684 TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY 



with such result that it has ever since relied upon chemical science 

 to define and pronounce upon the quality of its supplies. 



It has been said that the state of civilization of any country may 

 be determined by the amount of soap which it consumes. Lord 

 Beaconsfield considered that the condition of the chemical trades 

 constituted the best industrial barometer. In his pamphlet on The 

 American Invasion, or England's Commercial Peril, when discussing 

 " the best index of a nation's prosperity," B. H. Thwaite says: " Had 

 he [Beaconsfield] selected the iron and steel trades, he would have 

 made a far better choice." I have given these citations from the 

 many at command as illustrating the tribute paid by the thoughtful 

 to technical chemistry. Technical chemistry promotes civilization, 

 profoundly modifies national policies, and influences diplomatic 

 proceedings. The most frequent cause of friction between nations 

 to-day is found in the endeavor of each of the world-powers to control 

 territory for the exploitation of their products or as sources of their 

 raw materials. 



Technical chemistry, as practiced in the past from the dawn of 

 manufacture, is a most important subject for consideration by the 

 anthropologist, which has unfortunately been too much neglected. 

 Its study will bring rich yields to the anthropologist who comes to it 

 with the proper preparation, for he will find in the arts embraced in 

 technical chemistry the best gauge of the extent of civilization of a 

 people. Historians agree that no one material thing has more pro- 

 foundly influenced civilization than gunpowder has. Over fifty years 

 ago, under circumstances somewhat similar to those which obtain 

 here, a body of scholars under the leadership of Dr. Whewell, Master 

 of Trinity College, reviewed the results of the famous exhibition 

 which had just been held in London. I desire to call the attention 

 of the anthropologists to the address there given by Sir Lyon Play- 

 fair on the Chemical Principles Involved in the Manufactures of the 

 Exhibition. 



In the autumn of 1874 I was so fortunate as to be the guest, at his 

 residence in the Smithsonian Institution, of Joseph Henry, its first 

 secretary and executive officer from 1846, and I had the precious 

 privilege of hearing from his lips a most detailed account of the 

 development of the Institution from the time when he was assigned 

 the duty of devising and carrying out the plans by which Smithson's 

 wishes should be realized and the provisions of the legislative act 

 creating the Institution complied with, and particularly of the various 

 obstacles which he had encountered and surmounted in his endeavor 

 to use the fund for " the increase and diffusion of knowledge among 

 men" in the spirit in which Smithson, as Henry understood it, 

 intended it should be used. Naturally my interest in this famous 

 Institution was greatly quickened, and I have watched somewhat 



