282 DISCOVERY CH. 



his fellow men in his own country and in all parts of 

 the world." 



Agricultural Experiment Stations similar to that at 

 Rothamsted now exist in all civilised countries ; they 

 are laboratories of industrial or technical research in 

 which problems are attacked with the object of ensuring 

 the supply of man's daily bread by fighting the natural 

 agents and forces which would deprive him of it. 

 Thousands of chemists are engaged in researches which 

 have as their aims the definite practical purposes of 

 increasing man's comforts or pleasures, or strengthening 

 his power over Nature. They have by their intensive 

 investigations produced hundreds of dyes from coal-tar ; 

 they have produced an artificial indigo which has taken 

 the place of the natural dyestuff even in the home of the 

 indigo plant, Asia, and a dyestuff, alizarin, which has 

 similarly displaced the natural dye obtained from the 

 madder root. Numerous other natural products have 

 been built up from their elements by chemical techno- 

 logists, mostly by systematic purposeful research having 

 profitable commercial ends in view. We have as the 

 result, cabinets of synthetic drugs to alleviate pain and 

 fight disease, and artificial essences which cannot be 

 distinguished in their fragrant qualities from the scents 

 of flowers lilac, lily of the valley, violet and the rose. 



The intention of technical research is not so much to 

 contribute to scientific knowledge as to create new 

 industries or develop old into higher or more productive 

 forms. The country which neglects this pioneer branch 

 of its industrial army cannot maintain an important 

 position in the struggle for existence or supremacy in 

 commercial life. Lord Beaconsfield once said that the 

 condition of the chemical trade of a country is a baro- 

 meter of its prosperity, and King George the Fifth 



