Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Chemistry, Commerce, Measurement, Metrology, Religion, Religious Authority, Matter Theory

    Discusses an extract describing the French government's refusal to take base coin from Rome on the grounds that 'the inexorable logic of chemistry' has demonstrated that 'the Roman lira is only worth ninety-one centimes, and not a hundred'. Ironically siding with Pope Pius IX, the writer argues that if 'the logic of Chemistry is inexorable, the logicians are excommunicable [...] Chemistry may also persevere in demonstrating that a given object is composed mainly of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon—elementary substances. Chemistry be—anathema!'.