1882.3 T/kj War against Agriculture. 391 
for effecting what are called “ organic syntheses.” This 
term is somewhat incorredt, since the bodies obtained are for 
the most part produced not from their elements, but from 
the residues of organic matter. Be this as it may, it is cer- 
tain that not a few chemists of consummate ability diredt 
all their attention to the artificial production of organic 
bodies. It is a somewhat curious coincidence that the 
chemical laboratory of the University of Munich, which in 
the days of Liebig was the centre of earnest and successful 
efforts for the improvement of agriculture, should now, under 
Prof. Baeyer, have become the focus of a war against agri- 
culture. 
The motives for these endeavours are not far to seek. If 
a chemist can produce any substance artificially, it is no 
doubt a confirmation of his theoretical views on its consti- 
tution. But we must notice that these attempts are made 
almost exclusively upon substances which possess a consi- 
derable commercial value. Hence the inference is suggested 
that the objedt in view is not so much the advancement of 
Science as the acquisition of gain. 
Another motive is the economic heresy of protectionism. 
In almost all civilised countries the opinion seems to be 
gaining ground that it is better to produce everything which 
is needed at home, even if at much greater cost, rather than 
import it from abroad. 
Lastly, the endeavour to obtain some given produdt arti- 
ficially, or at least from novel sources, may be made with 
the intention, avowed or tacit, of injuring the country whence 
the supply was formerly drawn. 
I will now give a few instances of the manner in which 
this movement has been carried on. My first case is one 
where an article extensively used in human food has been 
produced not artificially, but from a totally novel source. I 
refer to sugar, which up to the earlier part of the present 
century was obtained exclusively from the sugar-cane, and 
was of course imported into Europe from the Antilles, 
South America, India, &c. Unfortunately — I use the 
word advisedly — the observation was made that the beet- 
root contained a kind of sugar apparently identical 
in its chemical and physical properties with that of the 
cane. This observation might have remained dormant, but 
the first Napoleon, being then engaged in a desperate war 
with England, and having vainly endeavoured to attack our 
sugar-growing provinces (or “ colonies ” as they are still 
called), took the matter up. To his far-seeing mind it was 
at once clear that beet-root sugar might be used as a weapon 
