694 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



called forth is akin to that called forth by any clever trickster. It is 

 unfortunate that experiments, originally devised for the purpose of 

 teaching facts, should have come to be employed simply for the sake 

 of their aesthetic effects. There can certainly be no harm in making 

 an experiment a thing of beauty, so long as its real object is not by 

 this means interfered with ; indeed, this may be advisable, in order 

 more strongly to impress upon the minds of the hearers the facts 

 which are to be taught, but the tendency is very strong toward the 

 condition above described : the science is made to serve the purposes 

 of showmen, and the rabble shout the more, the greater the display. 

 Those who serve up this class of lectures are doing positive harm by 

 belittling the science whose name they profane ; and they are also 

 doing negative harm by failing to make use of the opportunities 

 afforded them to draw the minds of men upward to higher concep- 

 tions, and thus of elevating mankind. They neither recognize the 

 science nor the art of chemistry, but by their actions teach that it is 

 a pastime of no particular value. 



In the foregoing we have drawn a line between the science and 

 the art of chemistry. The character of the art is perfectly plain to 

 every one. He who analyzes substances in order to decide questions 

 solely of practical importance ; who examines the properties of sub- 

 stances solely with a view of determining the practical uses to which 

 these substances can be put ; whose only problem relates to the appli- 

 cations of the truths of chemistry to the uses of man he practises the 

 art of chemistry. 



But it is time to inquire what the science is, and what its relation 

 to the art is. A science is a collection of principles, well established, 

 applying to a certain class of phenomena. The science, of chemistry 

 is that particular science which treats of the action of bodies upon 

 each other, in so far as this action causes a change in the composition 

 of the bodies. All the so-called natural laws which govern this kind 

 of action belong legitimately to the field of chemistry. The science 

 is, strictly speaking, a part of that broader science which treats of 

 the action of matter upon matter, viz., physics ; but it is usual to 

 consider the two as separate sciences. Its first object is to determine 

 the laws of combination and decomposition of bodies, and its state of 

 perfection will be reached when so much is known concerning these 

 laws that we shall be able in every case to foretell what changes will 

 ensue when two or more bodies are brought together, or when certain 

 influences are brought to bear upon a body. We are so very far from 

 this perfect state at present that we cannot even say what kind of 

 reasoning processes will be necessary to enable us to draw the proper 

 conclusions from given facts. It appears probable, however, that 

 chemistry will gradually develop into a true mathematical science, 

 and that, having reached this state, chemists will determine the orbits 

 of atoms, their rates of motion, their perturbations by methods similar 



