Chemical Science. — Prescott. 289 
however it may appear in biograpliy. The raasters of science 
are under the limitations of their age. Had Joseph Priestley 
lived in the seventeenth century he had not discovered oxygen. 
Had August Kekule worked in the period of Berzelius, some 
other man would have set forth the closed chain of carbon com- 
bination, and Kekule, we may be sure, would have done some- 
thing else to clarify chemistry. Such being the limitations of 
the masters, what contributions can be expected in this age from 
a worker who is without the literature of his subject ? 
In many a town some solitary thinker is toiling intensely over 
some self-imposed problem, devoting to it such sincerity and 
strength as should be of real service, while still he obtains no 
recognition. Working without books, unaware of memoirs on 
the theme he loves, he tries the task of many with the strength 
of one Such as he sometimes send communications to this asso- 
ciation. An earnest worker, his utter isolation is quite enough to 
convert him into a crank. To ever}' solitary investigator I should 
desire to say, get to a library of your subject, learn how to use its 
literature, and possess yourself of what there is on the theme of 
your choice, or else determine to give it up altogether. You 
may get on very well without college laboratories, you can sur- 
vive it if unable to reach the meetings of men of learning, you 
can do without the counsel of an authorit3',butyou can hardly be 
a contributor in science except you gain the use of its literature. 
First in importance to the investigator are the original memoirs 
of previous investigators. The chemical determinations of the 
century have been reported by their authors in the periodicals. 
The serials of the years, the continuous living repositories of all 
chemistry, at once the oldest and the latest of its publications, 
these must be accessible to the worker who would add to this 
science. A library for research is voluminous, and portions of 
it are said to be scarce, nevertheless it ought to be largely sup- 
plied. The laboratory itself is not more important than the 
library of science. In the public libraries of our cities, in all 
colleges now being established, the original literature of science 
ought to be planted. It is a wholesome literature, at once a stim- 
ulant and a corrective of that impulse to discovery that is fre- 
quent among the people of this country. That a good deal of it 
is in foreign languages is hardly a disadvantage ; there ought to be 
some exercise for the modern tongues that even the public high 
