issue of the 23rd ult, a paper 

 by Dr. George W. Rachel, claiming for the late Pro- 

 fessor Friedrich Mohr, the honor of first publishing 

 the now accepted principle of the Conservation of 

 Energy. Like the original article of Professor Mohr 

 on " The Nature of Heat" which was at first declined by 

 publishers, this just tribute to his memory, penned by 

 Dr. Rachel, was denied admission to the pages of the 

 scientific monthlies. To-day we publish a later con- 

 tribution from the same source, in which a biographi- 

 cal sketch of the late Friedrich Mohr is presented to 

 the readers of "Science" by Dr. Rachel, who has com- 

 piled it from original papers placed in his hands for 

 the purpose, by the trustees and family of Mohr. The 

 author has accomplished his task with fidelity and 

 moderation, and the authentic record he presents of 

 a life of utility and self-sacrifice will doubtless be read 

 with interest by our readers. In the Popular Science 

 Monthly for July last, a short sketch of the life of Pro- 

 fessor Mohr was produced, written by Dr. Fredrick 

 Hoffman, of New York. The essay was brief. We 

 are not aware of the extent of the materials which were 

 at the command of Dr. Hoffman, who, while giving 

 the highest praise to Mohr for his high chemical at- 

 tainments, made the briefest reference to his claim of 

 making the great discovery of the Conservation of 

 Energy, which must forever link his name with phy- 

 sical science. 



A meeting of the National Academy of Sciences 

 will be held at Columbia College, New York, com- 

 mencing on Tuesday, the 16th of November. We 

 trust that the President, Professor William B. Rogers, 

 who is at present sick, may recover sufficiently to pre- 

 side at the meeting. As yet only seven papers have 

 registered. 



