Lavoisier left unexplained the dynamics of combustion; but in 1843, before the chemical section of the association meeting at Cork, Dr. Joule announced the discovery which was to revolutionize modern science, namely, the determination of the mechanical equivalent of heat. Every change in the arrangement of the particles he found was accompanied by a definite evolution or an absorption of heat. Heat was evolved by the clashing of the atoms, and this amount was fixed and definite. Thus to Joule we owe the foundation of chemical dynamics and the basis of thermal chemistry. It was upon a knowledge of the mode of arrangement of atoms, and on a recognition of their distinctive properties, that the superstructure of modern organic chemistry rested. We now assumed on good grounds that the atom of each element possessed distinct capabilities of combination. The knowledge of the mode in which the atoms in the molecule are arranged had given to organic chemistry an impetus which had overcome many experimental obstacles, and organic chemistry had now become synthetic. Liebig and Wohler, in 1837, foresaw the artificial production in the laboratories of all organic substances so far as they did not constitute a living organism. And after fifty years their prophecy had been fulfilled, for at the present time we could prepare an artificial sweetening principle, an artificial alkaloid, and salacine. SYNTHESIS. We know now that the same laws regulate the formation of chemical compounds in both animate and inanimate nature, and the chemist only asked for a knowledge of the constitution of any definite chemical compounds found in the organic world in order to be able to promise to prepare it artificially. Seventeen years elapsed between Wohler's discovery of the artificial production of urea and the next real synthesis, which was accomplished by Kolbe, when in 1845 he prepared acetic acid from its elements. Since then a splendid harvest of results had been gathered in by chemists of all nations. In 1834 Dumas made known the law of substitution, and showed that an exchange could take place between the constituent atoms in a molecule, and upon this law depended in great measure the astounding progress made in the wide field of organic synthesis. Perhaps the most remarkable result had been the production of an artificial sweetening agent, termed saccharin, 250 times sweeter than sugar, prepared by a complicated series of reactions from coal tar. These discoveries were not only of scientific interest, for they had given rise to the industry of coal tar colors, founded by our countryman Perkin, the value of which was measured by millions sterling annually. Another interesting application of synthetic chemistry to the needs of everyday life was the discovery of a series of valuable febrifuges, of which antipyrin might be named as the most useful.