[February, 
1 14 Analyses of Books. 
final, not because the task is completed, but because its opera- 
tions are no longer to be conducted on the same magnificent 
scale. 
Ideal Chemistry . A Ledture by Sir B. C. Brodie, Bart., D.C.L., 
F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Oxford. 
London : Macmillan and Co. 
Signal as have been the triumphs, in our times, of purely expe- 
rimental science, they do not satisfy the cravings of the human 
mind. On all hands we perceive a disposition to forestall the 
results of an appeal to fadls, and to outrun what has been de- 
monstrated. In how far such anticipations may prove to be 
truthful foreshadowings of the future, or, on the contrary, in how 
far they may have to be rejected as mere ignes fatui, time alone 
can decide. 
The great philosophic problem of chemistry is now the question 
of the elements. Are they really and in truth primordially dis- 
tinct bodies ? Are any of them compounds of the others, more 
intimate than those we are in the habit of decomposing, and re- 
combining in our laboratories ? Or are all of them resolvable 
into some more truly elemental elements, or even element of 
which we as yet know nothing ? Are they the survivors of a 
process of natural selection, existing because in harmony with 
their surroundings ? These and many more queries are put none 
the less eagerly because so far every key with which we try to 
unlock the mystery breaks in our hands. Sir B. C. Brodie sug- 
gests that li in remote time, or in remote space, there did exist 
formerly, or possibly do exist now, certain simpler forms of 
matter than we find on the surface of the globe.” Of these bodies 
such elements as hydrogen and mercury are records remaining 
to us. He supposes that when the temperature of matter was 
much higher than it is now everything existed uncombined and 
in a gaseous state. As the temperature began to fall, combina- 
tion set in ; water and hydrochloric acid began to exist. The 
heat still decreasing, certain forms of matter became more per- 
manent and stable, and when once formed could never be decom- 
posed. All this may be supposed ; but can it be proved ? Does 
Prof. Brodie take even a step towards the required demonstration ? 
We think not. As far as we are aware this lecfture and the 
author’s “ Calculus of Chemical Operations ” have not proved 
fruitful. 
