692 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



larger, broader, grander, and we must worship with a truer adoration, 

 and a feeling of more perfect reverence. 



If we turn again to chemistry, we shall see that while its impor- 

 tance is almost universally recognized ; while the number of those 

 who devote themselves to its study is increasing every year ; while 

 immense sums of money are yearly spent for the building and support 

 of palatial laboratories ; while the press, recognizing the popular 

 appreciation of the science, furnishes, in its own peculiar way, brief 

 records of its advance still we can point to very little connected with 

 chemistry which, for its elevating influence upon mankind, can be com- 

 pared with the great physical truths above referred to. That which 

 is caught at and served up for the public is taken from the lower por- 

 tions of the science, while the higher portions pass on, scarcely if ever 

 coming in contact with the populace. The public knows when a new 

 dye is discovered ; it knows when the poison has been found in some 

 strange stomach ; it knows when a new milk for babes has been con- 

 cocted ; it knows when precious metals have been detected in the 

 depths of the earth ; it knows all these things because it is promptly 

 informed in regard to them; and it is right and good that the infor- 

 mation should be given, and that these things should be known. It 

 is plain, however, that a thousand dyes might be discovered ; that a 

 thousand murderers might be brought to justice through the aid of 

 the chemist ; that varieties innumerable of milk for babes might be 

 concocted ; or that mines upon mines of gold might be unearthed with- 

 out the slightest ennobling or elevating influence being exerted upon 

 the mass of mankind. All of these things would be valuable un- 

 doubtedly but their value would be of a very material kind. It is 

 certain that this material value is that which is most easily recog- 

 nized, which appeals most directly to the public ; and hence plainly, 

 in the public mind, the. importance of chemistry is measured by the 

 standards of this value. The reputations of chemists, too, depend upon 

 the greater or less extent to which they devote themselves to practi- 

 cal questions. He who is frequently on the stand to testify in regard 

 to cases of poisoning ; he who succeeds in presenting to the w r orld 

 some new compound which can be used practically; he who detects 

 impurities in our food or tells us of poisons where their presence must 

 be of importance to us this man is, to the public, the chemist. Ask 

 ninety-nine men out of a hundred what a chemist is, and they will give 

 a definition of one who practises the art of chemistry, rather than of 

 one who is devoted to the science of chemistry. 



This statement is true, whether we speak of the mass of mankind, 

 or of educated and even professional men. The reputation of the 

 science, at the present time, is such that few men conceive of the true 

 science independently of the art of chemistry. This is true, further, 

 not alone in this country, but in Germany, which may rightly be called 

 the seat of chemistry with this difference, however: In Germany 



