92 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



hundred years the scientific investigation of chemical and 

 electric phenomena has taught us to disentangle the 

 intricate web of the elementary forces of nature, to lay 

 bare the many interwoven threads, to break up the equili- 

 brium of actual existence, and to bring within our power 

 and under our control forces of undreamed-of magnitude. 

 3. The great inventions of former ages were made in countries 



Relation of i t p i 



science and wlicrc practical life, industry, and commerce were most 

 "^^- advanced ; but the great inventions of the last fifty years 



in chemistry and electricity and the science of heat have 

 been made in the scientific laboratory : the former were 

 stimulated by practical wants ; the latter themselves pro- 

 duced new practical requirements, and created new spheres 

 of labour, industry, and commerce. Science and know- 

 ledge have in the course of this century overtaken the 

 march of practical life in many directions.^ A confused 



ing the history of the learned 

 societies as well as the rare cases in 

 which highest scientific genius is 

 allied with practical skill in the 

 same person, whether the cultiva- 

 tion of research for its own sake 

 should not preferably be kept dis- 

 tinct from its hasty application. 

 This is the view held by many great 

 thinkers abroad. In England the 

 opposite view has frequently im- 

 peded the progress of pure science. 

 ^ A few examples may suffice. 

 The discovery by Oersted and Am- 

 pere of Electromagnetism (1819, 

 1820) led at once to the idea of 

 electrical telegraphy : the first tele- 

 graph over considerable distances 

 was constructed by Gauss and 

 Weber (see ' Wilhelm Weber,' 

 Breslau, 1893, p. 26, &c.) The 

 artificial preparation of an organic 

 substance by Wohler in 1 828 led at 

 once to many attempts at prepar- 

 ing expensive organic compounds 



especially medical substances by 

 chemical synthesis. The occupa- 

 tion with this problem under A. W. 

 Hofmann's instructions led Perkin 

 in 1856 to the discovery of the first 

 anilin colour (Mauvein, see ' Ber- 

 ichte der deutschen chemischen 

 Gesellschaft,' No. 17, p. 3391). 

 Leblanc's discovery how to make 

 carbonate of soda from salt, for 

 which a prize had been offered by 

 the Paris Academy under Napoleon, 

 led to the enormous development 

 of the sulphuric acid industry in 

 England and on the Continent. 

 Liebig foretold in 1840 the recovery 

 of sulphur from the waste of chemi- 

 cal works and the effect on the 

 sulphur mines of Sicily, fifty years 

 before this process was satisfactorily 

 carried out (see Liebig's familiar 

 'Letters on Chemistry,' 1st ed., 1843, 

 pp. 22, 31, &c.) But the greatest 

 of all industries created in the 

 laboratory was probably that of 



