760 The Outline of Science 



Summary 



The story of the chemist's achievements as a creator is one 

 of the most brilliant chapters in the history of science, and not 

 without its romance. We strongly recommend Dr. Edwin Slos- 

 son's Creative Chemistry (1921), a book that reads like a novel, 

 to which we have been greatly indebted in writing this short 

 article. We have not been able to give more than samples of 

 what has been accomplished. What was procurable in small 

 quantities and at great expense as a natural product can now 

 be made artificially and cheaply. What was once procurable, but 

 has become unavailable by reason of exhaustion or political 

 changes, can be made from simple materials, and independently 

 of any particular locality. Hundreds of entirely new things, 

 which the world never saw before, have been synthesised. Vast 

 quantities of material previously unused or thrown away as waste 

 have been utilised as the foundation of new wealth. So the story 

 runs, and there is no telling what chapters are to follow. It is 

 by no means fantastic to suggest that some new biochemical dis- 

 covery may alter the whole bread-and-butter problem of man- 

 kind. For a long time the chemical investigator was concerned 

 with analysis ; but to this he has added synthesis ; and in so doing 

 he has already made the world new both for evil and for good. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



FINDLAY, A., Chemistry in the Service of Man. 

 HENDRICK, ELLWOOD, Everyman's Chemistry. 

 PHILIP, JAMES C., Achievements of Chemical Science. 

 SADTLER, S. S., Chemistry of Familiar Things (New York). 

 SLOSSON, EDWIN E., Creative Chemistry. 



SODDV, FREDERICK, Matter and Energy (Home University Library). 

 TILDEN, SIR W. A., Chemical Discovery and Invention in the Twentieth 

 Century. 



