INTRODUCTION xi 



its proper signification that we owe the knowledge 

 of the wealth of the world in which we are placed 

 of the power that is within our grasp. The man 

 engaged on research is like the mining prospector 

 who may discover that rocks which seem to the 

 ordinary eye indistinguishable from the barren 

 masses that surround them are in reality teeming- 

 with riches. But for research one would never 

 have known that the coal-tar oils which resemble so 

 closely in their general characteristics the Paraffins 

 or Petroleums are capable of entering into com- 

 binations of such novelty and complexity that 

 they now furnish the whole world with dyes and 

 chemical products of priceless value. It is the 

 application of research to the problems of metal- 

 lurgy that has caused the additions to our know- 

 ledge of metals during the last 50 years to be 

 greater than all that had been learnt in the ages 

 that had elapsed since man first began to work 

 metals. And what is the most remarkable of all, 

 we find that through the introduction of research 

 the empirical handling of the problems of organic 

 life is being step by step replaced by an assured 

 treatment based on a conscious and realised con- 

 nection between cause and effect. All these changes 

 are due to Research. Scientific research has re- 

 moved our previous ignorance of the properties 

 and powers of the things around us and has taught 

 us what they are and how they can be used. It 

 is not too strong a simile to say that without the 



