AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 
Established 1875 Incorporated. Massachust tts, 1892 Incorporated. Connecticut. 1910 
The “Fun” of Playing Chemist. 
BY THEODORE IT. COOPER. BATAVIA, N. Y. 
To be made sweet and pure again by the 
chemistry of the soil. — Burroughs. 
When I was about twelve years old 
I used to look into the laboratory at 
school and gaze with awe at the strange 
looking apparatus and instruments in 
there, and wonder what could be done 
with them. I used to want to pour out 
some of the magic liquids in those 
bottles and see the genii rise from them. 
A great many men go through life with 
the same ignorance and are awed by 
anything more delicate than an alarm 
clock or a monkey wrench. To me it 
seemed that a man who knew how to 
use such delicate and complicated para- 
phernalia must be a wizard and able to 
do wonderful things. I wished to be 
able to do this too, for we are prone to 
imitate those whom we admire or re- 
spect. 
I noticed one round bottle with a 
long neck which was bent over side- 
ways (a retort, of course) and asked 
several men what it was. 
One old farmer said, “Mebbe that’s 
for their alchemy.” 
“What’s that?” 
“The black art. A secret way of mak- 
ing medicine and very strange, very 
strange,” said he, shaking his head 
mysteriously. 
I saw that I could learn nothing from 
my acquaintances so I went to the 
library and asked for a book on al- 
chemy. The librarian gave me “First 
Steps in Scientific Knowledge,” and on 
my way home I learned the first of 
those “secrets” and began to see what 
it was all about. Numerous experiments 
in physics and chemistry were outlined 
in the book and I performed such of 
these as I could. One day I was boiling 
down some salt and water to see if the 
salt could really be redeemed. I had 
supposed, and I venture to say that 
there are a great many men right now 
that think the same thing, that salt 
when it dissolved became part of the 
water and would go up in steam. My 
relatives did not take kindly to this way 
of spending my spare time, but wanted 
me to help with the farm work, and in 
this instance one of them asked, “What 
are you doing there?” 
“A chemical experiment. This is a 
solution of chloride of sodium.” 
“Where did you get it? Don’t monkey 
with that stuff" around here. You’ll 
blow the place up.” 
1 borrowed more books from the 
library and tried a great many simple 
experiments, but as my acquaintances 
were against it and I could get no 
money for chemicals or apparatus, I 
dropped my studies in this line and took 
up astronomy. But I left it only tem- 
porarily for my interest in the subject 
was fanned every time I got a peek into 
the laboratory or saw a picture or heard 
a reference made to chemistry. After a 
lapse of five or six years I began earn- 
ing money for myself and I lost no time 
in buying books, chemicals, apparatus. 
There is a peculiar charm which ap- 
peals to me in making some iodine crys- 
tals to look at with my microscope, or 
growing a herd of animalcules in a test 
tube, or in the electrolysis of water. 
Though most of my acquaintances 
wonder what interest there can be in a 
“lot of bottles of dope” as they call it, 
I still continue to spend my spare time 
doing such things and shall continue 
until I find a more profitable pursuit 
which is just as much “fun.” 
The game and fur bearing animals 
of New York State, if capitalized, are 
worth not less than $53,000,000 ; they 
return an annual dividend of more than 
$3,200,000 ; and they cost the State for 
their protection and increase the nomi- 
nal sum of $182,000. This cost of pro- 
tection and increase is thus less than 
six per cent of the annual dividend. — 
“The Conservationist.” 
