478  Romance  of  Chemical  Elements.  {AmjJ°y%^arm* 
shipping  clerks,  stock  keepers,  entry  and  bill  clerks,  salesmen,  ac- 
countants and  office  assistants  in  various  capacities. 
Our  industries  that  have  had  their  forces  depleted  by  enlistments 
and  drafts  may  be  thus  able  to  find,  in  part,  the  assistance  so  greatly 
needed  in  their  own  business  reconstruction  and  at  the  same  time  aid 
in  making  the  crippled  soldiers  self-supporting,  self-reliant  and  in 
developing  many  of  these  into  a  higher  class  of  citizenship.  We 
predict  that  the  drug  trade  interests  will  not  be  found  wanting  in 
accepting  as  a  patriotic  duty  a  full  share  of  the  national  obligations  to 
our  returning  soldiers  and  that  such  service  will  not  be  incompatible 
with  the  cold,  stern  realities  of  the  business  world  but  will  redound 
with  benefit  to  all  of  those  directly  concerned. 
G.  M.  B. 
THE  ROMANCE  OF  THE  CHEMICAL  ELEMENTS. 
Their  History  and  Etymology. 
By  Ingo  W.  D.  Hackh,  A.B., 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
Revolution  is  everywhere.  Our  views  and  opinions  are  slowly 
and  steadily  undergoing  a  change,  not  only  in  political  and  social 
ideas,  but  also  in  our  conception  of  the  material  world  surrounding 
us.  In  many  fields  of  human  activities  we  are  progressing  rapidly ; 
though  some  pessimists  may  predict  a  dark  future  for  mankind, 
there  is  enough  evidence  of  our  progress.  Philosophers  ask  often 
if  we  are  progressing  in  the  right  direction,  and  if  we  become  better 
people  by  travelling  faster  and  living  more  comfortable  than  ever 
before?  It  seems  to  me  that  we  are,  for  our  social  conditions  be- 
come better,  though  there  is  still  much  reforming  to  do.  For  a  stu- 
dent of  history  there  is  no  doubt  that  our  road  lies  toward  a  really 
democratic  state  of  cooperation.  At  present  the  world  war  is  para- 
mount in  our  interests,  and  we  all  feel,  or  should  feel,  that  our 
brothers  in  Europe  are  fighting  and  dying  for  the  progress  of  man- 
kind. There  will  result  a  better  world  when  the  power  of  autoc- 
racy is  diminished. 
But  aside  from  the  mighty  changes  impending  in  world  politics, 
there  is  in  the  peaceful  fields  of  science  a  great  revolution  of  ideas. 
