226 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
passing, the most brilliant colors of nature, made the group of bold 
investigators still bolder. Research in organic chemistry began to 
find rapid rewards; entirely new and successful industries based on 
purely scientific data were springing up in England and France, as 
well as in Germany. 
Some wide-awake leaders of these new enterprises, more particu- 
larly in Germany, soon learned that they were never hampered by 
too much knowledge, but that, on the contrary, they were almost con- 
tinuously handicapped in their impatient onward march by insufficient 
knowledge, or by misleading conceptions, if not by incorrect published 
facts. 
This is precisely where the study of organic chemistry received its 
greatest stimulating influence and soon put Germany, in this branch 
of science, ahead oi all other nations. 
Money aad effort had to be spent freely for further research. ‘The 
best scholars in chemistry were called mto action. Some men, who 
were preparing themselves to become professors, were indueed to 
take a leading part as directors in one or another of the new chemical 
enterprises. Others, who refused to forsake their teachers’ career, 
were retained as advisers or guides, and, in several instances, the 
honor of being the discoverers of new processes, or a new dye, was 
made more substantial by financial rewards. The modest German 
university professor, who heretofore had lived within a rather narrow 
academic sphere, went through a process of evolution, where the 
rapidly growing chemical industry made him realize his latent powers 
and greater importance, and broadened his influence far beyond the 
confines of his lecture room. Even if he were altrustic enough to 
remain indifferent to fame or money, he felt stimulated by the very 
thought that he was helping, in a direct manner, to build up the nation 
and the world through the immediate application of the principles 
of science. 
In the beginning science did all the giving and chemical industry 
got most of the rewards; but soon the réles began to change to the 
point where frequently they became entirely inverted. The uni- 
versities did not furnish knowledge fast enough to keep pace with the 
requirements of the rapidly developing new industries. Modern 
research laboratories were organized by some large chemical factories 
-on a scale never conceived before with a lavishness which made the 
best equipped university laboratory appear like a timid attempt. 
Germany, so long behind France and England, had become the recog- 
nized leader in organic manufacturing processes, and developed a 
new industrial chemistry based more on the thorough knowledge 
of organic chemistry than on engineering skill. 
In this relation it is worth while to point out that the early 
organic industrial chemistry, through which Germany was soon to 
