848 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 413. 



most expensive and most difficult science 

 to teach. While other sciences require ex- 

 tensive collections of material, these collec- 

 tions remain available for all subsequent 

 classes. On the other hand, chemistry re- 

 quires the most extensive and expensive of 

 all scientific laboratories, and the materials 

 and fixtures of these laboratories are sub- 

 ject-to the severest strain and the greatest 

 wear and tear. For this reason, in many 

 universities, not only are the students re- 

 quired to pay the ordinary fees, but also 

 special laboratory fees to cover the wear 

 and tear of the materials which they use. 

 But in spite of this increased expense, we 

 see in this country, and doubtless it is true 

 in other countries, that chemistry leads all 

 the sciences in the number of students of 

 higher learning and secures the lion 's share 

 of the degrees of doctor of philosophy. In 

 this respect chemistry must be regarded, 

 in the light of statistics which are indubi- 

 table, as the most important of all the sci- 

 ences in the role of the university instruc- 

 tion. 



It may be thought by some that the hard 

 and cold facts of a science like chemistry 

 have a tendency to repress the imagination 

 and arrest the development of those facul- 

 ties of the mind which create poetry, ro- 

 mance and oratory. There may be some 

 foundation in fact to such a suggestion. 

 The legitimate functions of the imagina- 

 tion are doubtless to supply the data which 

 knowledge and experience do not give. 

 Prom this point of view it is evident that, 

 as knowledge advances, the field reserved 

 to imagination grows smaller. There is 

 little room in the domain of science for the 

 rhythm of poetry or the creatures of fancy. 

 Yet it must be admitted that many of the 

 exact sciences do afford opulent opportuni- 

 ties for the exercise of a trained imagina- 

 tion. Indeed, so apparent is this fact that 

 John Tyndall, one of our great scientists, 



has written a treatise on the scientific use 

 of the imagination. 



It is as difficult to grow eloquent over 

 atomic weights and percentage composi- 

 tion as over statistics and finance. Ora- 

 tory deals with the possible and perhaps 

 probable, the ornament rather than the 

 reality. Thus it comes that the gi'.eat 

 poets, the great orators, the great painters, 

 and, to some extent, the great writers, are 

 found in the early history of a people or a 

 language. Advancing knowledge clips the 

 wings of poesy and pricks the rotund 

 phrases of the orator. 



Nevertheless, even in so prosaic a sci- 

 ence as chemistry the imagination has 

 played no unimportant part. It was the 

 genius of a Dalton that first imagined the 

 atomic theory. Newlands and Mendeleeff 

 pointed out the existence of undiscovered 

 elements, and with an imagination as sci- 

 entific as it was brilliant assigned those 

 missing elements their proper places, and, 

 in a measure, described their properties. 

 A Rayleigh and a Ramsey saw in the realm 

 of nature the probability of a series of 

 elements of negative properties, and argon, 

 krypton, neon and xenon have been iso- 

 lated. The creation of the infinitely at- 

 tenuated ether with its vibrant properties 

 is purely a result of imagination. Though 

 it may be erroneous in conception, it cer- 

 tainly has been helpful in classifying the 

 phenomena of light, heat and electricity. 

 So, too, the structural formula of mole- 

 cules, assigning to atoms and groups of 

 atoms a definite position in the molecu- 

 lar edifice, has been highly helpful in ex- 

 plaining chemical relations and physical 

 properties. 



These are only some of the instances 

 which show that, even as a training for the 

 fancy and imagination, chemistry holds no 

 insignificant position. 



From the point of utility the role of 

 chemistry in education has no mean place. 



