The Evolution of Chemistry. 141 



are multitudinous. Eecalling how far up the line any one 

 of them may happen to be enables the chemist to at once 

 reconstruct the formula. 



The groupings are not all so simple as in this series. 

 Some are bound in complex rings instead of chains. These 

 are the most promising for progress and most interesting 

 for science of any. In 1865 Kekule discovered that ben- 

 zine had its atoms so connected. This was the first known 

 to have such a structure. Just before this, coal-tar had be- 

 come an object of intense interest. The brilliant anilines 

 had begun to be made, and the search for more had led to 

 Kekule's investigations. What a triumph of chemistry 

 this was ! From dirty, black coal-tar came the many hues 

 and shades now deemed so necessary for the adornment of 

 our ladies. The gaudy array of colors in every dry-goods 

 and millinery display window attests the commercial worth 

 of such studies. Those ribbons, threads, silks, flowers, and 

 feathers constitute a much more substantial iridescence than 

 that of any dream. 



About forty years ago a Scotch chemist, called Andprson, 

 with most commendable heroism began the study of sludge 

 oil. A more obnoxious task can scarcely be conceived. No 

 financial considerations inspired him. He wrought for sci- 

 ence, pure and simple, little dreaming of the rich lead he 

 was opening up for coming generations. He distilled two 

 hundred and fifty gallons, the sickening stench from which 

 cost him many a meal. The outcome of that task for sev- 

 eral years seemed totally valueless, and might have remained 

 so if a countryman of his own had not taken up the same 

 investigation where he left off. This resulted in the syn- 

 thesis of pyridine, the basic group of many, and probably 

 all, of the alkaloids. It placed us on the route to quinine, 

 morphine, atropine, and cocaine, with most other active 

 medicinal agents of plants, as well as the ptomaines and leu- 

 comaines of animals. It seems, too, to be the direct line to 

 protoplasm itself. While Anderson and his immediate suc- 

 cessors in the work gained scarcely honor for what they did, 

 others have since reaped their harvest and made millions of 

 dollars. Still others, yet to come, are bound to make mill- 

 ions more. The gain to the race of such work is incal- 

 culable. 



A list of all the valuable additions made by synthetic 

 chemistry within a score of years would occupy more time 

 to read than could possibly be given in this lecture. To 



