Chemical Science. — Prescott. 293 
come by breadth of study, by patience in experiment, and by the 
slow accumulations of numberless workers. And it must be 
made to appear that the downright labor of science actually de- 
pends upon means of daily subsistence. It must be brought 
home to men of atl'airs, that laboratories of seclusion with deli- 
cate apparatus, that libraries, such as bring all workers together 
in effect, that these really cost something in the same dollars bj^ 
which the products of industrial science are measured. Statistics 
of chemical industry are often used to give point to the claims of 
science. For instance it can be said that this country, not mak- 
ing enough chemical wood pulp, has paid over a million dollars a 
year for its importation. That Great Britain pays twelve millions 
dollars a year for artificial fertilizers, from without. That coal tar is 
no longer counted a by-product, having risen in its value to a par 
with coal gas. But these instances, as striking as numerous others, 
still tend to divert attention from the more general service of chem- 
istry as it should be known in all the economies of civilization. 
It is not for me to say what supplies are wanted for the work 
of chemists. These wants are stated, in quite definite terms, by a 
sufficient number of those who can speak for themselves. But if 
m}' voice could reach those who hold the supplies, I would plead 
a most considerate hearing of all chemical requisitions, and that a 
strong and generous policy may in all cases prevail in their behalf. 
If any event of the year is able to compel the attention of the 
world to the interests of research, it must be the notable close of 
that life of fifty years of enlarged chemical labor, announced 
from Berlin a few months ago. When thirty j'ears of age, August 
Wilhelm von Hofmann, a native of Giessen and a pupil of Liebig, 
was called to work in London. Taking hold of the organic de- 
rivatives of ammonia, and presently adopting the new discoveries 
of Wurtz, he began those masterly contributions that appear to 
have been so many distinct steps toward a chemistry of nitrogen, 
such as industry and agriculture and medicine have thriven upon. 
In 1850 he opened a memoir in the philosophical transactions 
with these words "the light now begins to dawn upon the chaos 
of collected facts. " Since that time the coal tar industry has 
risen and matured, medicine has learned to measure the treatment 
of disease, and agriculture to estimate the fertility of the earth. 
It seems impossible that so late as March of the present year, he 
was still sending his papers to the journals. If we could say 
something of what he has done we could say nothing of what he 
