The Chemist as Creator 751 



coal-tar products of the world, and supplying material for most 

 of the rest." 



It must be understood that the coal-tar dyes are often good 

 for much more than dyeing the robes of cardinals, the uniforms 

 of soldiers, the Socialist's necktie, and even ladies' ribbons. Thus, 

 to mention only one, the dye called "flavine" is a quick killer of 

 the microbes of abscesses. And allied to the coal-tar dyes are 

 many coal-tar drugs many of them not unmixed blessings- 

 like "aspirin," "phenacetin," "sulphonal," and "veronal." 



Artificial Perfumes 



Nothing derogatory is implied in the term "artificial," for 

 why should indigo built up by the devices of the rational chemist 

 be necessarily inferior to that elaborated in the indigo plant, or 

 why should the musk made from a coal-tar product be necessarily 

 inferior to that secreted by the musk-deer? That the artificially 

 produced substance is not made in the same way as the naturally 

 produced substance is certain, but chemically they are the same 

 when they are finished. It is possible that minute impurities 

 or accessories cling about the natural product, which give it a 

 charm of individuality like that distinguishing a woodcut from a 

 zinc-block, or a wrought-iron gate from one of cast iron. In any 

 case, the main fact in regard to perfumes, as in regard to more 

 important products, is that man first sought laboriously for "the 

 natural"; he then tried to adapt Nature to his purposes, e.g. by 

 growing acres of scented flowers; and third, he has gone on an- 

 other tack altogether that of creating for himself. Thus the 

 chief ingredient of attar or oil of roses is geraniol, which can be 

 made synthetically, and the fragrance of orange flowers has been 

 successfully captured by the artificial building-up of neroli. 



What is true of perfumes holds also for flavours appealing 

 to the other chemical sense, taste, the twin-sister of smell. Thus 

 vanillin, artificially synthesised in 1874, is extensively used, in- 

 stead of the identical vanillin from vanilla-beans. Our only pro- 



