SCIENCE MARCHES ON "
SIR,—Mr. Walter Shepherd's letter requires some reply. A search of the work of Pliny and Dioscorides did not reveal to me any passage which might lead to the inference that these authors were acquainted with ammonia, and I inferred— wrongly, I see—that Mr. Shepherd based his statement on their mention of sal ammoniacum. It would appear that he based it upon " leading authorities," a class which a long study of the history of chemistry has taught me to distrust. " Radium," which in common usage means radium chloride, was, I understand, purchased in quantity this year at £4,500 per gram, or 1.08 pence per millionth of a gram.
The gravamen of Mr. Shepherd's letter was that my remarks concerned trivialities which did not justify the disparaging tone of the review. I noted a considerable number of passages which appeared to me to be errors or mis-statements, and selected some half-dozen for comment. Had the book seemed to me to possess great positive merits, I should have dis- counted these errors, but it seemed to me to misinterpret profoundly the spirit of early science.—Yours, &c., F. SHERWOOD TAYLOR. Bank House, Llandovery, Carmarthen.
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