On the other hand, there is some danger to be
apprehended from a tendency, sometimes observed, to denounce everything
speculative, no matter how broad the basis of facts upon which it rests
may be. Without legitimate speculation, it is clear that there could be
no great progress in any subject. As far as the hypothesis under
consideration is concerned, the writer is firmly of the opinion that it
is likely to prove of great value in dealing with a large number of
chemical facts, and that, as it suggests many lines of research, it will
undoubtedly in the course of a few years exert a profound influence on
chemistry. Whether the evidence which will be accumulated will or will
not confirm the view that the tetrahedron form is characteristic of the
simplest molecules of carbon compounds is not the most important
question to be asked under the circumstances. We should rather ask
whether the testing of the hypothesis is or is not likely to bring us
nearer to the truth. It is a proposition that admits of no denial that a
hypothesis which can be tested by experiment, and which suggests lines
of work and stimulates workers to follow them, is a gain to science, no
matter what the ultimate fate of the hypothesis may be.--_Amer. Chem.
Jour._
* * * * *
GREAT WARMTH IN PAPER.
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