The Hawaiian gazette., 1875-01-06
Communicated
The Advertiser on scIentIGc Matter.

To The Editor of HE Hawaiian Gazette:
SIR:-It is not only remarkable, but actu-
ally ludcrous to see the manifestations of
/ ignorance sometimes made by those who would
be teachers of the people, Especially is the
latter the case when an editor, who does not
know the difference between one element and
another, attempts to appear scientific, and gives
to the world a statement of facts in chemistry
which are chemically impossible and not even
then satisfied, seeks still further to make the
most absurd deductions therefrom, by which
to the merest tyro, he must necessarily ex-
pose his profound ignorance But why such
things should be so, seems difficult to under
stand, unless it be that immense egotism some
times gets the better of little common sense.
In other matters, at least, slight knowledge
of the subject under discussion is generally
sought for before any attempt at calculation is
made; but with science it is peculiarly not 50.
Perhaps relying upon the ignorance of his
readers, he thinks it matters little, so long as
his own errors are not known to them but it
matters just as much in one class of statements
as in another.
The object of the press is not to foster ignor-
ance, but to diffuse knowledge, and on this &C
count it is better that nothing should be said
when nothing is known In the Ad0ertiser Of
the End inst, is an article on milk and coffee,
which shows that chemistry was either not
taught in the school-boy days of the Editor,
or that he lived great way off from school
house. 1 hope however he will accept the fol-
lowing information and not think it amiss-or,
otherwise inform me and others that may be
ignorant of the truth of his premises. In the
first place; coffee is not rich ia taHHiH, neither is
there much albumsa In milk 70 Be made leather Of,
even Ii such were the effect of tannin on albumeu.
Again gelatins and tannic acid form leather. Tan
uic acid coagulates aIbumen do some other acIds
also alcohol and creosote heat has the same effect,
but neither form from it leather. boiled egg cou-
tains cnaguated albumen in large quantity, and is
digestibe aud nutritious. In almost ali other foods
eaten BY man, there is albumen; then why should
milk alone form with coffee chemical ncompati-
bility We may next perhaps hear Of the stomach
itself being tanned into leather BY the action Of cot
fee, If We deny it little milk for its satisfaction
NJ Marchand is quoted as the author OF these state
mShio ~ tut Au0IHHsIt Which tuS EuibOF ud5 Gu
dorsed and amplifed but 1t sounds altogether too
much like the make up OF some greatly less dis
tiDguished than the chemist of that name.
In another place be tells Us Of "another new mo-
tive power"-which is liquid eaFbonic acid, and is
distilled from bi-carbonate of soda. Now carbonic
acid has heretofore been gas and it must be very
peculiar dstilling process that is going 10 turn
il into liquid. II this be So We may next hear Of
bricks becoming product Of distillstion. We are
also informed that biearbonate Of soda is com
mon chalk" Now books on chemistry tell us that
chalk is the carbonate Of line and that lime Is the
protoxide Of calcium "a metao; so that chalk
would thus appear to be carbonate Of the protox-
ide of calcium. Soda is the protoxide Of sodium
and bears the relation to ts metallic base $50
dium) that lime does to calcium. So that II carbo-
nate Of soda is chalk, lime must be soda and what
had beenpreviousy regarded as two distinct metals
must now be the same.
But this Editor thought, a few weeks since, that
Professor Tyndall had been getting beyond bis
DEPTH" and came TO the rescue and azolnsd him
ap-any one can imagine with what success after
reading the forgoiug Bat be iutmates that through
such telling opposition IS his, TyndaH was even