section in his department, devoted to work of that character.
The British Association.—The British Association met at Aberdeen, Scotland, September 9th, and was opened by the president for the year, Sir Lyon Playfair, with an address which we publish in the present number of the Monthly. Among the more noteworthy papers presented were the vice presidential addresses of Professor H. E. Armstrong, on more efficient methods of teaching chemistry; of Professor Judd, in the Geological Section, on some unsolved problems of Highland geology; of Mr. B. Baker, of the Mechanical Section, calling attention to deficiencies in bridge construction; of Mr. Galton, in the Anthropological Section, on "Types and their Inheritance"; and of Professor Sidgwick, of the Section of Economical Science and Statistics. In the last section Professor Leone Levi read an elaborate paper on "The Alleged Depression of Trade; its Causes and Remedies."
New Problems in Chemistry.—In his address as Vice-President of the Chemical Section of the British Association, Professor II. B. Armstrong criticised the way in which the science is taught in the schools, and insisted upon the importance of giving more prominence to research by the students, and of cultivating in them the spirit of original investigation. They must not merely be taught the principles and main facts of the science, but must be shown how the knowledge of those facts and principles has been gained, and must be so drilled as to have complete command of their knowledge. Chemistry was no longer a purely descriptive science. The study of carbon compounds and Mendelejeff's generalization had produced a complete revolution. The faults in the present system of teaching were precisely those which had characterized the teaching of geography and history, and which were now becoming 80 generally recognized and condemned. Both in teaching and examining two important changes ought to be made. The students ought at the very beginning of their career to become familiar with the use of the balance; and the imaginary distinction between so-called inorganic and organic compounds should be altogether abandoned. Touching on the progress that had been made in chemical theory, Professor Armstrong mentioned the change which had taken place in views concerning chemical action. Hitherto it appeared to have been commonly assumed and almost universally thought by chemists that action took place directly between A and B, producing A B, or between A B and C D, producing A C and B D. In studying the chemistry of carbon compounds, they became acquainted with a large number of instances in which a more or less minute quantity of a substance was capable of inducing change or changes in the body or bodies with which it was associated without apparently itself being altered; but so little had been done to ascertain the influence of the contact-substance, or catalyst, as he would term it, that its importance was not duly appreciated. Recent discoveries, however, must have given a rude shock, from which it could never recover, to the belief in the assumed simplicity of chemical change. Then, after considering briefly some questions of the relations of chemical and electrical action, Professor Armstrong went on: Complaints are not unfrequently made that a large proportion of published work is of little value, and that chemists arc devoting themselves too exclusively to the study of carbon compounds, and especially of synthetic chemistry; that investigation is running too much in a few grooves, and that we are gross worshipers of formulæ. But the attention paid to the study of carbon compounds may be more than justified, both by reference to the results obtained and to the nature of the work before us. "The inorganic kingdom refuses any longer to yield up her secrets—new elements—except after severe compulsion. The organic kingdom, both animal and vegetable, stands ever ready before us. Little wonder, then, if problems directly bearing upon life prove the more attractive to the living. The physiologist complains that probably ninety-five per cent of the solid matters of living structures are pure unknowns to us, and that the fundamental chemical changes which occur during life are entirely enshrouded in mystery. It is in order that this may no longer be the
