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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 500 



system. The physicists, however, do not stop short of the philoso- 

 phical study of the atom itself. As a vibratory body its move- 

 ments have been under mathematical calculations ; as a vortex ring 

 its pulsations have been assumed to agree with its combining 

 power. As an operating magnet its interaction with other like 

 magnets has been predicated as the method of valence. There are, 

 as I am directly assured, physicists of penetration and prudence 

 now looking with confidence to studies of the magnetic relations 

 of atoms to each other.' Moreover, another company of workers, 

 the chemists of geometric isomerism, assume a configuration of 

 the atoms, in accord with that of the molecule. 



Hypotheses to be Held Apart. 



The stimulating truth of the atomic constitution of the molecule, 

 a great truth in elastic touch with all science, excites numerous 

 hypotheses, which, however profitable they may be, are to be stoutly 

 held at a distance from the truth itself. Such are the hypotheses 

 of molecular aggregation into crystals and other mineral forms. 

 Such are the biological theories of molecules polymerizing into 

 cells, and of vitality as a chemical property of the molecule. Such 

 are the questions of the nature of atoms, and the genesis of the 

 elements as they are now known, — questions on the border of meta- 

 physics. Let all these be held distinct from the primary law of 

 the atomic constitution of simple molecules in gaseous bodies, an 

 essential principle in an exact science. The chemist should have 

 the comfortable assurance, every day, as he plies his balance of 

 precision, that the atom-made molecules are there, in their several 

 ratios of quantity, however many unsettled questions may lie 

 around about them. Knowledge of molecular structure makes 

 chemistry a science, nourishing to the reason, giving dominion 

 over matter, for beneficence to life. 



Men Who Make Science. 

 Every chemical pursuit receives strength from every advance 

 in the knowledge of the molecule. And to this knowledge, none 

 the less, every chemical pursuit contributes. The analysis of a 

 mineral, whether done for economic ends or not, may furnish a 

 distinct contribution tov^ard atomic valence. The further exam- 

 ination of steel in the cables of a suspension bridge is liable to 

 lead to unexpected evidence upon polymeric unions. Rotham- 

 sted Farm, where ten years is not a long time for the holding of 

 an experiment, yields to us a classic history of the behavior of 

 nitrogen, a history from which we correct our theories. The 

 analysis of butter for its substitutes has done something to set us 

 right upon the structure of the glycerides. Clinical inspection of 

 the functions of the living body fain finds a record of molecular 

 transformations too difBcult for the laboratory. The efforts of 

 pharmaceutical manufacture stimulate new orders of chemical 

 combination. The revision of the pharmacopoeia every ten years 

 points out a humiliating number of scattered errors in the pub- 

 lished constants on which science depends. The duty of the 

 engineer, in his scrutiny of the quality of lubricating oils, brings 

 a more critical inquiry into the laws of molecular movement. 

 There is not time to mention the many professions and pursuits 

 of men who contribute toward the principles of chemistry and 

 hold a share therein. If it be the part of pure science to find the 

 law of action in nature, it is the part of applied science both to 

 contribute facts and to put theory to the larger proof. In the 

 words of one who has placed industry in the greatest of its debts 

 to philosophic research, W. H. Perkin, "There is no chasm be- 

 tween pure and applied science, they do not even stand side by 

 side, but are linked together." So in all branches of chemistry, 

 whether it be termed applied or not, the best workers are the 

 most strongly bound as one, in their dependance upon what is 

 known of the structure of the molecule. 



Waiting for Workers. 



Studies of structure were never before so inviting. In this di- 

 rection, and in that, especial opportunities appear. Moreover, the 

 actual worker here and there breaks into unexpected paths of 



1 " The results of molecular physics polQt unmistakably to the atom as a 

 magnet, In its chemical activities."— A. E. Dolbear, In a personal communica- 

 tion. 



promise. Certainly the sugar group is presenting to the chemist 

 an open way from simple alcohols on through to the cell sub- 

 stances of the vegetable world. And nothing anywhere could be 

 more suggestive than the extremely simple unions of nitrogen 

 lately discovered. They are likely to elucidate linkings of this 

 element in great classes of carbon compounds, all significant in 

 general chemistry. Then certain comparative studies have new 

 attractions. As halogens have been upon trial side by side with 

 each other, so, for instance, silicon must be put through its paces 

 with carbon, and phosphorus with nitrogen. Presently, also, the 

 limits of molecular mass, in polymers and in unions with water, 

 are to be nearer approached from the chemical side, as well as 

 from the side of physics, in that attractive but perplexing border- 

 ground between affinity and the states of aggregation. 



And all for Mankind. 



Such is the extent and such the diversity of chemical labor at 

 present that every man must put limits to the range of his study. 

 The members of a society or section of chemistry, coming 

 together to hear each other's researches, are better able, for the 

 most part, to listen for instruction than for criticism. Still less 

 prepared for hasty judgment are those who do not come 

 together in societies at all. Even men of eminent learning must 

 omit large parts of the subject, if it be permitted to speak of 

 chemistry as a single subject. These considerations admonish us 

 to V)e liberal. When metallurgical chemistry cultivates skepti- 

 cism as to the work upon atomic closed chains, it is a culture not 

 the most liberal. When a devotee of organic synthesis puts a 

 low value upon analytic work, he takes a very narrow view of 

 chemical studies. When the chemist who is in educational service 

 disparages investigations done in industrial service, he exercises 

 a pitiful brevity of wisdom. 



The pride of pure science is justified in this, that its truth is 

 for the nurture of man. And the amV>ition of industrial art is 

 honored in this, its skill gives strength to man. It is the obliga- 

 tion of science to bring the resources of the earth, its vegetation 

 and its animal life, into the full service of man, making the 

 knowledge of creation a rich portion of his inheritance, in mind 

 and estate, in reason and in conduct, for life present and life to 

 come. To know creation is to be taught of God. 



The Means of Unification. 



I have spoken of the century of beginning chemical labor, and 

 have referred to the divisions and specialties of chemical study. 

 What can I say of the means of uniting the earlier and later 

 years of the past, as well as the separated pursuits of the present, 

 in one mobile working force? Societies of science are among 

 these means, and it becomes us to magnify their office. For 

 them, however, all that we can do is worth more than all we 

 can say. And there are other means, even more effective than 

 associations. Most necessary of all the means of unification in 

 science is the use of its literature. 



It is by published communications that the worker is enabled to 

 begin, not where the first investigation began, but where the last 

 one left off. The enthusiast who lacks the patience to consult 

 books, presuming to start anew all by himself in science, has 

 need to get on faster than Antoine L. Lavoisier did when he began, 

 an associate of the French Academy in 1768. He of immortal 

 memory, after fifteen eventful years of momentous labor, reached 

 only such a combustion of hydrogen as makes a very simple class- 

 experiment at present. But, however early in chemical discovery, 

 Lavoisier availed himself of contemporaries. They found oxygen, 

 he learned oxidation : one great man was not enough, in 1774, 

 both to reveal this element and show what part it takes in the 

 formation of matter. The honor of Lavoisier is by no means the 

 less that he used the results of others, it might have been the 

 more had he given their results a more explicit mention. Men of 

 the largest original power make the most of the results of other 

 men. Discoverers do not neglect previous achievement, how- 

 ever it may appear in biography. The masters of science are 

 under the limitations of their age. Had Joseph Priestley lived in 

 the seventeenth century he had not discovered oxygen. Had 

 August Kekule worked in the period of Berzelius, some other 



