January 33, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



125 



logical Survey maintains another important 

 laboratory, and still others are connected 

 with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the 

 Mint, the Army and the Navy. In the 

 Torpedo Station at Newport investigations 

 are carried out relative to explosives, and 

 at the custom house in New York a num- 

 ber of chemists are engaged in the valuation 

 of imported articles with reference to the 

 assessment of duties. In short, the gov- 

 ernment calls upon the chemist for aid in 

 many directions, and the appreciation of 

 his usefulness increases year by j'ear. In 

 all this work, however, chemistry is rated 

 as a convenience only, and valued for what 

 it can give ; its advancement as a science 

 is not considered, and such growth as it 

 gains through governmental encouragement 

 is purely incidental. Good researches of a 

 strictly scientific character, real enlarge- 

 ments of scientific knowledge, have come 

 from laboratories maintained by the govern- 

 ment ; but they represent, the rare leisure 

 of the investigator and not the essential 

 object of his work. He is sometimes 

 permitted to investigate for the sake of 

 chemistry alone ; but such labor is extra- 

 official, and forms no part of his regular 

 duties. The chemist is compelled to serve 

 other interests, other sciences it may be ; 

 and only the time which they fail to de- 

 mand is his own. Considering the enor- 

 mous importance of chemical research to 

 all the greater industries of the world, it 

 should receive fuller recognition by the 

 National government, and be encouraged 

 most liberally. 



I have already referred to the Land-grant 

 College Act of 1862, under which so many 

 agricultural and technical schools came into 

 existence. In 1887 Congress passed another 

 act, intimatelj'' related to the former, hy 

 which the States and Territories were each 

 granted the annual sum of fifteen thousand 

 dollars for the maintenance of agricultural 

 experiment stations. These stations, some 



of which have other resources also, are 

 actively at work, and they receive some co- 

 ordination under a bureau of the Federal 

 Department of Agriculture. Chemistry re- 

 ceives a part of their attention, and in 

 1894 one hundred and twenty-four chem- 

 ists were employed in them. These chem- 

 ists, and those connected with the Washing- 

 ton laboratory, are bound together in the 

 Association of OfiBcial Agricultural Chem- 

 ists, which meets annually. A prime ob- 

 ject of that association is the improvement, 

 definition and standardizing of analytical 

 methods ; and along this line it has done 

 admirable work. The data obtained in the 

 difierent experiment stations are thus ren- 

 dered strictly comparable, and a higher de- 

 gree of accuracy is reached than would 

 have been attained under conditions of ab- 

 solute individualism. The Association fills 

 a distinct place of its own and is in no sense 

 a rival of the American Chemical Society. 

 Indeed, the members of the official body are 

 nearly all members of the other. 



In the industrial field, as well as in the 

 domain of pure science, the chemists of 

 the United States have made rapid advances 

 during the past thirty years. In manufac- 

 turing chemistry the growth has been only 

 moderate, at least in comparison with the 

 growth of other industries, but still it is 

 evident. We still import heavily, and de- 

 pend upon Europe for many chemical prod- 

 ucts which ought to be manufactured here. 

 In some special lines our goods are among 

 the best ; in others we are wofully back- 

 ward. To some extent our tariff and rev- 

 enue legislation has had a bad effect upon 

 our chemical manufacturers ; as, for exam- 

 ple, in increasing the cost of alcohol ; and 

 certain defects in our methods of scientific 

 teaching have also been to blame. To this 

 subject I shall recur presently. In metal- 

 lurgical processes the United States can 

 hold its own, however, and especially in 

 those which involve the applications of 



