November 22, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



707 



has been transformed during the past cen- 

 tury. This transformation rests for its 

 basis almost entirely on our fund of scien- 

 tific knowledge, and especially upon the 

 knowledge of physics and chemistry and 

 biology which has been accumulated by 

 scientific workers during the past seventy- 

 five years. I wish to say something to you, 

 this afternoon, of the part which chemistry 

 has had in bringing about this wonderful 

 change in our surroundings. 



Our science goes back to the dark ages 

 and before for its beginnings, but we, as 

 chemists, haven't much reason to be proud 

 of our intellectual pedigree. From the 

 fifth to the fifteenth century, those who 

 were known as chemists, or rather as 

 alchemists, spent their time in searching 

 for the philosopher's stone, which should 

 change all things to gold, or for the elixir 

 of life which should give eternal youth. 

 The object which they sought was a sordid 

 one, and while its attainment was quite 

 generally believed to be possible, we have 

 reason to think that many of the alchemists 

 used the little knowledge which they pos- 

 sessed to deceive others more ignorant than 

 themselves. We have been accustomed to 

 say that our fuller knowledge has shown 

 the folly of the alchemist's dream. Five 

 years ago a distinguished chemist, in a 

 public address, spoke of the doctrine of the 

 transmutation of the elements as dead and 

 every chemist who heard him agreed with 

 his statement. But such revolutionary and 

 startling discoveries have been made since 

 then that a transmutation of the elements 

 must now be considered as an accomplished 

 fact. 



This new discovery of transmutation did 

 not come, however, along the paths the 

 alchemists were following. Those paths 

 were mostly blind alleys leading no- 

 where, though, now and again, some new 

 fact about the way substances act on each 



other was discovered. And in spite of its 

 obscure and mystical symbols and litera- 

 ture, and although the methods of experi- 

 mentation were often more allied to magic 

 and astrology than to science, alchemy left 

 us a valuable inheritance of experimental 

 knowledge. Many who took up the pur- 

 suit of alchemy from a desire for gold 

 doubtless continued to work from a pure 

 love of experiment. 



In the sixteenth century some of those 

 who had busied themselves with alchemy 

 conceived the idea that chemistry might be 

 of service to medicine. For one hundred 

 years or more, the most notable of the 

 chemists followed chiefly this new direc- 

 tion. They did not, however, discard the 

 belief in the transmutation of metals. It 

 was an age when authority still counted for 

 very much and it seemed to them impos- 

 sible to disbelieve the many circumstantial 

 accounts of transmutation which had come 

 down to them, often from sources that 

 seemed thoroughly reliable. But, either 

 because they despaired of success or be- 

 cause they found other things to do which 

 seemed of more value, the chemists of this 

 period turned their attention more and 

 more away from alchemy and towards 

 medicine and pharmacy. We may well 

 doubt if their labors were much to the ad- 

 vantage of the suffering humanity of their 

 time. Their crude empiricism and their 

 wild and often mystical speculations as to 

 the processes which go on in the body in 

 health and disease were a poor basis for 

 medical treatment. Doubtless many a poor 

 patient fell a victim to their imperfect 

 knowledge. 



Thus far our science, such as it was, had 

 followed utilitarian ends. The alchemist 

 sought for gold— the medical chemist for 

 new medicines. An embarrassing question 

 often asked of a scientific man who has 

 spent months or years of work over some 



