SCIENCE. 



149 



observation at the time. The actual number of species in 

 any one group must always fall far short of the possible num- 

 ber, and for this reason it is out of the question for us to 

 attempt the solution of the problem of derivation, or to 

 hope for any solution beyond one within the most indefi- 

 nite limits of correctness. If, when we take one of the 

 most limited of the groups of the animal kingdom, we find 

 ourselves engaged in a hopeless task, what must be the 

 prospect should we attack the problem of other classes or 

 groups of the animal kingdom, where the species run into 

 the thousands, while they number only tens in the case we 

 have attempted to follow out? Shall we say " ignorabimus," 

 or " impavidi progrediamus " and valiantly chase a phan- 

 tom we can never hope to seize ? 



CHEMISTRY AS AN ART, AND CHEMISTRY 

 AS A SCIENCE. 



By Professor J. M. Ordway. 



Professor J. M. Ordway, of Boston, spoke of "Chemis- 

 try as an Art, and Chemistry as a Science," comparing both, 

 and pointing out some recent lines of advancement. The 

 past year, he said, has been one of laborious activity in 

 chemistry, but it has not been marked by any epoch-making 

 discoveries. Meyer's recent apparent resolution of the 

 chlorine molecule has not, indeed, been verified by the 

 carefully devised experiments of Crafts, but the latter does 

 seemingly confirm the change of iodine by intense heat. 

 The years 1879 an ^ 1880 will rank hereafter as years in 

 which Meyer found means to throw new light on the na- 

 ture of the haloids. Twenty-four years ago Perkins sought 

 for artificial quinine, and found instead a better than royal 

 purple. Then, by various hands and in rapid succession, 

 red and yellow and black and brown and blue dyes were 

 brought out from what proved to be something more than 

 aniline. Now the novelty is past, and the announcement 

 of a new dye hardly creates a ripple of excitement. The 

 twelve-year-old synthesis of alizarine has given us colors 

 purer, brighter, faster and cheaper than those of the ob- 

 solescent madder. Of late, wool has been provided for, 

 and the extinction of cochineal plantations is threatened by 

 reds of surpassing brilliancy, durability and ease of appli- 

 cation. Baeyer has recently effected the synthesis of 

 indigo, and tropical indigo fields may in time share the fate 

 of the madder farms of France and Turkey. But indigo 

 itself will not continue to satisfy our demand. We have 

 become accustomed to hues of a delicacy and richness that 

 no one dared to dream of twenty-five years ago. The 

 aesthetic taste of this generation has been too much pam- 

 pered ; and dyers will soon call foi something uniting the 

 brilliancy of the aniline blues with the fixedness of indigo, 

 anditsadapiedness to wool and cotton. And Gji many which 

 has done the most in studying out these extraordinary col- 

 ored compounds, now furnished the most of the industrial 

 fruits of seemingly unpractical researches. Investigation 

 costs, investigation pays ; in more senses than one our 

 science " opens wide her everduring gates on golden hinges 

 turning." 



The passing years are bringing to light new elementary 

 bodies, and new metals are becoming like new asteroids, 

 of too little mass to influence the orbits of other planets, 

 and too much out of sight to interest many. Within five 

 years fourteen new metals have called for recognition ; and 

 in 1879 alone chemists have claimed ihe discovery of six. 

 Of new alloys, manganesian copper is worthy of regard, 



since it may in a measure play the part for copper that 

 spiegeleisen does for steel. 



In 1620 Bacon published the second part of his " Novum 

 Organum," wherein he pointed out the way to appeal to na- 

 ture by experiment, instead of deriving all science from 

 the teaching of the ancients. But his methods had little 

 immediate influence on the science of the time. He relied 

 on induction ; and induction alone simply strings together 

 dry bones. That perception of general principles which 

 makes science comes not altogether from the mere collation 

 of facts. We need something more than eyes to see. 



The great chemist of two hundred and fifty years ago was 

 Van Helmont. To him we owe the word gas, which he 

 derived not from geist, but from chaos, as representing the 

 original form of matter. When our forefathers were laying 

 the foundations of this nation alchemy was in its dotage, 

 and chemistry took its rise in a dim knowledge of the 

 gases. The evolution of chemistry as a science was three- 

 fold. First, the study of the gases, then the study of heat, 

 then the study of combining weights. Consider how much 

 of what we now know depends on the gases that Cavendish, 

 Black, Scheele and Priestley revealed. The study of com- 

 bustion, respiration, vegetable growth, organic decay, geo- 

 logical transformation and hygiene involves the study of 

 carbon dioxide. Carbon monoxide reduces the metals, 

 and plays a part in the Bessemer process for making steel. 

 The fuel of the future is to be coal resolved into a chaos of 

 carbonic oxide and hydrogen. At the end of the last cen- 

 tury Murdoch found a use for coal gas, and in its train 

 came a host of secondary products having a marvellous 

 effect on science and industry. A test came into chemistry 

 when Beecher attempted to explain combustion. Vulcan 

 of old made as good iron as the blacksmith requires to-day. 

 As for quantity, Vulcan with all his Cyclops and the fires 

 of 'Etna could not produce as much in six days as the 

 Cambria iron works turn out in six minutes. Glauber, 

 with all his good sense, taught that the rays of the sun and 

 stars shoot themselves into the earth, and finally became 

 silver and gold. Perhaps he was a prophet, speaking in 

 symbols which he understood not. Now we know that 

 metallurgy does depend on the sun's rays. The sunshine 

 of the carboniferous period has been materialized into coal 

 beds, and now attains perfection in a metal of more real 

 value than gold. In the chemical study of heat, Berthelot's 

 recent work shows culminating progress, and is worthy of 

 him who years ago almost created organic synthesis. After 

 a review of some of the most abstruse speculations in theo- 

 retical and physical chemistry, Professor Ordway went on 

 to discuss the importance of biological chemistry. This 

 branch is yet in its infancy, and has few to tenderly care 

 for it. Most chemists prefer to take easier subjects, but 

 the interest in it is increasing. The field is large and there 

 is room for many laborers. Proximate organic analysis 

 still remains undeveloped, and the world does not com- 

 prehend the light that we already have. In fermentation, 

 putrefaction, vitrification and zymotic diseases, life may 

 intervene ; but how much do we yet know as to what is 

 cause and what is merely concomitant? It is pertinent to 

 ask whether chemistry tends, as many think all physical 

 science tends, to materialism ? I believe no true science 

 tends that way ; it is the lack of liberal cultivation that 

 leads to such dimness of vision. Materialism is no more 

 prevalent now than among the Athenians, who had no phy- 

 sical science. We hear much of the culture of that people, 

 as if aesthetics were the only science and floriculture the 

 only culture. There is much in the training of the chemist 

 to foster a wholesome skepticism and just intolerance ; 

 intolerance of human pride and skepticism of airy theories. 

 In chemical practice the constant appeal to sensible tests 

 and the precision of the balance checks reliance on hasty 

 assumptions. The chemist soon learns that exact truthful- 

 ness in others and rigid honesty in himself lie at the very 

 foundation of science and real knowledge ; and he looks 

 on laxity in experiment or statement as the unpardonable 

 sin. No other subject is so well calculated to impress one 

 with the idea that theories are but the changeable dress of 

 science. We all wonder what will become of the atomic 

 theory itself when its centennial comes round twenty-seven 

 years hence. 



