SYNTHETIC WORK IN CARBOHYDRATES 345 
scientific facts and hypotheses. To pervert or carelessly to 
observe facts in order to make them, at all hazards, fit into 
theoretical moulds, is the highest act of treason of which the 
scientist can be guilty. Chemistry, studied from a geometri¬ 
cal basis, is of comparatively recent date. It is purely arbi¬ 
trary to settle upon any particular figure to express the group¬ 
ing of the atoms in space. However, the tetrahedron is the 
simplest expression that explains the fact. 
The entire subject of the chemistry of sugars would be the 
chaos it was before, without the aid of geometrical specula¬ 
tions. These at once bring order and system to a confusion 
of facts. 
Hegel names time and space the accidents of true exist¬ 
ence. In the consideration of the space relations of these com¬ 
pounds a step is taken to the reality which lies beyond time 
and space and the imperfection of knowledge. These con¬ 
figurations represent crudely the ideal basis of what is called 
matter. 
The next query that will occur to those who are not daily 
working in scientific matters is this: Is the subject of sugars, 
just reviewed, settled for all times? In science there is no 
fixed ground. The true object of scientific research is to seek 
truth regardless of the consequences, and on our plane, truth 
is evolving. To embrace, when found, that truth which seems 
the more evolved, even though the pet hypotheses and results 
of a lifetime’s personal effort are laid aside, is the true aim of 
endeavor. This is the true scientific spirit. The magnetic 
needle oscillates until it finds its resting-place pointing north¬ 
ward, and the chemist, too, should oscillate within the arc of 
his science until he finds the currents flowing towards light 
and higher truth. 
It has been said that “ every man who would do anything 
well must come to it from a higher plane. A philosopher must 
be more than a philosopher.” Plato was clothed with the 
powers of the poet, though he chose to use his poetic powers 
to an ulterior purpose. In the love for facts, the other side 
of the subject, the “ mirror image,” so to speak, must not be 
forgotten. The true insight will come from the employment 
