698 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 673 



should come to depend for our india rubber 

 supply upon the cornfields of Illinois, the 

 prairies of the Mississippi basin and the 

 manufacturing laboratories, rather than, as 

 in the past and now, upon the jungles of 

 Africa and South America. Yet the pro- 

 duction of india rubber from corn starch 

 would be no more remarkable than the 

 production of alizarine and indigo from 

 coal tar. The research laboratory is the 

 source from which artificial alizarine and 

 artificial indigo sprang; the same source 

 may be the starting point of the production 

 of india rubber from Indian corn. 



What may we expect from the recent 

 announcement of Professor Ramsay that 

 under the influence of the radium emana- 

 tion copper may be broken down with the 

 production of potassium, lithium and cal- 

 cium, thus suggesting a new source for 

 potassium compounds, so useful to farm 

 crops ? 



Other products and questions await the 

 . magic touch of the research chemist. Who 

 for instance, will take care of and utilize 

 the comparatively large quantities of selen- 

 ium and tellurium, thus far so little studied 

 and now so largely issuing as a by-product 

 of the manufacture of vitriol and the re- 

 fiining of copper 1 Here is abundant sup- 

 ply of raw material to be had from the 

 industry by the research chemist for the 

 asking. Again, who will supply the vol- 

 atile combustible required to make up the 

 shortage of 'supplies of petroleum products 

 needed for use in the internal combustion 

 engines, upon which the future must large- 

 ly depend for inexpensive power? Who 

 will furnish other products sorely needed 

 in the world if not the research chemist? 

 In this connection I am again constrained 

 to quote the inspiring words written by 

 the editor of the Wall Street Journal under 

 the caption ' ' Science as a Financial Asset. ' ' 

 Among other things this accomplished ed- 

 itor said : 



Science as a source of strength in promoting 

 private wealtli and public welfare is the one thing 

 that draws the line of demarcation between an- 

 cient and modern times. That was a belated 

 mediseval, not a modern, outburst of popular 

 wrath against which Lavoisier's friends appealed 

 for his life on the ground of his scientific service 

 to the French state. The powers then in control 

 then replied that the republic had no use for 

 chemists. Far more like modernity is the declara- 

 tion of a German chemist that " scientific research 

 is the greatest financial asset of the fatherland." 

 Germany's economic progress proves that he was 

 at least nearer right. The sciences in general 

 have been among the greatest emancipating forces, 

 because they have helped to overcome man's fear 

 of nature, which kept him from utilizing the 

 forces of the world about him, and because they 

 disclosed elements of the highest value to the 

 world in their most practical forms. It has been 

 well said that if we were to take away what the ' 

 chemists have contributed, the whole structure 

 of modern society would break down at once. 

 Every commercial transaction in the civilized 

 world is based on the chemist's certificate as to 

 the fineness of gold, which forms our ultimate 

 measure of values. Faith may remove moun- 

 tains, but modern society relies on dynamite. 

 Without explosives our great engineering works 

 must cease and the Panama Canal, no less than 

 modern warfare, become impossible ! Chemistry 

 has made possible the transportation systems 

 which span the leading countries of the world. 

 It has made it possible to turn to man's service 

 the wealth of the mineral world. By analysis of 

 plants and soils, the waste materials of the world 

 have been brought to the growing of crops. In- 

 deed, every great industry, whether it be farming, 

 manufacturing, transportation or mining, would 

 almost immediately relapse to barbarism if the 

 secrets of the chemist and physicist, the geologist 

 and mineralogist, could be gathered up and cast 

 into the sea. 



This estimate of the work of the research 

 chemist has our hearty sympathy and it 

 brings much of inspiration and encourage- 

 ment. It justifies all that the rulers and 

 legislators have done for this and similar 

 institutions and loudly calls for generous 

 support in the future. It expresses appre- 

 ciation of the work done in this university, 

 which has made such magnificent progress 

 under the direction of its present very effi- 



