ADecXrer?im-}  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry.  571 
miner  he  usually  wants  to  know  what  it  is ;  chemists  showed  the 
presence  of  much  potassium  in  the  abraum-salze.  An  immediate 
result  was  the  building  of  many  chemical  factories  about  Stassfurt 
to  utilize  the  seemingly  worthless  ;  indeed,  this  has  proved  the 
basis  of  much  of  Germany's  boasted  superiority  as  a  center  of  chemi- 
cal manufacture. 
It  was  not  alone  the  chemical  industry  that  profited  ;  what  Wash- 
ington called  "  the  noblest  calling  of  man,"  agriculture,  profited 
more.  With  the  modern  intensive  farming,  the  soil  becomes  im- 
poverished ;  but  the  remarkable  fact  is  that  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment has  produced  a  bulletin  the  past  year  that  knocks  Liebig's 
teaching  higher  than  a  kite.  As  usual  even  the  most  radical  state- 
ments of  Liebig,  denied  by  his  most  noted  fellow-workers,  are  proved 
by  time  to  be  true.  The  necessity  of  potash  in  available  form  in 
the  earth  is  not  to-day  denied.  The  discussion  of  the  remarkable 
somersault  of  our  Government  chemist  brought  forth  a  lively  dis- 
cussion at  the  last  December  meeting  of  the  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  in  St.  Louis.  No  one  went  away  with  a 
feeling  that  the  method  of  analysis  of  the  Government  chemist 
proved  what  he  claimed.  Liebig  was  right.  Wheat  requires  potash  ; 
soils  where  none  is  found  cannot  produce  a  bumper  crop.  "  Ex 
nihilo  nihil''  saith  the  alchemist,  and  Germany  is  not  ashamed  of 
him. 
Coming  back  to  kali,  the  German  Government  experiment  stations 
show  the  marvelous  effect  of  this  fertilizer  on  various  crops.  One 
goes  away  with  a  feeling  that  chemistry  is  a  noble  science  to  enable 
us  to  bring  forth  more  of  the  riches  of  the  earth,  to  make  two  blades 
of  grass  grow  where  only  one  grew  before.  Examining  the  Kali 
Works  exhibit,  we  see  the  cause — great  blocks  of  colored  salts 
showing  all  the  formations  of  the  region  where  they  are  obtained. 
In  smaller  glasses  some  exquisite  samples  of  the  many  chemical 
individuals  that  have  contributed  so  richly  to  modern  chemical 
prowess  of  Imperial  Germany. 
Let  us  now  pass  to  the  uncivilized  dependencies  of  Germany. 
When  the  fever  of  colonial  aggrandizement  passed  over  the 
European  powers,  Germany  was  not  backward  in  taking  many 
valuable  slices  of  the  Dark  Continent.  All  have  an  exit  to  the  sea  ; 
the  lands  are  under  the  broiling  tropical  sun.  At  present  the  outgo 
is  greater  than  the  revenue  derived  from  these  small  empires.  In 
the  near  future,  when  they  make  the  negroes  work,  a  different  story 
