NOVEMBEE 22, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



697 



of the law providing for the establishment 

 and support of the agricultural experiment 

 stations to be devoted to scientific research 

 and the more intimate study of the prob- 

 lems of agriculture pressing for solution; 

 and it is what van Eensselaer, Cornell, 

 Packer, Pardee, Johns Hopkins, Harrison 

 and Rockefeller saw and felt when they 

 made generous provisions for the great 

 universities and schools of technology for 

 training yoiing men in the sciences in their 

 relations to the industries and the arts of 

 human life. It is such genius and its ap- 

 plications which insures the world's prog- 

 ress. 



Genius has been defined as ' ' capacity for 

 hard work." It is far more. It is a keen 

 and active imagination combined with in- 

 dustry, energy and ambition to bring to 

 fruitful realization the product of a trained 

 imagination. This leads us to some of the 

 needs of modern education in its relations 

 to our subject. Genius as thus defined 

 and described must be developed in the 

 student of this age. The imagination must 

 be trained and directed, the judgment 

 strengthened. Thus genius becomes a keen 

 and trained imagination, combined with 

 good judgment and an industrious habit, 

 with energy to bring to fruition the work 

 of the imagination. So we should educate 

 our students to the importance of a clear 

 and exact knowledge of the work of others 

 as recorded in literature, for progress 

 means building upon the work of others. 

 They should then be trained in the judi- 

 cious and scientific use of the imagination 

 suggested by the great Tyndall, whereby 

 they may be able to see how the accom- 

 plishments of others may be extended and 

 utilized. Then the power of observation 

 must be developed, and hence the need for 

 and usefulness of the research laboratory, 

 happily recognized more and more as the 

 years pass, in the systems of education and 



in the organizations of the great industries. 

 It is interesting and inspiring to one con- 

 cerned with educational matters to see how 

 far the research laboratory is being at- 

 tached to and made part of the manufac- 

 turing plants of this and other countries. 

 It has been claimed that the research labo- 

 ratories have been the foundation stones 

 upon which the great structure of the Ger- 

 man chemical industry has been reared, 

 and the claim can not be questioned. It 

 was inspiring, upon a visit to one of the 

 great chemical works of Germany, where 

 more than 3,000 hands were employed, to 

 see an entire, large, well-arranged, well 

 lighted and ventilated building devoted 

 wholly to abstract research in lines related 

 to the industry, occupied by hundreds of 

 chemists engaged in the work for which 

 the building was provided. And it was 

 even more interesting to follow the results 

 of the research carried on in the several 

 laboratories of that great building. 



In this connection we may call attention 

 to the brilliant work lately reported by 

 Professor Harries, of the Technical High 

 School of Charlottenburg, Gei'many, in the 

 study of the constitution of caoutchouc, or 

 india rubber. By oxidation of the pure 

 giun with ozone he was able to produce 

 what he named its diozonide, and this by 

 proper treatment was converted into levu- 

 linic aldehyde, which in turn was oxidized 

 to levulinic acid. This, Professor Harries 

 reminds us, can be obtained more readily 

 and cheaply from starch than from any 

 other material, and he suggests that by a 

 series of deoxidations and condensations, 

 starch may be converted into caoutchouc, 

 which has become so useful and almost in- 

 dispensable in the industries and yet is 

 provided in such comparatively limited 

 quantity in nature that there is almost a 

 dearth of it in the world's market to-day. 

 It would be interesting, indeed, if we 



