602 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1172 



should appear enthusiastic about the prog- 

 ress that has been made in war time. Then 

 too we should always ponder more over our 

 lapses. The successes can take care of 

 themselves. 



PROGRESS IN APPLIED CHEMISTRY IN WAR 

 TIME 



There is indeed another side than the 

 evil we have been discussing. There has 

 been much real progress. The evils men- 

 tioned are largely growing pains. Engi- 

 neering and its services to mankind have 

 been long appreciated to some extent at 

 least. Chemistry is less easily understood. 

 The everywhere present applications of 

 chemistry pass unnoticed for the most part 

 in everyday life. Probably the greatest 

 contribution to science, therefore, of the 

 present war, is the awakening of the aver- 

 age mind to the power and value to man- 

 kind of that group of phenomena which 

 we study as chemistry. This is probably 

 because we most easily grasp and appreci- 

 ate applications rather than generaliza- 

 tions, and the use of chemistry in war has 

 been a revelation to the general public. 



In other ways also this war has effected 

 a development in chemistry and its appli- 

 cations which has outstripped any influence 

 since the modern foundations of the science 

 were laid over a century ago. It will be 

 many years before the influence will ma- 

 ture and become apparent or measurable. 

 Nevertheless, we do not crave progress or 

 development at such a price as war. 



We must recognize, however, that severe 

 disturbances are very effective in dislocat- 

 ing fetishes, for instance. So, one of the 

 phases of this struggle which is noteworthy 

 is the public awakening to consciousness of 

 the power of chemistry and the universal 

 distribution of the ability to use it 

 promptly and effectively, as against the 

 old idea, that this power and this ability is 

 possessed by a chosen few. An illustration 



or two will perhaps show that this latter 

 idea is still too prevalent. 



I have met manufacturers since the war 

 whose operations were brought to a full 

 stop by lack of some raw material or other 

 who complacently accepted their fate on 

 the ground that they could not get a Ger- 

 man chemist. They had no bias in favor of 

 Germany at all. They just thought it was 

 a matter of common information that chem- 

 ists were domestic animals imported from 

 the Black Forest. Would you believe that 

 some of these manufacturers were engineers 

 graduated from some of our large colleges 

 of engineering and not men without educa- 

 tion? 



In such a time as this we see that our 

 keeping quiet about the progress and de- 

 velopment of American chemistry in years 

 gone by, was criminal, for much harm re- 

 sults from lack of information as well as 

 from misinformation. There are always 

 patriotic Germans and others who praise 

 their country's achievements to us and as 

 I pointed out last year in Science, we are 

 glad to see this and our university teachers 

 of chemistry have been lavish in their 

 praise, particularly of German chemistry. 

 They, however, are not rendering very good 

 service to the community when, as they 

 should, they give such praise, if they fail to 

 make a real effort to find out also, what is 

 going on in their own country. We uni- 

 versity professors feel abused if it is in- 

 ferred that we are not well informed, yet 

 we innocently assume as the only modern 

 development in chemistry the latest tale of 

 achievement from a German dye advertise- 

 ment and these lads know how to use the 

 educated public and university chemistry 

 professors as well, in furthering their ad- 

 vertising propaganda. Much good work 

 has been done by the Journal of Industrial 

 and Engineering Chemistry in publishing 

 a series of articles by authorities on what 

 the American chemist has done for the in- 



