192 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 163. 



tageously modified in tlie interests of greater 

 accuracy ; and also, although not yet 

 rigorously demonstrated, there are strong 

 indications that molybdic acid (M0O3) is 

 always reduced by zinc to Mo^Oj, and that 

 the more complex formulas, MOj^Ojg, MOj^Oj,, 

 etc., SO commonly given as representing 

 this reduction, simply mean that the con- 

 ditions under which these formulae were 

 obtained permitted the reoxidation of the 

 reduced solution to the extent indicated. 



There is another phase of this question 

 we are discussing : ' The Dignity of Ana- 

 lytical work,' which will, perhaps, bear a 

 few words. It seems to be universally con- 

 ceded that the brain that plans and guides 

 is worthy of more honor than the hand that 

 executes ; the general deserves more than 

 the private soldier ; the architect than the 

 builder ; the investigator who plans the 

 work than the chemist who makes the 

 analyses. Few will object to such a distri- 

 bution of rewards as this, and certainly no 

 one will claim that a chemist who, machine- 

 like, simply follows directions, without 

 thought or interest in the matter, can 

 fairly claim recognition for anything more, 

 perhaps, than manipulative skill and 

 honesty. But, on the other hand, it is 

 fair to say that such analysts can truly be 

 called analytical chemists. Does not the 

 genuine analytical chemist embody within 

 himself, not only the capacity of brain to 

 wisely plan his method of attack, to con- 

 ceive which one of the possible reactions in 

 the case it will be best to emploj', but also 

 the requisite manipulative skill, to carry 

 out the line of action decided upon. To 

 my mind, these two things, viz. , the brain 

 power necessary to plan the work, together 

 with continual activity of the brain while 

 the work is going on, and the skilled and 

 trained hand requisite to do the work, are 

 necessarily coexistent at the same time in 

 the good analytical chemist, and woe be to 

 that chemist who tries to put them asunder. 



The analyst whom chance or the exigencies 

 of earning his livelihood have thrown into 

 a situation where day after day he must, 

 for a time at least, do the same thing over 

 and over again, and who does not, even in 

 this situation, use his brain constantly, 

 does not each time he adds a reagent think 

 what is going on in the beaker ; does not 

 each time he washes a precipitate think 

 what he is washing out ; does not every 

 time he makes a weight take a genuine 

 interest in the result, and even the hun- 

 dredth time that he makes the same deter- 

 mination is not on the lookout for some 

 flaw in the method he is using, or some 

 possible new reaction in connection with 

 it — such an analyst, I say, will stand a good 

 chance to remain a routine chemist all his 

 life. 



On the other hand, what shall we say of 

 those chemists who plan out a line of in- 

 vestigation and are content not to make 

 the necessary analyses themselves? We 

 are quite well aware that at the present 

 time this is a very common method of 

 making investigations, and we can, of 

 course, understand that pressure of other 

 duties may make it impossible to pm-sue 

 investigations in any other way. But we 

 cannot regard this state of affairs as, to say 

 the least, anything less than unfortunate. 

 If we may trust our own experience, the 

 time spent in making the analyses required 

 by one line of attack on a stubborn problem 

 is most valuable, in the opportunity which 

 it affords for carrying the problem in mind, 

 and planning out other lines, in case the 

 one in hand does not succeed. Moreover, 

 still more valuable is it to make the analy- 

 ses yourself, in that while doing so you so 

 frequently get suggestions from the work 

 that are the very ones upon which final 

 success depends. I wish there were time to 

 illustrate this point as its importance de- 

 serves, but the history of chemistry and 

 your own experience will have to furnish 



