SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 345 



scientific facts and hypotheses. To pervert or carelessly to 

 observe facts in order to make them, at all hazards, fit into 

 theoretical moulds, is the highest act of treason of which the 

 scientist can be guilty. Chemistry, studied from a geometri- 

 cal basis, is of comparatively recent date. It is purely arbi- 

 trary to settle upon any particular figure to express the group- 

 ing of the atoms in space. However, the tetrahedron is the 

 simplest expression that explains the fact. 



The entire subject of the chemistry of sugars would be the 

 chaos it was before, without the aid of geometrical specula- 

 tions. These at once bring order and system to a confusion 

 of facts. 



Hegel names time and space the accidents of true exist- 

 ence. In the consideration of the space relations of these com- 

 pounds a step is taken to the reality which lies beyond time 

 and space and the imperfection of knowledge. These con- 

 figurations represent crudely the ideal basis of what is called 

 matter. 



The next query that will occur to those who are not daily 

 working in scientific matters is this: Is the subject of sugars, 

 just reviewed, settled for all times? In science there is no 

 fixed ground. The true object of scientific research is to seek 

 truth regardless of the consequences, and on our plane, truth 

 is evolving. To embrace, when found, that truth which seems 

 the more evolved, even though the pet hypotheses and results 

 of a lifetime's personal effort are laid aside, is the true aim of 

 endeavor. This is the true scientific spirit. The magnetic 

 needle oscillates until it finds its resting-place pointing north- 

 ward, and the chemist, too, should oscillate within the arc of 

 his science until he finds the currents flowing towards light 

 and higher truth. 



It has been said that "every man who would do anything 

 well must come to it from a higher plane. A philosopher must 

 be more than a philosopher." Plato was clothed with the 

 powers of the poet, though he chose to use his poetic powers 

 to an ulterior purpose. In the love for facts, the other side 

 of the subject, the "mirror image," so to speak, must not be 

 forgotten. The true insight will come from the employment 



