&.m.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1906. 
The  Franklin  Bi-Centenary. 
245 
The  delegates  appeared  in  their  academic  robes  at  the  opening 
meeting  on  Tuesday  evening  and  at  the  meeting  on  Friday  morning, 
and  this  added  much  to  the  picturesqueness  and  splendor  of  these 
sessions.  Interest  in  the  commemorative  session  was  also  height- 
ened by  the  fact  that  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  as  patron  of  the 
Society,  presided. 
It  may  not  be  amiss  to  state  that  those  announced  on  the  pro- 
gramme as  presenting  papers  were  present  to  read  them  in  person 
with  but  few  exceptions,  one  of  these  being  President  Jordan,  of 
Leland  Stanford  University,  who,  in  view  of  the  destruction  wrought 
by  the  recent  earthquake  in  California,  had  selected  for  his  paper 
the  oddly  significant  title,  "  The  Human  Harvest." 
Prof.  Ernest  Rutherford  took  his  hearers  to  the  outermost  bounds 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  material  world,  and  said  that  in  our  attempt 
to  explain  matter  we  were  more  nearly  in  the  position  of  explaining  it 
away.  He  defined  matter  as  electricity  in  motion,  but  said  that 
science  could  give  no  adequate  answer  to  the  question,  "  What  is 
electricity  ?  "  In  commenting  on  the  electrical  theories  of  Franklin 
he  said  : 
The  theory  of  electricity  developed  by  Franklin,  generally  known  as  the 
i  one-fluid '  theory,  must  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  of  his  additions  to  elec- 
trical knowledge,  for  it  has  exerted  a  profound  influence  on  the  development 
of  electrical  ideas,  and,  even  after  the  lapse  of  a  century  and  a  half  of  ceaseless 
activity  in  electrical  research,  still  holds  its  place,  though  in  a  modified  form, 
as  the  generally  accepted  explanation  of  the  connection  between  positive  and 
negative  electricity. 
After  a  century  and  a  half  of  great  scientific  activity,  which  has  added 
enormously  to  our  knowledge  of  electricity,  the  ideas  of  electricity  which  are 
in  vogue  to-day  bear  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  those  advocated  by  Franklin 
in  the  infancy  of  the  subject.  This  resemblance  must  have  been  obvious  to  you  all 
in  the  light  of  the  recent  developments  which  have  been  touched  upon  in  this 
paper.  We  believe  that  there  is  one  kind  of  electricity,  namely,  negative  elec- 
tricity, which  is  carried  in  small  definite  units  by  the  electrons.  These  elec- 
trons are  a  mobile  constituent  of  all  matter  and  are  able  to  move  freely  through 
metals. 
Altogether  it  may  be  said  that  those  in  attendance  enjoyed  a  rare 
intellectual  feast,  and  that  the  occasion,  which  witnessed  the  whole 
world  paying  homage  to  the  memory  of  a  man  born  two  hundred 
years  ago,  furnished  another  proof  of  the  saying  that  no  good  or 
great  work  ever  dies.  Florence  Yaple. 
