THE INFLUENCE OF COAL-TAR ON 

 CIVILIZATION 



BY EDWIN E. SLOSSON 



WHAT were the most precious things in the 

 ancient world? What would a king bring to 

 a great king whose favour he sought? What 

 would the great king offer to his god? When a daring 

 trader had reached the Far East after untold hardships 

 by land and sea for many months, what commodities 

 would he pick out to purchase and take back, knowing 

 that he must make his fortune out of what he could 

 carry on a camel's back, or perhaps his own, through the 

 torrid desert, beset by robbers, and over the icy 

 mountains ? You know what he could buy to take back 

 if you know your Bible, or even if you know your 

 Arabian Nights. You could inventory that cargo from 

 such fragments of ancient verse or prose as linger in 

 your memory. You know that when his pack of rare 

 and precious goods was opened it would be found to be 

 filled largely with what are now called coal-tar com- 

 pounds. Not much else, except gold and gems. There 

 would be dyes and drugs, perfumes, and preservatives; 

 whatever amorous youth would choose to enhance the 

 beauty of his lady love, and whatever pious youth 

 would use to embalm the body of his father; whatever 



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