188 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1938 



was a mighty force in the introduction of chemistry into medicine. 

 Wherever we go we find traces of this remarkable man — in industry, 

 in sanitation, in the household and in the improvement, comfort, and 

 safety of living. He was a great teacher, and his boys were his con- 

 stant delight and ever-present care. 



If one were to probe the methods of an intent, aproned man busy 

 with the test-tubes, Bunsen burners, flasks, and reagents in a chemical 

 laboratory, he would hear a story fashioned of numbers. Strange that 

 the infinite variety of the universe can be resolved into a series of 

 numbers! But to the chemist there is little that is strange about it. 

 Nature has demonstrated that the seemingly endless variety of cosmic 

 phenomena, ranging from microscopic dust particles to gigantic stellar 

 systems, is, after all, superficial. For chemistry has reduced the 

 universe to 92 chemical elements or kinds of atoms, starting with 

 simple hydrogen and going up the atomic scale to uranium, the most 

 complex element known. All that we see about us can be resolved 

 into these elements. The fascinating realm of nature, from the log 

 that blazes in one's fireplace to the snowcapped mountain chain that 

 lures in summer, is built up from these elements and their various 

 combinations — evidence of the infinite variety of ways in which atoms 

 and molecules can be joined together. Joined in one way, they make 

 a useful textile; in another, a nourishing food. 



Not satisfied with the world as they see it, scientists have set their 

 hands and minds to the task of changing the creations of nature or 

 making new products which nature neglected to make. Nature makes 

 her compounds for general purposes, and is not aware of industrial, 

 scientific, nor medical needs. Hence nature is not perfect because not 

 omniprovident, and the chemist often finds it necessary to improve on 

 nature. Already he has prepared artificially a vast number of sub- 

 stances that nature never dreamed of making, including dyes un- 

 matched by any flower, alloys that were not created when the earth 

 was a cooling fiery ball, artificial silk and woolen fibers, stronger drugs 

 and sweeter perfumes wrung from such a surprising source as coal-tar. 

 Many products of life processes and a much larger number of new 

 compounds related to them have been made by the chemist. He is 

 changing life more rapidly and inexorably than ever before, and all 

 about us are heard glowing words about "the new synthetic age." 



Our future, to a large extent, is in these innocent-looking but all- 

 powerful test-tubes that you will see neatly arranged, row upon row, in 

 any laboratory. 



If Aristotle were living today amid our chemical successes, his 

 childhood belief in fairy stories probably would be reborn. The Greek 

 philosopher interpreted the universe in only four elemental forms of 

 matter — earth, air, water, and fire. These elements represented the 

 four properties of dryness, cold, wetness, and warmth. Thus Aristotle 



