THE UTILITY OF SCIENCE 241 



ing nor hurrying in his exploration of the strata, 

 but how much of the exploitation of our country's 

 mineral resources had its origin in his maps? 

 The important method of spectrum analysis had 

 its beginning in some apparently insignificant 

 observations. Who can say that the early steps 

 which led to finding a cave of treasures (not alto- 

 gether without alloy) in coal-tar had, to begin 

 with, any practical outlook? 



From an address on Technical Chemistry, by 

 Prof. C. E. Munroe, we take another striking 

 case. "The experience of the past has repeatedly 

 demonstrated the commercial possibilities that 

 are latent in scientific theories. A famous exam- 

 ple is found in the commercial development of 

 benzene. Lachman, in 1898, after referring to 

 its discovery by Faraday in 1825, and its pro- 

 duction from benzoic acid by Mitscherlich nine 

 years later, says: ' These famous chemists little 

 thought that their limpid oil would one day lay 

 claim to be the most important substance in 

 organic chemistry; that it would give birth to 

 untold thousands of compounds; that it would 

 revolutionize science and technology. The tech- 

 nical development of benzene and its derivatives 

 employs over fifteen thousand workmen in Ger- 

 many alone; the commercial value of the prod- 

 ucts reaches tens of millions of dollars. . . . 

 Nearly all of this tremendous activity is due to a 



