256 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



slowly, and though according to the statements in the press, all this 

 is mere child's play and the problem has been solved, I leave it to 

 your judgment whether this is true or not, like much that printer's 

 ink patiently transfers to paper. I am right in the midst of this 

 excitement. I have employed articles made of synthetic rubber, 

 and for some time I have used automobile tu-es made of this mate- 

 rial. Yet, if you ask me to answer you honestly and truly when 

 synthetic rubber wiU bring the millions which prophets see in its 

 exploitation, I must reply that I do not know. Surely not in the 

 immediate future, although synthetic rubber will certainly appear 

 on the market in a very short time. But I hope to live long enough 

 to see art triumph also here over nature. 



We are now at the end of our journey. We have flown not onl}^ 

 over the field of Germany, but also over all other countries where the 

 chemical industry is cultivated. We have taken a passing glance at 

 the untiring striving for advance, the restless search for the liidden 

 and unknowm, the ceaseless efforts to acquire more technical knowl- 

 edge as witnessed in the great laboratories and factories of our 

 mighty and ever-growing industiy. We v/iU now guide our airship 

 into the haven whence we set out and land v/here our coworkers have 

 gathered from all the countries of the earth to recount whatever 

 progress each has acliieved, and to discuss, in pubKc and private, the 

 problems which have been solved and those wliich still await solution. 



Tliis is the purpose and aim of the congresses of applied chemistry, 

 and in tliis way they promote du-ectly and indirectly the interests of 

 our industry. But they also serve another purpose — to spread far 

 and wide laiowicdge of our great deeds. It is thus that they impr<'ss 

 the importance of our science and the arts founded on it upon tlie 

 public in general and especially upon those who have influence in 

 social or official positions, so that our profession may advance equally 

 with others, and so that the importance of the cheiniciil industry tiud 

 of those connected with it from an economic, hygienic, and social 

 standpoint may become better and better known. 



That the effulgent light of this knowledge ^^dU also be diffused by 

 the Eighth International Congress of AppKed Chemistry is assured by 

 the magnificent organization wMch our friends, the American chem- 

 ists, have provided, the sldllfid manner in wliich the affaii- has been 

 conducted, the hospitable reception which has been extended to us, 

 not only b}^ our colleagues but by the people tit large, and wldcli is 

 stiU awaiting us in our tours of mspection of the flourisliing industry 

 of America, in so many respects a model for others. For'^chemical 

 science and the chemical industry the f oIlo^^dng words of ScliiUcr are 

 beautifully descriptive: 



"Only the serious mind, undaunted by obstacles, can hear the 

 murmuring of the hidden spring of truth." 



