328 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1188 



That has been the history abroad and it 

 will be the same here. In fact, together 

 with our long-established great pharma- 

 ceutical houses, they should iind even 

 richer, unexploited iields of effort in the 

 problems of synthetic drugs than in those 

 of dyes. Without question the average 

 man spends on necessary drugs for his 

 family at least a thousandfold the value of 

 the dyes in the wardrobes of his whole 

 family — the ladies, of course, included. 

 The twitchings of rheumatism or gout, 

 sleepless nights or a cantankerous cold are 

 most urgent and persuasive drawers on a 

 family purse. My professional friends in 

 the audience know well how the modern 

 dye industry has been built up on an accu- 

 rate scientific knowledge of the connection 

 between color and what we call the struc- 

 ture of the molecules, those minute worlds 

 on the knowledge of which our power to re- 

 construct matter rests. We know too that 

 the dye industry has reached, or almost 

 reached, its full maturity and capacity. 

 But we are only on the threshold of exactly 

 the same kind of development in the dis- 

 covery of improved remedies for curing 

 human ills because the connection between 

 the structure of our molecular worlds and 

 their medicinal effect is just beginning to 

 be systematically elaborated. Great indus- 

 trial establishments founded on organic 

 chemistry, like the dye manufacturing and 

 the great pharmaceutical houses, collabo- 

 rating with research laboratories in uni- 

 versities and in medical institutes, would 

 hold out to this country the promise of a 

 share in realizing a duplication of the con- 

 quest of the world of color, which has oc- 

 curred in the last fifty years, by the greater 

 conquest of the world of scientific medicine ! 

 A brilliant beginning has been made in 

 this campaign by the preparation of excel- 

 lent substitutes for cocaine, less toxic than 

 cocaine itself — ^by the elaboration of sal- 

 varsan, by the isolation in our own country. 



and the artificial production, of adrenalin, 

 a vital regulating principle produced by an 

 organ, the suprarenal capsule, in our bod- 

 ies. The isolation and exhaustive study by 

 Kendall of the active principle of the thy- 

 roid gland, which no doubt will be followed 

 by its artificial preparation, is a second 

 brilliant instance of American success in 

 this great field! When we consider the 

 countless number of animal preparations — 

 gland extracts, serums and antitoxins — the 

 pure active principles of which are all we 

 really want, but which are injected into us 

 or fed to us, with an extraordinary amount 

 of unnecessary and often harmful animal 

 matter, we can realize what a boon to hu- 

 manity this line of effort really means. Let 

 me emphasize again, it is chiefly a matter 

 of wise and foresighted legislation to make 

 our independence and perhaps our leader- 

 ship in this great field possible — ^we have 

 proved that we have the scientific ability 

 — it is a question only of putting this work 

 on the basis of an established industry ! 



There are other important considera- 

 tions bearing on the outlook for chemistry 

 in the United States from the point of view 

 of industrial chemistry — such as a law ma- 

 king possible commercial agreements and 

 divisions of labor among competing houses, 

 which exist abroad — ^but I must neglect no 

 longer to turn to the third important 

 theme embraced in my subject, the oiitlook 

 for chemistry from the point of view of our 

 universities and colleges, in which I will 

 include the outlook for th€ development of 

 the theory of our science in this country. 



One can not well overestimate the im- 

 portance of the standing of chemistry in 

 our universities and colleges: they are not 

 only the main sources of supply of chem- 

 ists in the United States, but they are also 

 the fountain-heads for the knowledge which 

 keeps us in touch with the progress of 

 chemistry the world over and which makes 

 available for rapid absorption in any field 



