72 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



ternational importance and affect in various ways the 

 lives of all of us. 



The aesthetic and emotional effects of such new 

 factors in our civilization are doubtless more important 

 than the material but they are more apt to be under- 

 estimated because they cannot be figured in pounds or 

 dollars. What, for instance, is the psychological in* 

 fluence of the varied tints that our chemists have re- 

 cently introduced ? On this point we should consult the 

 sex that takes most delight in colour, or at least makes 

 most use of it. So I quote without permission from a 

 private letter I recently received from a professor of 

 chemistry in one of the leading colleges for women: 



Our colours are so much more beautiful than those which we had 

 formerly. I remember the first aniline dyes which were introduced 

 when I was a little girl. "Crushed strawberry" and "raspberry" 

 were fashionable. The colours improved greatly, but they have 

 never since then been so beautiful as they are getting to be now. 

 There is a whole range of colours developed by our chemists which 

 are entirely new, all the shades of henna, of jade, Russian green, the 

 rose colours, to mention only a few. They are much more suited 

 to our climate, to our taste and to our fabrics than the German dyes 

 which so often looked " dowdy." If a colour is pleasing, our chemists 

 can introduce more varieties in it, just as has happened with henna. 

 At first there was only one shade, now there are many more, delicate 

 ones suited to summer skies and deeper ones for winter. 



The psychological effect of colour is beginning to be understood 

 very much better now than formerly. The colours which oui 

 chemists have introduced are so much more refining and stimulating 

 than the old ones. A lovely colour gives an aesthetic pleasure, often- 

 times surpassing that of music, and sometimes makes the possessor 

 of it aspire to something higher and finer. It brings freedom with it. 



Coal-tar has also played a part in the development 

 of our other aesthetic sense, the sense for sound. 



