Director of the Chautauqua School of Experimental Science.
In our day science invades the kitchen. Knowledge knocks at the sitting
room door. Literature and art visit the parlor of even our humble homes.
To do anything in furtherance of popular education is a delight. Mine be
the task of making the laboratory and the home better acquainted.
The limitations of an article for THE CHAUTAUQUAN cause the first
embarrassment. One must at once become an eclectic, and select wisely the
_best_ from a wide field. The next difficulty is to give coherency and
classification to the truths selected. Upon what golden cord shall we
arrange the shining truths?
Let us use an ancient, though incorrect classification of elements:
Water, air, earth, fire, adding another, organisms. Indeed, this is about
the division of matter which the common people make to-day, although
chemists tell us that neither of these is an element, and that the
simple, indivisible substances in nature are sixty-six in number. As
chemistry and physics are so closely related, we shall consider each of
these topics from the standpoint of both these sciences. This will call
for ten articles, on the following subjects: Chemistry of Water; Physics
of Water; Chemistry of Air; Physics of Air; Chemistry of Fire; Physics
of Fire; Chemistry of Earth; Physics of Earth; Chemistry of Organisms;
Physics of Organisms.