288 The American Geologist. No\<'mber, i892 
eral. When a devotee of organic synthesis puts alow vahie upon 
anah'tic work, he takes a very narrow view of chemical studies. 
When the chemist who is in educational service disparages inves- 
tigations done in industrial service, he exercises a pitiful brevity 
of wisdom. 
The pride of pure science is justified in this, that its truth is 
for the nurture of man. And the ambition of industrial art is 
honored in this, its skill gives strength to man. It is the obliga- 
tion of science to bring the resources of the earth, its vegetation 
and its animal life, into the full service of man, making the 
knowledge of creation a rich portion of his inheritance, in mind 
and estate, in reason and in conduct, for life present and life to 
come. To know creation is to be taught of God. 
I have spoken of the century of beginning chemical labor, and 
have referred to the divisions and specialties of chemical stud}'. 
What can I say of the means of uniting the earlier and later years 
of the past, as well as the separated pursuits of the present, in 
one mobile working force ? Societies of science are among these 
means, and it becomes us to magnify their office. For them, 
however, all that we can do is worth more than all we can say. 
And there are other means, even more effective than associations. 
Most necessar}^ of all the means of unification in science is the 
use of its literature. 
Tt is by published communication that the worker is enabled 
to begin, not where the first investigation began, but where the 
last one left off. The enthusiast who lacks the patience to con- 
sult books, presuming to start anew all by himself in science, has 
need to get on faster than Antoine L. Lavoisier did when he began, 
an associate of the French Academy in 1768. He of immortal 
memory, after fifteen eventful years of momentous labor, reached 
only such a combustion of hydrogen as makes a very simple class 
experiment at present. But, however early in chemical discov- 
ery, Lavoisier availed himself of contemporaries. They found 
oxygen, he learned oxidation ; one great man was not enough, in 
1 774, both to reveal this element and show what part it takes in 
the formation of matter. The honor of Lavoisier is by no means 
the less that he used the results of others, it might have been the 
more had he given their results a more explicit mention. Men 
of the largest original power make the most of the results of 
other men. Discoverers do not neglect previous achievement, 
