The Chemist as Creator 747 



We take a walk in a wood in Spring and pull a few of the 

 clover-like leaves of the Wood-Sorrel (whose technical name is 

 worth recording, Oxalis acctosella) ; we taste these beautiful 

 leaves, almost as beautiful as the pendent translucent white 

 flower-bells, we enjoy the pleasant oxalate taste (like the "acid 

 drops" of our childhood), due to the salts formed in the course 

 of the chemical routine of the Wood- Sorrel's life. How these 

 pleasant oxalate salts arose in the Wood-Sorrel's leaves is not 

 our question just now, except to this extent, that they certainly 

 were not formed in the same way as the synthetic chemist the 

 magician of his craft builds up oxalates in his laboratory. 



The second point is strictly practical. If living plants make 

 indigo and living animals make sepia, why should man be so proud 

 of an artificial imitation, which means an ousting of natural pro- 

 duction? The answer is not always easy, but it is clear in cases 

 where the chemist can manufacture large quantities of a valuable 

 material without great expense. Thus he has been able to build up 

 the potent substance called adrenalin, used in stopping bleeding 

 and for other purposes a substance which is produced only in 

 very small quantities by the suprarenal capsules of animals. It is 

 one of the important "internal secretions" or hormones which are 

 discussed elsewhere. To obtain adequate supplies of adrenalin 

 for medical purposes would mean killing a large number of 

 animals. How much more economical when the synthetic chemist 

 can build up this precious substance from simple constituents! 

 In so doing he is a creator. 



Coal-tar Colours 



The chemists have not been content to imitate Nature, they 

 have gone one better they have made new things, and fine illus- 

 trations of this may be found in the story of coal-tar products. 

 Everyone knows that when coal is used to make gas, there is a 

 residue of useful coke and of coal-tar. This strong-smelling, 

 dark-coloured coal-tar used to be regarded as a troublesome by- 



