COAL-TAR 51 



looking for, but had hit upon something greater. He 

 was after quinine, but he had accidentally entered the 

 unknown field of aniline dyes and drugs, many of which 

 are more valuable to the world than the knowledge of 

 how to make quinine without the aid of Peruvian bark. 

 He was working in a laboratory that he had fitted up 

 for himself at home because the Royal College of 

 Science was not open enough hours to satisfy him, and 

 he was using impure chemicals. This was fortunate, 

 for if his aniline had been pure he would have missed 

 mauve. 



The first coal-tar dye, mauve, was discovered in the 

 Easter vacation of 1856. Note the date, I mean the 

 time of year. It is significant. Not because it was 

 Easter, although you may have a childhood association 

 of aniline dyes with Easter eggs. But it was in vaca- 

 tion. It was made by a boy who played hooky from 

 Vacation, by a boy who had rather work than eat, so he 

 spent his noon hour fussing with chemical apparatus. 

 There are such boys even now in spite of the fact that 

 they are persecuted by their classmates as grinds and 

 are not always encouraged by their teacher. I don't 

 know how William Henry was treated by his school- 

 mates, but he was encouraged by his teacher in the 

 most effective fashion by being set at a discouraging 

 task, in fact an impossible task to him, one that has not 

 yet been accomplished the synthesis of artificial 

 quinine. 



The English and the French at first entered with 

 enthusiasm upon the preparation of new coal-tar com- 

 pounds, but were ultimately distanced by the Germans, 



