MORRIS LOEB 



To speak in more sober language, while it is still necessary 

 for the advancement of knowledge that investigators should 

 concentrate their energies on their particular fields of science, 

 these various branches are now approaching so close together 

 that one will aid the other, if properly directed. While, there- 

 fore, it would be preposterous to demand of the anatomist 

 a full knowledge of astronomy, or to ask a geologist for his 

 opinion of the various hypotheses concerning the structure 

 of benzol, we may justly deride the man who confines him- 

 self so closely to his own particular hobby that he remains 

 ignorant of those subjects which are neighboring links in the 

 chain of knowledge, merely because he does not expect aid 

 from them. Such men may be most skillful in delving for 

 new facts, they may light upon discoveries which will make 

 their names famous, fill their pockets, cover their breasts with 

 decorations, and stuff their cabinets with diplomas. But the 

 actual merit of incorporating these facts into the world's 

 knowledge will belong to him who, with a wider view, will 

 connect them with other isolated facts to form a harmonious 

 whole. 



Especially has our own science been unfortunate in pro- 

 ducing hundreds of specialists of the narrowest order. The 

 ever-increasing number of subjects which claim attention, 

 the perplexing rapidity with which new views supersede 

 older ones, the restriction which the work in the laboratory 

 places upon our time, these have all had a share in per- 

 suading chemists to confine their attention to a narrow field 

 and to give scanty hearing to that which does not concern 

 their own particular work. But, worse still, we have to con- 

 tend with the opinion that chemistry is a practical science, 

 that it is our chief glory to produce new compounds of un- 

 heard-of intricacy, that our recompense is to be sought in 

 some discovery which will have a commercial value. Far be it 



