THE NATIONAL IMPORTANCE 

 OF CHEMISTRY 



By W. J. POPE, F.R.S. 



Professor of Chemistry in the University 

 of Cambridge. 



Any attempt to describe the manner in which 

 modern Chemistry bears upon modern civilisation 

 is complicated by the intimate relationship which 

 exists between the purely abstract aspects of this 

 science and its technical or practical applications. 

 Each fresh addition to chemical science can be 

 immediately fitted into its appropriate position in 

 the great general scheme of Natural Philosophy ; it 

 cannot be placed with similar certainty in relation to 

 the world at large because of the impossibility of 

 foreseeing whether any new discovery, apparently 

 of purely academic significance, may not unex- 

 pectedly assume high importance in connexion 

 with the solution of some very practical problem. 



Many illustrations might be given of the opera- 

 tion of this principle during quite recent times. 

 Thus, half a century ago Organic Chemistry had 

 made such progress as to suggest to its leaders 

 the possibility of producing indigo artificially; 



S. S. N. 1 



