740 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1091 



mated as equivalent to fifteen million tons 

 of coal per annum. Chemistry lias also 

 rendered yeoman service in reducing the 

 pollution of our streams and coastal waters, 

 by showing how many of these wastes may 

 be converted into valuable commercial 

 products, and more money be made in this 

 way than by dumping them imto the 

 streams. 



In those operations in which pure water 

 is indispensable, the cost of impure water is 

 the cost of purification, and it is to the 

 chemist that the manufacturer must turn 

 for instructions as to how this purifi'cation 

 may be accomplished best. Impure water 

 means additional cost of production, not 

 only to the steam-power plant, as just men- 

 tioned, but also in paper-making, straw- 

 board mills, brewing, distilling, ice manu- 

 facture, bleaeheries, dye works, canning and 

 pickle factories, creameries, abattoirs, pack- 

 ing-houses, factories for explosives, sugar, 

 starch, glue, or soap, woolen mills, tan- 

 neries and chemical works, as well as in 

 many other lines of industry. 



Agriculture still remains the world's 

 most important industry, as nearly 36 per 

 teent. of our people are engaged in it, and 

 all the rest depend upon it. Mr. James J. 

 HiU has said that 



In the last analysis, commerce, manufactures, 

 our home market, every form of activity runs back 

 to the bounty of the earth by which, every worker, 

 skilled or unskilled, must be fed and by which his 

 wages are ultimately paid. 



And Liebig, in the preface to his great 

 work on "Chemistry in Its Applications 

 to Agriculture and Physiology" calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that 



a rational system of agriculture can not be 

 formed without the application of scientific prin- 

 ciples, for such a system must be based on an 

 exact acquaintance with the means of nutrition of 

 vegetables, and with the influence of soils and ac- 

 tions of manure upon them. This knowledge we 

 must seek from chemistry, which teaches the mode 

 of investigating the composition and of studying 



the character of the different substances from 

 which plants derive their nourishment. 



In this great domain, the services of 

 chemistry include the fixation of atmos- 

 pheric nitrogen, the elucidation of some of 

 the ways in which atmospheric nitrogen 

 enters into organic combination and of the 

 methods whereby organic nitrogen is pre- 

 pared for plant food, the analysis of soils 

 and the determination of their relation to 

 plant growth, the analysis of plants and 

 agricultural products and a study of the 

 influence of environment upon their com- 

 position, the manufacture of fertilizers and 

 their adaptation to the needs of different 

 soils and crops, the protection of the farmer 

 from fraud when he purchases the same, 

 methods of utilizing plant food and of con- 

 serving it for future use, the establishing 

 of the general principles of plant growth 

 and the chemical changes involved, the re- 

 placing of natural dyes and drugs by syn- 

 thetic articles, the manufacture of artificial 

 silk and the saving of the natural sUk in- 

 dustry from threatened obliteration, the 

 production of other artificial fibers and 

 fabrics, the mercerization of cotton, the 

 manufacture of substances to take the place 

 of resins and shellac, the rescue of crops 

 from impending destruction by providing 

 effective insecticides and fungicides, the 

 production of valuable substances from 

 former wastes (cottonseed oil, corn oil, 

 gluten from starch factories, cream of 

 tartar from wine lees, and the like) , and of 

 industrial alcohol from crop refuse. Dr. 

 H. W. "Wiley has expressed the opinion that 



The application of the principles of chemical 

 technology to the elaboration of raw agricultural 

 products has added a new value to the fruits of 

 the farm, opened up new avenues of prosperity, 

 and developed new staple crops. 



The introduction and enactment of our 

 Pure Food and Drug laws, as every one 

 is aware, were due primarily to the tireless 

 activity of this same chemist. 



