866
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
MAY. 1931
30,000-fold, or cuts down the rate of evaporation a t ordinary pressure to about one-half. So the permeability of cell walls is something that we have a little light on from this work; but I do believe that future work in this field will help to throw a great deal of light on the structure of cell walls and the mechanism of living processes.
The Occult Beginnings of Authentic Science. The following is an abstract ol an address delivered by Prof. Tenney L. Davis of M. I . T. before the December meeting of the Connecticut Valley Section of the A. C. S. Primitive science may be said to have consisted only in observation. The first step in its growth away from this stage was the sifting and distinction of things, the separation of that which was from that which was not. I n the emerald tablet of Hermes is found this concept of opposites, a separating of all things according t o their positive or negative properties. I n the Egyptian lore, one meets Osirur, the sun god, the hot, aetive positive element, and on the other hand, Isis, the moon god, the moist, cold, impassive, the negative or feminine element. I n the Yin-Yang of Chinese philosophy is the sameconcept of opposites: Yin, the shady side of the house, the negative or feminine, and on the other hand Yang, the sunny side of the house, the hot, dry masculine element. I n 300 A.D. sulfur found use as the positive or active principle, mercury as the negative ar inactive principle. Paracelsus introduced a third term, neutral salt, which was neither positive nor negative but a blending of the two. The next step was the beginning of man's thought concerning knowledge about knowledge. To follow the reasoning of the ancients, if we represent the three elements of knowledge by the numbers 1.2, and 3, then knowledge about these three may be represented by 4.5,and 6. Now let the series 1. 2. and 3 he the ~ o s i t i v eseries. and 4.5. . . and 6 the negative. We round i t off by conceiving the third or neutral series 7.8, and 9. If one knows up to 3. he possesses h o w l e d ~ e . If he knows UP t o 7, he is on a fair way t o possessing knowledge about knowledge. As a consequence, the numbers 3 and 7 have always bad a special significance. There are 7 days in the week; the years of man's life are threescore and ten, or seventy years; the boy becomes a man a t twentyone, again a multiple of seven. The number ten is the divine number outside of man's conceit. Hence we find the ten commandments, ten cherubim and seraphim in art. The Aristotelian elements: fire, air, earth, and water present a more complex system of contraries, a system of two pairs of opposites. These are often represented diagrammatically, the four elements a t the four corners of a square with an inscribed circle representing a quinta essentic, a fifth element or quintessence. More involved still is the later system of Roger Bacon, that of three contraries. knowledge, will, and power, represented a s the three sides of an equilateral triangle. Outside this triangle and inside the circumscribed circle is a fourth element necessary for perfection, the element of intelligent restraint. Diagrams of this sort find their way into medieval art and architecture. These concepts which mark the beginning of science may seem very strange and fantastic t o us with onr present-day knowledge, but if we only try t o put ourselves in the position of the men of that age and try to understand the vocabulary and symbolism which they used we find much in their t h o u ~ h which t has endured t o this dav. W e must rccagnire a150 that tl.e,c c.mccpti were the pruduet of the best brain, of that era and 3 r ~ thcrefor~ . not to he ltghtly cast asidr. Inn rathrr studied.-Y'he .Yudear
