he said, "but I do maintain that the only purpose of criticism is conviction of error, and ironical statements have no place in such discussions." His papers were not well written and he often succeeded in hiding his conclusions in a mass of strange terms and mathematical formulations. His contemporaries had neither the patience nor desire to read his publications attentively and paid little serious attention to his work. To one critic who declared that he found i t impossible to see why the neutralization ratios of the elements should conform to a fixed law, Richter tartly replied, "Nature would be indeed poor if she were limited to that which could be understood by me and my critics." Wilhelm Ostwald has drawn attention to Richter's work on colloid gold, as found in porcelain glazes, ruby glass, and Purple of Cassius. He ohserved a number of the phenomena characteristic -of colloid suspensions and he pointed out the changes accompanying the progressive subdivision from ordinary yellow gold to the fine purple suspensions. He was cognizant of the iduence of the purity of the water on the stability of his suspensions and was familiar with the coagulative effects of electrolytes. His description of the colloidal phenomena were not only definite and accurate, but his interpretations of his observations were singularly good, and he certainly deserves to be recognized as one of the pioneers in this field. Thoroughly convinced of the truth of the law of proportionality, he prophesied that the time would come when "the wall separating mathematics from chemistry will be brokeg down and the former will be found to govern still other phenomena of the natural science." . ."What joy will be afforded to the chemist and to his near refative, the mineralogist, when the stoichiometrical truths lead them to see that agreement and law prevail throughout all Nature; how great is the service rendered by a science which makes i t possible for the chemist, in his processes of decomposition and combination, to accurately calculate in advance the quantities of materials which he must mix together, and especially when such processes are to be carried out on a large scale." As Lawig says, "In fact, all chemical industry was for the first time placed on a rational base by the introduction of Richter's laws, and the milliards saved are incalculable." Richter implicitly believed in the truth of the Book of Wisdom XI, 22, and he placed it as a guiding motto a t the beginning of his stoichiometrical writings, "God has ordered all things by measure, number, and weight."
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Drug Relieves Heart Pains. Most types of heart pain, particularly that of angina peetoris, can be relieved with euphyllin, Dr. J. H. Musser, of New Orleans, told the American Medical Association recently. While the drug has long been used as a stimulant for the coronary arteries of the heart, its value in treating other heart diseases and relieving the pain which results from these has not been completely realized hitherto.Scienu Sewice
