VOL.
CORRESPONDENCE
9, NO. 2
365
method by Popoff and his co-workers requires some explanation. The physical condition and purity of the silver used in the two parts is probably the greatest cause of error. In the method used by Popoff this difficulty was avoided by the use of mercury. Since the same activity coefficients were used in the electrometric determination as in the above calculation it is obvious that considerable error is introduced here. The value of KO, of the ionic strength used in the Fe++Fe+++side of the cell was 0.0567. Another possible source of error in the electrometric determination was the oxidation of ferrous iron during the time required for filling the cell and for the attainment of a constant e. m. f. We regret that it is impossible for us to investigate this reaction further. Yours truly, . E. J. SHAW MARYELIZABRTH HYDE PEOPLES
GAS LIGHTAND COKECO.
Cmc~co,I ~ I N O I S
THEODORE WILLIAM RICHARDS DR. 0.G.VILLARD, Editor
The Nation DEARDR. VILLARD: We have q u ~ t e dseveral times in the JOURNALPF CHEMICAL EDUCATION the following which, in an article on page 424 of the April 18,1928,issue of The Nation,Vol. 126, No. 3276, was attributed to the late T. W. Richards:
If I were asked to select the best chemist in any gathering, I should find out first who played the 'cello best. One of our correspondents has written us about this, and in an etfort t o find out on what occasion and under what circumstances the remark was made, we have communicated with several persons who were intimately associated with Dr. Richards. None of these has any knowledge of it, and several have intimated that it "doesn't sound like him." Can you furnish us with any information about it? Thanking you in advance for any attention you may give this request, I am Sincerely yours, NEIL E. GORDON
I am sorry to have delayed so long in sending you the information for which you asked in your letter of November llth, but the writer of the editorial in question has been out of the country and did not receive my note
366
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
FEBRUARY,1932
of inquiry until just recently. I am enclosing a copy of his letter to me and hope that it may at least partially be satisfactory. Sincerely yours, CAROLINE WHITING Editorin1 Secretary, The Nation
. . . . . . DEARMISS WHITING: This delay in reply to your letter of November 12th is due, first. to my having been in Canada for a week after you wrote, and second, to my efforts to find associates of mine at Harvard who might recall the remark which I attributed to Professor Richards. I have been unsuccessful in getting any confirmation of it from the men who -1 thought might have heard it. My classmates agree that it sounds exactly like Professor Richards but none recall the remark. My own memory is quite definite, namely that it was made to a group of students including myself who gathered about the lecture desk following one of his lectures in the undergraduate course on the history of chemistry. He had been discussing the versatility of some famous chemist. I believe it was Sir William Ramsay. As I recall it, I asked him myself whether an aptitude for chemistry usually excluded an interest in music and literature. I was then much perturbed over my apparently incompatible interests. I was fascinated by chemistry and.physics and yet had profound love of literature and the arts. I was facing thschoice of a career. My question grew out of my perplexity. His reply was most reassuring. He spoke of his own work in painting and mentioned the musical attainments of a number of his friends who were distinguished European chemists. He said very emphatically that a man who knew nothing but chemistry night be a competent technician but that the really great in science had a creative impulse which found artistic expression. He closed his little speech by the remark which I quoted in the editorial that I wrote on his death, a remark which has been very vivid in my mind ever since those days. I regret that I cannot now, after the lapse of twenty-one years, find classmates who were in that small group after the lecture and who recall the remark. But there is no doubt whatever in my mind that he made it in essentially the foxm which I have quoted. Yours sincerely, OF EDITORIAL AUTHOR
