THEACAD~MII: D U S S CIE N CE S
IN THE
R OYAL L IBRARY
AT
VERSAILLES IN 16il
EDITOR'S OUTLOOK HE frontispiece of this issue of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL E DUCA TION presents. in a reproduction of a copper-plate engraving by Sebastieu Le Clerc, the earliest representation of an actual meeting of a learned society. It has for its center the figures of Louis L'AcadBmie XIV and Colhert, for i t was under the patronage of the des Sciences Grand Monarch and a t the instance of his minister that 1'Academie des Sciences received official status as an organization, although for many years, certainly as early as 1640, i t had existed informally in an association of men of similar or allied scientific interests, among whom the names of Descartes, and Blaise and Rtienne Pascal are prominent. Its membership was a t no time nationally confined, Sir Isaac Newton having been one of its early foreign associates. Royal grants were made to support the work of the academicians and the royal library a t Versailles was opened to their sessions, the first of which was held there on December 22, 1666. After the death of Colbert the work of the academy was diverted from pure science to the practical details of constructing the new paradise a t Versailles. The suggestion of this task is artfully introduced into the background of Le Clerc's picture, while its foreground is alive with symbols of the occupations and interests of the academy, the materials or instruments of mathematics, engineering, geography, zoology, botany, astronomy, and anatomy. Of particular moment among these is the air-pump invented by Robert Boyle in 1660, which appears on the table a t the left of the picture. In 1699 the academy was reconstructed and reverted to its primary devotion to pure research. Its membership was limited to twenty-five, ten honorary and fifteen working members, three places among the latter being assigned permanently to chemists. In 1793, in the political and social chaos of the time, the organization was suppressed, but i t was revived in 1816 as a branch of the Institut National. Lavoisier in the eighteenth century kept chemistry in the forefront of the academy's titles to eminence, and in a less remote generation its roster included the physicists Ampere, Arago, Fresnel, and Biot, and the chemists GayLussac and Thenard, as makers of scientific history. Le Clerc's engraving perpetuating an early meeting of the academy appears opposite the title page of a sumptuously produced work of science, Mbmoires pour servir b l'histoire des animaux (Paris b l'imgrinaerie royale), most of the copies of which were distributed as personal gifts by Louis XIV. The JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION gratefully acknowledges the courtesy of D R . CHARLES SINGER, of London, England, president of the Second International Congress of the History of the Science a?zd Technology, for the foregoing picture and for much of the infornzation regarding it upon which the above sketch i s based.
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDIJCATION
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DECADE AGO t h e cry for popularizers of chemistry was ringing throughout the United States. T h a t cry has been nobly answered. Newspaper items, magazine articles, and volumes of various degrees of weight and importance have flowed from the presses. Professional The radio and the moving picture have played their parts. *ltruisrn Today, while the hypothetical average American still knows practically no chemistry, he is perceptibly "chemistry-conscious" and he knows a t least something about chemistry. We have a t other times echoed in these columns t h e hope and belief that the time is now ripe when we can begin t o experiment with means of teaching him a little chemistry as well as a lot about chemistry. But there is also reason t o feel t h a t the need for some missionary work of a similar kind within our own ranks exists. T h e field of chemistry expands a t an appalling rate. A knowledge of physics and of mathematics becomes more and more essential to productive work of significant caliber or indeed t o mere scholarship. Specialties multiply. The average chemist or teacher of chemistry knows less and less of what is going on outside t h e narrow confines of his own special interests. There are those who hold t h a t this state of affairs is inevitable and will inevitably grow worse and t h a t nothing can be done about it. We are not altogether of t h a t mind. We believe t h a t a great service t o chemistry can be performed by men of special interests and special learning who have the ability and can find t h e will t o construct elementary reviews of the theories and accomplishments within their own fields. Men who are not afraid t o go into elementary details for fear of saying something obvious-who are willing to write down t o the educational level of the college senior, which is just about where most chemists remain concerning all of chemistry except their own specialties. Fortunately there are already a few who see the need and who havc the altruism t o undertake the labor and to expend the time nccessary. May their tribe increase, and t h a t right rapidly.
As this number goes to press the judges of the 1930-81 American Chemical Society Prize Essay Contests announce that the winners in the College Freshman and in the Normal School and Teachers' College classes have been selected. The announcement of t h e names of the winners has been inserted a t the end of the Contemporary News section (page 1235).
