The Chemist as Creator 745 



in a London laboratory. The furniture of the earth and of the 

 heavens may change from style to style, but the fundamental 

 properties of its constituents remain. This conclusion requires 

 careful handling in view of the disintegration of the atom in radio- 

 active substances (see the article FOUNDATIONS OF THE UNI- 

 VERSE) , but, on the whole, there remains validity in what Professor 

 Clerk Maxwell said in his famous Discourse on Molecules 

 (1873): 



Though in the course of ages catastrophes have occurred and 

 may yet occur in the heavens, though ancient systems may be 

 dissolved and new systems evolved out of their ruins, the 

 molecules [a modern chemist would say "atoms"] out of 

 which these systems are built the foundation-stones of the 

 material universe remain unbroken and unworn. They 

 continue this day as they were created perfect in number 

 and measure and weight. 



In the face of this how can we speak of the chemist as creator? 



Making Vital Products Artificially 



The first reason for calling the chemist creative is to be found 

 in the fact that he has been able to build up artificially what used 

 to be regarded as exclusively vital productions. This is called 

 "chemical synthesis," and its development forms one of the most 

 interesting chapters in the history of science. 



The beginning of the triumphant progress was in 1828, when 

 Wb'hler discovered that the salt known as ammonium cyanate 

 changes spontaneously (when its solution is evaporated) into 

 urea. Why should that be important? The reason was this. 

 Urea is a nitrogenous waste product formed by mammals, and 

 filtered out of the body in the urine. Like other products of the 

 living body, urea was regarded as a characteristic vital product. 

 But cyanate of ammonia can be made apart from living creatures, 

 and yet it readily changes into urea. This was the thin end of the 

 wedge. The substances made by living creatures could no longer 

 be kept on a platform by themselves; Wohler's experiment 



