242 Cellulose 



PART III 



EXPERIMENTAL AND APPLIED 



THE foregoing general and theoretical treatment of the subject 

 will carry with it a number of suggestions to readers of original 

 and independent habit of mind. Students accustomed to the 

 critical appreciation of essays in the ordering of such subject- 

 matter will have noted the imperfect state of development to 

 which the investigations hitherto prosecuted have brought our 

 knowledge of the celluloses and compound celluloses ; and an 

 appreciation of these imperfections implies the possession of 

 the key to the effectual remedy, i.e. to those directions of 

 investigation most certain to lead to valuable contributions to 

 the subject. Students, however, are by no means generally of 

 this class. The habit of initiation and enterprise in scientific 

 work is perhaps rare, not because of want of capacity, so much 

 as of opportunity and the abiding stimulus of necessity. A 

 main purpose of this treatise is to encourage original investi- 

 gation by opening out, in more definite terms than has been 

 done, the view of a region of the res publica natura extremely 

 rich in possibilities. This view should not be limited, moreover, 

 to the more ardent few who have imaginative and speculative 

 tendencies. The mastery of method is in itself a useful objec- 

 tive, and the subject of cellulose involves a number of experi- 

 mental methods which are not merely essential to the work of 

 pioneer investigation, but a necessary part of the general 

 training of the chemist. 



