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183 
[General Meeting-. 
The Society then considered the proposed new By-Laws which, 
after considerable discussion, were approved, to be finally afcted 
upon at the next meeting of the Society. 
General Meeting, January 7 , 1891 . 
Prof. W. H. Niles, in the chair. 
The new By-Laws approved at the last meeting were accepted 
by the Society. 
Mr. J. G. Gwens read a paper on “A Few Games of the Zuni 
Indians.” 
General Meeting, January 21 , 1891 . 
Prof. W. II. Niles, in the chair. 
The following communication was read On Chemism, etc., by 
A. E. Dolbear. 
ON CHEMISM OR THE ORGANIZATION OF MATTER. 
BY A. E. DOLBEAR. 
The term chemism has now mostly supplanted the terms chemi- 
cal affinity and chemical attraction which denoted the ability of 
atoms and molecules to combine into new aggregates. The word 
attraction implied only a general mutual approach and cohesion 
while affinity signified selective properties by which certain speci- 
fic combinations were produced instead of indiscriminate ones. 
So long as the so-called different forces of nature such as heat, 
light, magnetism, electricity, were supposed to be independent 
forces and without any necessary relations, it might be expected 
that chemism would be looked upon as an independent force, and 
as no one thought of such a thing as looking for the ancestry of a 
force, no knowledge of such a condition existed. Count Rumford 
and Sir Humphrey Davy were the first to prove experimentally 
that mechanical work and heat were directly related to each other. 
