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 r87g and 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 fot something uniting the 
brilliancy of the aniline blues with the fixedness of indigo, 
and its adapiedness to wool and cotton. And Gatmany 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 the discovery of six. 
Of new alloys, manganesian copper is worthy of regard, 
since it may in a measure play the part for copper that 
spiegeleiseti does for steel. 
In r620 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. 
