WE ARE indebted to Dr. J. 2. Fullmer of Nemomb College, Tulane University, for bringing the following quotation to our attention. Although written nearly 130 years ago, the occasional quaintness of the language points up all the more the timelessness of the ideas it ex- presses. We resist an impulse to editorialize by using bold-face type for such words as mathematics, physics, and liberal education. However, we do call prospective authors' attention to the last paragraph.

Dr. Fullmer supplies this comment: "Consolations in Travel" appeared in 1830, a year after Davy's death. He wrote much of it under the handicap of rapidly worsening health in the months before he died. To Lady Davy he confided that he had taken great pains to preserve the manuscript because he felt it was as im- portant to the world as his scientific contributions. Oc- casionally he referred to it as "the legacy of a philos- opher."

ON THE EDUCATION OF A CHEMIST However difficult i t may have been to have given you a. defi-

nition of chemistry, i t is still more difficult to give you a detail of all the qualities necessary far a. ehemicdphilosopher. I will not name as many as Athenaeus has named for a oook, who, he says, ought to be a mathematician, a theoretical musician, a natural philosopher, a. natural historian, ete. But I will seriously men- tion some of the studies fundsmental to the higher departments of this science; a man may be s. good praotical chemist perhaps without possessing them, but he never can become a great chem- ical philosopher,

The person who wishes to understand the higher departments of chemistry, or to pursue them in their mast interesting relations to the economy of nature, ought to be well grounded in rlemen- t,ary mathematics; he willoftener have to refer to arithmetic than algebra, and to algebra than to geometry. But all these srienres lend their aid to chemistry; arithmetic, in determining the "1.0-

portions of analytical results, and the relative weights of the elr- ments of bodies; algebra, in ascertaining the laws of the pressurc of elastic fluids, the force of vapour as dependent upon tempera- ture, and the effects of masses and surfaces on the communica- tion and radiation of heat; the applications of geometry are prin- cipally limited to the determination of the crystalline forms of bodies, which constitute the most important type of their nature, and often offer useful hints for anslytied researches resppeting their composition.

The first principles of natural philosophy, or general physica, ought not to be entirely unknown to the chemist. As the most active agents are fluids, elastic fluids, heat, light, and electricity, he ought to have a. general knowledge of mechanics, hydronamics, pneumatics, optics, and electricity. Latin and Greek among the dead, and French among the modern languages, are necessary;

and, as the most important after French, Grrman and ltalinn. In natural history and in literature, what belongs to a. liberal edu- cation, such as that of our universities, is all that is required; in- deed a young man who has performed the ordinary course of c0l- lege studies, whieh are supposed fitted for common life and for refined society, has all the preliminary knowledge necessary to commence the study of chemistry. . . . I t was said hy an anthor belonging to the last century, of alchemy, "that its beginning was deceit, its progress labour and its end beggary." I t may he said of modern chemistry, that its beginning is pleasure, its progress knowledge and its objects truth and utility. I have spoken of the seientitir attainments necessary far the ohemieal philosopher.

I will say a few words of the intel lect~d qualities llecessary for discovery, or for the advancement of the science. Amowst them patience, industry, and neatness in manipulation, and ae- curacy and minuteness in ohserving and registering the phenom- ena which occur me essential. . . .Kith respect to the higher qualities of intellect necessary foi understanding and developing the general lams of the science, the same talents I believe are 1.e- quired as for making ad"anvement in every other department of human knowledge; I need not be very minute. The imnginatioll must be active and brilliant in seeking andogies; yet entinh' under the influence of the judgment in applying them. The memory must be extensive and p&faund; rather however callillg up general viewi of things than minute trains of thought; t h c mind must not be like an enrvrlouedia. a. hurthen of knowledge, but rather a critical dictionary u-hkh abounds in generalities, and points out where more minute information may be obtained.

In detailing the results of experiments and in giving them to the world, tho chemical philosopher should adopt the simplest style and manner; he will avoid all ornaments as something In-

jurious to his subject, and should bear in mind the saying of the first king of Great Britain respecting a sermon which wilr ex- cellent in doctrine but overcharged with poetical allusions and figurative language "that the tropes and metaphors of the speaker were like the brilliant wild flowers in a field of corn, very prett?, but which did very much hurt the oom." I n announcing ewll

the greatest and most important discoveries, the true philosopher will communicate his details with modesty and reserve; he will rather he a useful servant of the public, bringingfarth n light from under his cloak when it is needed in darkness, than a charlatnn exhibiting fireworks and having a trumpeter to announce their magnificence. . . . I see you are smiling and think xhat I am say- ing in had taste; yet notwithstanding, I will P I ~ O V O ~ C your smiles still farther by saying a word or two on his moral qualities. That ho should be hurnhleminded, you will readily allon, and n dili- gent searoher after truth, and neither diverted from thisgreat ob- ject by the love of transient glory or temporary popularity, look- ing rather to the opinion of ages, than to that of s day, and seek- ing to he remembered and named rather in the epochas af his- torians than in the columns of nempaper writers or journdista.

-HUMPHREY DAVY, in "Consolations in Travel or The Last Days of a Philonapher," John Murray, Londm, 1830, pp. 248- 54.