566 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 798 



ores was combined with the electrolytic refining 

 of the product, so that even traces of gold were 

 economically recovered, while the cyanide processes, 

 such as the MacArthur-Forrest, the Siemens- 

 Halske, the Pelatan-Clerici and others for the 

 extraction and recovery of gold from low-grade 

 ores and tailings, were successfully worked out 

 and put into practical operation to such effect that 

 by the cyanide processes alone gold to the value of 

 $7,917,129 was recovered in the United States in 

 1902, which is more than was ever won through- 

 out the whole world by all methods in any one 

 year up to 1661, and probably up to 1701. The 

 data for other purposes are not at hand for 1902, 

 but the returns for 1900 show that gold to the 

 value of $88,985,218 was recovered in the treat- 

 ment of lead and copper ores in the United States, 

 of which $56,566,971 worth was recovered in re- 

 fining. It has but recently been publicly pro- 

 claimed in this city of St. Louis, that the " silver 

 question" is settled, and it is settled, but it was 

 settled largely through the efforts of the technical 

 chemist and metallurgist. 



With the improvements in methods and 

 diminution in cost of extraction the Pacto- 

 lean stream has continued to flow in stead- 

 ily increasing volume^ until the flood of 

 gold has become so great that its purchas- 

 ing power has become markedly reduced, 

 and costs, measured in terms of gold, have 

 become markedly greater. With this con- 

 dition well determined the chemist has 

 again stepped in to increase the cost of liv- 

 ing by requiring the application of costly 

 methods of inspection of food, drugs and 

 other articles of consumption; by demand- 

 ing the elimination of preservatives which 

 permitted the abundance of the harvest 

 being kept till time of need ; or the plethora 

 of one locality being sent to the land smit- 

 ten with leanness; by insisting on the in- 



'PEODUCTION OF GOLD 



troduction of expensive sanitary arrange- 

 ments. Pure food laws are the vogue, and 

 all the other needs of man are becoming 

 the subject of special legislation, some 

 wise, but much otherwise. It would prove 

 an interesting exhibit if a statistician were 

 to assemble the actual costs in the adminis- 

 tration and execution of these laws in this 

 country alone during the past five years. 



I speak with earnestness because I have 

 repeatedly been a participant in these 

 movements, and am even now engaged in 

 an analogous humanitarian enterprise, and 

 I know that a certain result of all such en- 

 deavors to improve the lot of man is to put 

 the community to an increased expense. 



Having confessed myself, and having 

 found my profession guilty, as charged, I 

 now assert that a chief duty of our profes- 

 sion is to determine methods by which the 

 income may be increased or the costs of 

 living in the land decreased, or preferably 

 both, and I urge as a first measure the 

 advocacy of the policy of preventing any 

 material from leaving the country until it 

 has passed through all processes of manu- 

 factures of which it is capable. The mean- 

 ing of this is evident on inspection of the 

 exports of domestic merchandise prepared 

 by the U. S. Bureau of Statistics, where we 

 find that in 1908 over 885 million dollars 

 worth, or 48.19 per cent., of the total ex- 

 ports consisted of cotton, breadstuffs, meat 

 and dairy products, and coal, much of 

 which had not undergone any degree of 

 manufacture whatever. All this food 

 should have been elaborated in this country 

 into brain and brawn, and the coal made 

 to yield its energy, and these should have 

 been expended here in manufacture. We 

 should further have put into manufactured 

 form the raw materials of other lands. 



Inspecting, on the other hand, the table 

 of imports of merchandise prepared by the 

 U. S. Bureau of Statistics, we find in 1908 



