T P 
 
 185 
 
 M25 
 
 1868 
 
 MAIN 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
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A LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 
 
 MAY 80, 1H68. 
 
 I>y ,1, W, MALLET, PH.D.; M,D,; F.l'.S,, 
 
 -')R OF ANALYTICAL AND APPTJI P ('III'.MISTRY IN THK. UMVKRijTTY. 
 
 IiTH.GBB9Bi 
 
 SCHAPFTER & BRYANT, PRINTERS. 
 1 8 8 . 
 
A LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 
 
 MAY 3O, 1868. 
 
 BY JI W, BALLET, PH.D.; MJ).j F,C,S,, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ANALYTICAL AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 SCHAFFTER & BRYANT, PRINTERS. 
 1868. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 
 
 June 1st, 18GX, 
 Professor J. W. MALLET, 
 
 DEAR SIR, The undersigned committee of the members of your class 
 earnestly request, for publication, a copy of your recent Lecture on the 
 objects and plan of instruction in your department. We are prompted to 
 this by the conviction that the best interests of the School of Analytical 
 and Applied Chemistry, and of the University at large, would be advanced 
 by bringing more before the public a Lecture that gave such universal 
 satisfaction to those who heard it. 
 
 Hoping you will grant our request, 
 
 We remain with the greatest respect, 
 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 KING WYLLY. J. W. KYGER. 
 
 GARRETT WALKER. S. T. EVANS. 
 
 H. W. JONES. L. W. T. BRADFORD. 
 
 F. S. SAMPSON. J. S. WALKER. 
 
 J. VAN DEVENTER. JOHN H. POPE. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, 
 
 June 2, 1868. 
 Messrs. WYLLY, WALKER, AND OTHERS, 
 
 Committee of Class in Analytical Chemistry, 
 
 University of Virginia. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, I beg to acknowledge receipt of your note of yesterday's 
 date. 
 
 It is naturally gratifying to me to find that the Class has been interested 
 by the Lecture in question, the manuscript of which is at your disposal in 
 accordance with your request. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 U>AN STACK J ' W - MAL ^ET. 
 
 GIFT 
 
Applied to tlie 
 
 V -A& -JL.-. 
 
 A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, MAY 30, 1868, 
 BY J. W. MALLET, PH. D., M. D., F. C. S., PROFESSOR OF ANALYTICAL 
 AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 "Inter siyna nullum magis certum out nobile est, quam quod ex fructibus. , . . 
 Quocirca quemadmodum in religione cavetur ut fides ex operibus monstretur; idem 
 etiam ad philosophiam optime traducitur, ut ex fructibus judicetur, et vana habeatur 
 qux sterilis sit; alque eo magis si, loco fructuum uvae et olivae, producat disputa- 
 tionum et contentionum carduos et spinas." 
 
 BACON Novum Organum. Aphor. LA'JTIIL 
 
 GENTLEMEN, A desire has been expressed by the Rector of the 
 University, and by some of my colleagues of the Faculty, that, in 
 entering upon the duties of the recently created Chair to which I 
 have had the honor of being elected, I should bring before the 
 University some general views with regard to the department of 
 knowledge to which this new Chair is to be devoted, and the object 
 and manner of embodying its teachings with the system of instruc- 
 tion in this time-honored institution. 
 
 In attempting to fulfil the duty imposed upon me by such desire, 
 I will ask your attention to a brief discussion of the following 
 topics, viz : 
 
 FIRST. The reasons which seem to render it desirable that the 
 A 
 
 173 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 applications of chemical science to the useful arts should be made 
 the subject of formal instruction in the higher institutions of 
 learning ; 
 
 SECONDLY. The character of the expectations which may be 
 justly formed of the nature and value of such instruction ; and, 
 
 LASTLY. The special and practical form which it will probably 
 be well to give to the teachings of the professorship in question in 
 the University of Virginia. 
 
 Many reasons suggest themselves for the introduction, at the pres- 
 ent day, of Applied Science, in all its forms, amongst the subjects 
 taught in the institutions of learning of the highest order. 
 
 Prominent among these reasons is the great importance which the 
 subject itself has assumed amongst civilized men in comparatively 
 very modern times. 
 
 Our knowledge of the general laws and phenomena of external 
 nature has been increased within the memory of those now living to 
 an extent and at a rate far greater than for any equal period in the 
 earlier history of mankind. In many of those branches of physical 
 science which have long been recognized, investigation, constantly 
 increasing in activity, has been rewarded by progress of the most 
 striking character. Multitudes of new facts have been ascertained, 
 and many new and important principles have been discovered. In 
 several directions entirely new realms of intellect have been thrown 
 open, and their exploration has been at once eagerly and actively 
 entered upon. Several of the natural sciences to-day of univer- 
 sally admitted interest and importance bear names which a century 
 ago were unknown or were employed with very different meaning. 
 The number of those who devote their lives to the study of physical 
 science has enormously increased, so that, instead of the few sturdy 
 pioneers who in past times pushed forward before their fellows 
 upon the frontier of the unknown, so far separated from each other 
 as scarcely to exchange help or sympathy, and so far removed from 
 the thoughts and interests of the rest of the world that their exis- 
 tence was often scarcely' recognized, we see to-day thousands of busy 
 laborers cultivating these recently opened fields of intellectual effort, 
 encouraging each other by constant intercourse, and honorably known 
 to their fellow-men for the success which they have achieved and the 
 rich harvests which they gather into the store-houses of knowledge. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. . 5 
 
 Particularly noteworthy have been the advances made in the 
 application of our knowledge of scientific truth to the comfort and 
 convenience of mankind. No longer are the man of learning and 
 the artizan separated as to a large extent they formerly were by 
 the distance between the unpractical speculation of the one and 
 the unenlightened manual dexterity of the other. Nowadays each 
 new discovery of fact or principle is at once seized upon, and its pos- 
 sible bearing upon any of the useful arts eagerly canvassed and exam- 
 ined. New wants and new desires are created as new means for their 
 supply and gratification are brought to light. And, on the other 
 hand, new trains of investigation are entered upon, and further efforts 
 in abstract research are stimulated, as it becomes evident that the 
 possession of knowledge not yet acquired can be made to minister in 
 some particular direction to the comfort or the luxury of man. 
 
 It has become so common as almost to have become tiresome to 
 refer in general terms to the great advantages which have been 
 gained in modern times from the practical application of natural 
 science to the arts of civilization yet it may well be doubted 
 whether most persons have any distinct idea of the immense influ- 
 ence upon the daily life of all and especially of all except the very 
 rich which the progress of applied science for the last century, or 
 even half century, has had. 
 
 Readers of MACAULAY'S History of England are charmed by the 
 distinctness with which, in one of his best known chapters, he repro- 
 duces for us a sketch of the actual condition material, social and 
 political of England towards the close of the seventeenth century. 
 We are astonished to find how striking is the contrast brought out 
 by such a detailed picture between the habits, comforts and enjoy- 
 ments of the Englishman of to-day and those of his ancestor of but 
 five or six generations back. An equally vivid picture, from as able 
 a pen, of the state of the civilized world at even the beginning of the 
 present century in reference to the useful and ornamental arts would 
 furnish an instructive standard by which to measure the progress 
 these arts have made since the days of our grandfathers, and to 
 estimate the blessings which the scientific industry of the last sixty 
 or seventy years has conferred upon us. 
 
 Many of the examples most frequently quoted of the advances 
 made during this short period are drawn from other than the chem- 
 
Chemistry Applied to the, Arts. 
 
 i 
 
 ical arts. There are numbers of men now living who need not to be 
 
 reminded that they have themselves seen the development of rail- 
 roads, and the transportation upon them of passengers and goods at a 
 speed five or ten times as great as was formerly possible, and upon a 
 scale previously unattempted an increase of at least five fold in the 
 size of sea-going vessels, and their propulsion by an agent that defies 
 wind and weather and makes the ocean a punctually traversed high- 
 way the establishment of cheap, rapid and effective communication 
 by mail the truly wonderful interchange of thought between dis- 
 tant countries and opposite continents by the electric telegraph the 
 production of weapons of war and means of defence such as had not 
 formerly been dreamed of the substitution of the labor of the un- 
 tiring steam-engine for that of untold millions of men and other 
 animals extensions and improvements in the production of food, 
 clothing, and shelter, such as have thrown open to the laboring man 
 of the present day advantages of life that seventy years ago could 
 only be enjoyed by the wealthy, and in many respects were not even 
 at their command. 
 
 But if we confine our attention to those arts alone which depend 
 upon Chemistry, the most hasty retrospect presents us with a sur- 
 prising list of advances made within the same period. 
 
 The streets of our cities and our public buildings have been illu- 
 minated by coal gas with a brilliancy, cleanliness, cheapness and 
 safety formerly unknown. Our private houses are lighted in the same 
 way, or with the rival hydro-carbons drawn in the liquid state from 
 beneath the. solid rock and refined to the limpid clearness of water. 
 The clumsy and uncertain flint and steel have been replaced as a 
 source of fire by the effective and convenient friction match. The 
 smelting of iron from its ores, and its production in the various forms 
 of cast-iron, wrought-iron, and steel, have been extended upon a scale 
 that dwarfs the manufacture of the last century into insignificance. 
 The important process of Mr. BESSEMER for the direct conversion of 
 cast-iron into steel even now opens to us the prospect of vast changes 
 in the uses which may be made, and the quantity that may be con- 
 sumed of this most valuable metal. The production of sulphuric 
 acid u.pbn an immense scale, and the adoption of the process of LEB- 
 LANC and DIZE for making carbonate of soda from common salt have 
 led the way to striking improvements in the manufacture of glass 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 and soap, in the methods of dyeing and calico-printing, and in a 
 hundred arts besides which require the possession of acids and alka- 
 lies in abundance and at a reasonable price. The bleaching agency 
 of chlorine has been made practically available, and gives us the 
 snowy whiteness of the fabrics we wear and the paper on which we 
 write. Many improvements of detail have been made in the manufac- 
 ture and decoration of porcelain. Sugar boiling and sugar refining 
 have gained largely by the application of chemical knowledge, and the 
 extraction of sugar from the root of the beet suggested by MARG- 
 GRAF as early as 1747, but not practically brought into use until the 
 dearth of colonial sugar caused by the continental wars of the first 
 NAPOLEON has grown up as an important and very perfect branch 
 of chemical manufacture. Quite recently the application of the laws 
 of osmose or liquid diffusion through porous septa has furnished an 
 entirely new method of separating crystallizable sugar from the 
 organic impurities which accompany it, and this method has been put 
 in practice upon the large scale. The working of indian rubber in 
 its thousand protean forms, and the " vulcanizing" process, by which 
 we confer upon it at pleasure most dissimilar and most strongly 
 marked physical properties, are discoveries of our own day. 
 
 Several new arts have arisen which depend in part upon other than 
 chemical principles, but have drawn largely upon chemistry, both in 
 their origin and development such as electro-metallurgy, which 
 produces the sharpest casts by means of metals in liquid solution at 
 common temperatures, and coats with a brilliant film of gold or silver 
 objects moulded in the baser metallic alloys and photographv, 
 which fixes for us the pictures of natural objects with the fidelity of 
 nature herself. 
 
 Other arts as that of agriculture , long pursued by man empiri- 
 cally^ have begun to assume a rational form with the aid of the light 
 which, it is now seen, chemistry is capable of throwing upon them. 
 
 A host of new and valuable substances unknown to our fore- 
 fathers have been added to our resources by the progress of chemi- 
 cal discovery. Malleable platinum, indispensable to the chemist 
 himself, and lending most important aid to the great manufacture of 
 sulphuric acid iodine and bromine, with the services they render 
 in medicine and photography quinine, morphine, strychnine and 
 atr<;piue; potent but reliable weapons in the struggle with disease 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 chloroform, which gives blessed unconsciousness of the tortures of 
 the surgeon's knife citric and tartaric acids prepared in large quan- 
 tity, which with salts of potash give immunity from the scurvy that 
 formerly raged on shipboard during long voyages carbolic acid, 
 which as a disinfectant promises to become one of our most effectual 
 safe-guards against pestilence in large cities dextrine, which sup- 
 plies the dyer, the calico-printer, and many another artizan with a 
 cheap and satisfactory substitute for gum the paraffine, stearic acid 
 and glycerine which, with their numerous uses, have been given to 
 the world in quantity mainly by the enlightened energy of a single 
 manufacturing firm the gun-cotton and nitro-glycerine which have 
 been added to our list of explosive materials the compound ethers, 
 which enable us to imitate the odor, and flavor of the most delicious 
 fruits all these form but a part of the achievements of the very 
 recent times of which we have been speaking. 
 
 Let me remark in passing that it is not with pride, or with a belief 
 in great intellectual superiority on the part of the men of our own 
 day to those of preceding centuries, that we should regard such 
 results as have been named. It should ever be borne in mind that 
 we have been building on foundations laid by those who came before 
 us that much of what has been done in modern times was only ren- 
 dered possible by the results of patient toil on the part of men long 
 passed away, who often saw little apparent success reward their labor 
 in their own day and generation. As, when we look upon the pant- 
 ing locomotive or the titanic steam-hamrner of the present day, we 
 often think only of the wonderful ingenuity and skill displayed in 
 that one machine, apparently so perfect in design and execution, and 
 are apt to forget how many other parent machines lathes, drills, 
 planers, and the like had first to be invented and constructed, before 
 that which we admire could be built; how these in turn were prece- 
 ded by others of yet simpler kind, and these by hand tools the des- 
 cendants of rude contrivances, the very names and uses of which 
 have been forgotten. 
 
 But in the history of invention or discovery the French proverb 
 is often applicable it is the first step which involves the greatest 
 difficulty. The early efforts at the investigation of nature crude 
 and apparently barren of immediate result as they often were yet 
 frequently demanded a higher order of intellect and more severe men- 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 tal exertion than those of the man of modern times, who attacks 
 more difficult problems, but with the accumulated knowledge of cen- 
 turies to start from and to aid him. The grown man may smile at 
 the seeming feebleness of the child's intellect, yet perhaps he never 
 during life is called upon for so severe a mental effort, in proportion 
 to the means with which it is to be made, as is involved in the acqui- 
 sition of spoken and written language during the first few years of 
 childhood. 
 
 We can hardly help, indeed, being amused as we read ARISTOTLE'S 
 grave enquiries as to the reason that sneezing may be cut short by 
 rubbing one's eye, and why it is that men whose teeth are widely 
 separated do not live long, or the discussion by Sir THOMAS BROWNE 
 of the ability of unfortunate ostriches to eat iron yet we should be 
 in the wrong to consider that these particular passages fairly represent 
 their author's attempts at the investigation of nature; and, even if 
 they did, we should be bold in assuming that wise men of our own 
 day would have made any better choice of questions, or attacked 
 them more intelligently or successfully, had they been placed in the 
 dim and uncertain light which the minds cf antiquity possessed alone 
 to guide them. 
 
 Without, however, any senseless boasting of our own times, or 
 invidious comparison with the past, we may well look with admiration 
 and gratitude upon the present rapid progress of the study of nature, 
 and of the application of the knowledge thus acquired to the ad- 
 vancement of man's happiness and welfare. 
 
 In a civilized community the University should be the highest 
 exponent of the actual condition of human knowledge. It surely, 
 therefore, cannot be deemed right that applied science a department 
 of knowledge which to-day yields such magnificent results, and which 
 absorbs the attention and engages the best efforts of thousands of 
 able and well trained intellects throughout the civilized world, should 
 be excluded from or neglected in the list of studies which the Univer- 
 sity recognizes as parts of a liberal education. 
 
 Nor, in fact, does any such idea prevail. It is seen that education 
 in the principles and applications of natural science is of the highest 
 value to the student himself, and through him to the community of 
 which he is a member. For many years past the opinion has been- 
 
10 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 steadily gaining ground amongst intelligent men that opportunities 
 for the study of natural science, both in its general laws and special 
 applications, should be presented to the youth who are to form the 
 educated classes of the State, and that where facilities for such study 
 already exist they should be fostered, extended, and improved. In 
 some communities this view has originated within the higher schools 
 of learning themselves; in others it has been urged upon their atten- 
 tion by the pressure of public opinion from without. In some 
 places it has been carried into practical effect; in others it remains 
 yet in the form of an ill-defined belief that the time has come when 
 some such change must be made in the system of public education ; 
 but everywhere on both sides of the Atlantic we find the idea in 
 existence, and yearly growing in recognized importance. 
 
 In England the subject has been very actively discussed particu- 
 larly since 1851, in which year a strong impression was made upon 
 the public mind by the silent teachings of the first international 
 exhibition of industrial products, for which great lesson the nation 
 was largely indebted to the sound, practical wisdom of the late Prince 
 ALBERT. 
 
 In the report upon the University of Cambridge* presented to 
 Parliament in the following year, the Royal Commissioners made the 
 following remarks with reference to the teaching of Chemistry : 
 
 "The Science of Chemistry is rapidly extending its ramifications into all 
 the arts of life, and a knowledge not merely of its principles, but also the 
 practical power of applying them, is becoming daily more and more impor- 
 tant as a part of general as well as professional education" 
 
 adding further on the practical recommendation : 
 
 "But the Science is much too extensive for the teaching of one Professor : 
 and we venture to hope that the University will eventually add a second, 
 who may divide with the present Professor the vast range of subjects con- 
 tained in this extensive Science." 
 
 Since then the study of chemistry, as well as of other branches of 
 natural science, has been actively encouraged in all the English 
 Universities and Colleges ; technical schools of applied science of 
 various grades have been founded such as the Royal College of 
 Chemistry, the Royal School of Mines, etc. ; and a system of public 
 
 * Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to enquire into the state, discipline, 
 studies, and revenues of the University and Colleges of Cambridge. Presented to both Houses 
 of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. London, 1862, p. 102. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 11 
 
 examinations has been made to foster the same departments of study 
 when carried on under private instructors. 
 
 Yet the most able and watchful guardians of public education in 
 that country are far from believing that enough has yet been done. 
 Just at present there is a renewal of eager interest in the subject, 
 due in part to the stimulus of last year's International Exhibition at 
 Paris. There have been published * extracts from replies made by a 
 number of eminent English jurors, who attended that Exhibition 
 to official enquiries addressed to them upon the subject of its bearing 
 upon technical education. 
 
 Dr. LYON PLAYFAIR says : 
 
 " When he found some of our chief mechanical and civil engineers 
 lamenting the want of progress in their industries, and pointing to the 
 wonderful advances which other nations are making ; when he found our 
 chemical, and even textile manufacturers uttering similar complaints, he 
 naturally devoted attention to elicit their views as to the causes. So far 
 as could be gathered by conversation, the one cause upon which there was- 
 most unanimity of conviction, was that France, Prussia, Austria, Belgium, 
 and Switzerland possess good systems of industrial education for the mas- 
 ters and managers of factories and workshops, and that England possesses 
 none." 
 
 In the last expression the word " none" must of course be under- 
 stood in a relative sense only. 
 
 Professor TYNDALL, F.R.S. " expresses a general concurrence in 
 the views of Dr. PLAYFAIR," and says : 
 
 " The facilities for scientific education are far greater on the Continent 
 than in England, and, when such differences exist, England is sure to fall 
 behind as regards those industries into which the scientific element enters." 
 
 Dr. FRANKLAND, F.R.S. says : 
 
 "He refers the want of progress in the manufactures of this country 
 (England) chiefly to the almost utter lack of a good preparatory education 
 for those destined to take part in industrial pursuits. This great defect in 
 the school and college education of England affects the masters and man- 
 agers of our factories even more deeply than the workmen themselves. 
 The former have but rarely had any opportunities of making themselves 
 acquainted with the fundamental laws and principles of physics and chem- 
 istry ; they, therefore, find themselves engaged in pursuits for which their 
 previous education has afforded them no preparation, and hence their ina- 
 bility to originate inventions and improvements. It is true that such men 
 
 * Chemical News August 16th 1867 (Supp'l) p. 89, 
 B 
 
12 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 not unfrequently imagine themselves inventors, and the yearly files of patent 
 specifications abound with instances of their so-called inventions. The 
 great loss of time and money attending these futile patents would be ren- 
 dered impossible by a very moderate, if accurate, knowledge of chemical 
 and physical science. In the polytechnic schools of Germany and Switzer- 
 land the future manufacturer or manager is made familiar with those laws 
 and applications of the great natural forces which must always form the 
 basis of every intelligent and progressive industry. It seems that at length 
 this superiority in previous training is more than counterbalancing the 
 undoubted advantages which this country (England) possesses in raw 
 material." 
 
 Dr. DAVID S. PRICE says : 
 
 " His firm belief is that extended scientific education is of the highest 
 consequence to us if we wish to retain our present position in the scale of 
 nations." 
 
 And other writers express similar convictions.* 
 
 France has long recognized the value of the application of science 
 .to the arts and of scientific training for those who are to engage in 
 industrial pursuits. 
 
 Le Conservatoire Imperial des Arts et Metiers, the Imperial Mint, 
 the great establishments of Sevres and the Gobelins, L'Ecole des 
 Mines, and especially of late years L'Ecole Centrale des Arts et 
 Manufactures, have all been, and remain, luminous centres of educa- 
 tion and intelligence. They are supplemented by other, less known, 
 schools, both in Paris and in the provinces, and keen interest is 
 manifested in adding whatever there may be found advantageous in 
 the systems of other nations. 
 
 Quoting again from the official correspondence* just referred to : 
 
 DUMAS, so long known as the eminent Professor of Chemistry at 
 the Sorbonne, 
 
 u Asserts that technical education had given a great impulse to the indus- 
 try of France. In going through the exhibition, whenever anything excel- 
 lent in French manufacture struck his attention, his invariable question 
 was, 'Was the manager of this establishment a pupil of the Ecole Centrale 
 des Arts et Manufactures ?' and in the great majority of cases he received 
 a reply in the affirmative. General MORIN, so well known as the Director 
 
 * The announcement has very recently been made that Mr. WHITWOETH the well knoAvn 
 maker of machine tools, and inventor of the rifle and rifled cannon which bear his name has 
 presented to the British nation 90,000 sterling, or about $600,000 in United States currency, 
 for the purpose of founding thirty scholarships, to be obtained by competition in Applied 
 Science, and to be held for some years by workmen who will go through a thorough course of 
 scientific and artistic training." 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 13 
 
 of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, has lately sat on a commission to" 
 examine into the state of technical education in other countries and to 
 extend it in France, and their recommendations are likely to be promptly 
 and largely acted upon. General MORIN was of opinion that the best sys- 
 tem for the technical education of workmen is to be found in Austria, 
 though the higher instruction of masters and managers is better illustrated 
 in France, Prussia, and Switzerland." 
 
 Not only in Prussia and Austria, and in the minor states of West- 
 ern Europe in Holland, Belgium, Saxony and Switzerland has 
 this subject received great attention of late years, but the same 
 remark applies to Russia, the government of which country both 
 presses forward scientific and technical education at home, and fre- 
 quently sends forth at the public expense intelligent men to study 
 abroad the arts and manufactures of foreign nations. 
 
 Upon this side of the Atlantic considerable activity has already 
 been displayed by the Northern States, and the last few years have 
 seen the foundation of the scientific schools of Harvard and Yale 
 Colleges, the School of Mines of Columbia College, N. Y., the Massa- 
 chusetts Institute of Technology, and similar scientific branches 
 attached to several other of the higher institutions of learning both 
 in the East and West. 
 
 These schools in some cases founded by the parent colleges, in 
 others the offspring of private liberality are said to have already 
 exhibited a rapid growth and gratifying results. Intelligent men 
 look to their teachings and influence as of the highest importance to 
 the future development of the industrial energies of the country. 
 
 But, turning our attention to the Southern States, weighty reasons 
 of a special kind may be urged in favor of extending the teachings 
 of applied science here amongst ourselves; reasons drawn from a con- 
 sideration of the condition in which our country is at present, unfor- 
 tunately, found. 
 
 Exhausted by recent war her fields not yet recovered from 
 the ravages of armies, the weeds of enforced neglect, and the 
 destructive inundations due to ruined public works a large pro- 
 portion of her few manufacturing establishments burnt her former 
 system of labor destroyed, and as yet unreplaced by any efficient sub- 
 stitute the accumulated wealth of her past history entirely swept 
 away the South has no foundation on which to rear again the edifice 
 
 * Chem. News loc. cit. 
 
14 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 of future material prosperity, except the indestructible gifts of nature 
 which a kind Providence has bestowed upon her, and the enlightened 
 energy and industry of the sons who love her and mean yet to raise 
 her from the dust. 
 
 In discussing the immediate future, the prospects of recuperation, 
 and the direction which public and private effort should take, there 
 seems to be no point upon which thinking men are more generally 
 agreed than the necessity of varying the forms of Southern industry 
 and Southern products, instead of attempting to revive the purely 
 agricultural policy of the past, which resulted in the Southern States 
 producing for sale to the rest of the world little or nothing beside 
 her magnificent crops of four or five valuable staples, while depend- 
 ing upon other states or countries for domestic supplies of almost 
 every article of necessity or convenience. Agriculture must, of 
 course, still be pursued, as the basis of all prosperity, and, doubtless, 
 to be successful, must be practised with much more intelligent skill 
 than ever before but with the uncertain character and amount of 
 the labor upon which Southern farmers will obviously have to rely 
 for a long time to come, it is clearly to be desired that other forms of 
 industry should be developed, less vitally dependant upon labor 
 and, above all, labor in connection with particular seasons as a con- 
 dition of success. 
 
 Already the tendency in this direction is becoming well marked, 
 and receives additional stimulus from the poverty of the country, and 
 the necessity that presses upon almost every one of getting, in eome 
 form or other, to work. All over the land there are parents 
 anxiously looking for employment for their sons, and thousands of 
 young men themselves and, indeed, of older men as well are 
 seeking new and profitable occupation for their hands and brains. 
 
 Surely the country and the times in which we live most urgently 
 demand such educational facilities as shall so far as formal educa- 
 tion can conduce to that end indicate the directions in which indus- 
 trial effort may hope for success, and the methods and conditions by 
 which such success is to be attained. 
 
 If, then, it be confessedly desirable that applied science should 
 constitute a branch of public education of the higher grade, let us 
 glance briefly at the nature of such teaching and the expectations 
 which may fairly be entertained with regard to its benefits. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 15 
 
 There are two principal advantages to be derived from education, 
 in the sense in which the word is generally used the one, mental 
 discipline and the increase of intellectual strength the other, the 
 acquisition of special knowledge, with the power to make practical 
 use of it. 
 
 In some quarters objection has been made to the modern tendency 
 to embody the study of natural science in the system of University 
 instruction, on the ground that this amounts to, at least partially, 
 setting aside the time-honoured and well-proved subjects of discipli- 
 nary education more particularly mathematics and the classical lan- 
 guages in favor of lighter and more easily mastered subjects, less 
 calculated to strengthen and to train the intellect. 
 
 But this objection rests in great part upon the assumption that the 
 study of natural science is taken up, or permitted to be taken up, in 
 such an easy form, and with so little earnestness and thoroughness, 
 that no better result could be looked for than the production of 
 mere smatterers, destitute alike of mental training and of really 
 acquired knowledge. 
 
 With the rapid extension, yet imperfection, of our acquaintance 
 with the laws of nature, with the wonderful correlation existing 
 among these laws themselves, and with their innumerable and often 
 highly complex applications to the production of facts and phenom- 
 ena in themselves familiar, the mind can find abundant material for 
 arduous labor and severe discipline. "In this, as in every other 
 field of labor, no man can put aside the curse pronounced upon him 
 that by the sweat of his brow he shall reap his harvest." 
 
 If a man will content himself with picking up at second-hand a 
 few statements of so-called " popular science," or will amuse himself 
 merely with philosophical toys and the repetition of a few showy 
 experiments, the eifort will certainly be a very easy one if, how- 
 ever, he aim at really mastering the facts, principles, and applica- 
 tions of even but a single branch of physical science, and at becom- 
 ing in time himself an " interpreter of nature," he will find that no 
 lazy or untrained intellect will serve his purpose. 
 
 In some respects the investigation of nature possesses peculiar 
 advantages, and specially educates particular faculties of the mind. 
 Admitting that of all studies that of mathematics is best fitted to 
 dvclope the power of reasoning in its most abstract form, we must 
 
16 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 also admit that the mathematician is apt in his arguments sometimes 
 to overlook the examination of the assumed facts which are his prem- 
 ises, in his stern pursuit of the consequences to which they logically 
 lead. On the other hand, nothing so perpetually occupies the atten- 
 tion of the student of natural science as the discovery, the examina- 
 tion, and the verification of facts. Sometimes he is able to collect a 
 number of facts together in the form of a principle, more or less 
 general sometimes he must content himself for the moment with the 
 simple determination of an apparently isolated truth but at all 
 times, whether he can refer it to its cause or not, the truth as it is 
 in nature is the object towards which he strains his eyes. He learns 
 humility and a wise distrust of hasty speculation as he finds how 
 many cherished errors he is called upon to give up, and how much 
 labor he has sometimes wasted, because misdirected he learns judg- 
 ment and the power of discriminating between truth and the errors 
 which resemble it, as he over and over again submits to the test of 
 experiment the knowledge he supposes he has gained and he learns 
 love and reverence for the truth itself, as he finds himself permitted 
 to question at the awful shrine of Nature, which never returns a 
 false, though often an oracular and imperfectly-understood reply. 
 
 In reference, however, to the study of natural science probably 
 most persons think chiefly of the value of the special knowledge 
 which is to be acquired, and the practical use which may be made of 
 it. This consideration is more particularly before us at present. It 
 may be well, therefore, to notice a few of the chief points deserving 
 of attention as to the true relation between the laws and phenomena 
 of nature and the application of them to the set vice of man. 
 
 The student of pure science occupies himself solely with facts and 
 principles, regardless of any artificial bearing that may be given 
 them upon the wants and comforts of the human race. He who 
 devotes himself to applied science must not only study with equal 
 attention these same facte and principles of nature, but in addition 
 must notice the direction and the form in which they may be made 
 subservient to the purposes of daily life. 
 
 The latter, therefore, is called upon to examine the wants of society, 
 constantly varying in character and urgency 
 
 In this niatter-of-fact world, and under the organized system of com- 
 merce of modern times, the measure of the urgency of such wants is 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 17 
 
 the money price which the means of satisfying them can command 
 and hence the student of applied science, in dealing with the ques- 
 tion of the attainment of any particular object, has to consider 
 
 IST. The possibility of its attainment. 
 
 2D. The cost of its attainment. 
 
 3D. The price which society will be willing to pay for its 
 attainment. 
 
 A proposed object may involve in its very conception a contradic- 
 tion of some great law of nature in which case it may at once be 
 pronounced impossible of attainment. Thus, we are well assured that 
 the aggregate amount of matter and that of force in the universe, so 
 far as revealed to us, are unchangeable, and it is useless to discuss 
 the details of any scheme, however plausible, which includes the 
 idea of the creation of either the one or the other, though but to 
 the smallest extent many a laborious attempt has been made at 
 mechanical, and not a few at chemical, improvements, which a 
 recognition of this truth would at once have shewn to be absurd. 
 
 But we must be certain that the supposed law of nature has been 
 deduced from sufficient observation. Before the time of MITSCHER- 
 LICH it might have been stated as such a law that different substances 
 refuse to crystallize together when mixed in variable proportions, and 
 may therefore be separated from one another by the process of crys- 
 tallization ; but he shewed that, while this is generally true, it is not 
 invariably so that there are certain bodies which do crystallize to- 
 gether, no matter in what proportion they may be mixed, and hence 
 that such substances cannot be separated by the process in question. 
 
 Moreover, we must be cautious that we correctly apply a natural 
 law, though it be itself well established. Thus, as has been well 
 instanced,* a man acquainted with the law of gravitation, and its 
 action in causing bodies to fall to the earth, might not unnaturally 
 declare the fact of a balloon rising when released to the height of 
 several thousand feet above the earth impossible ; yet, when properly 
 examined, this fact is seen, not only not to contradict the law of 
 gravitation, but even in part to be a direct result of it. 
 
 We may set before us a particular object, which does not involve 
 any conflict with the known laws of nature, and which therefore can- 
 not be pronounced necessarily impossible and yet it may be practi- 
 
 *By LIEBIQ. 
 
18 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 colly impossible for us in the present condition of our knowledge, 
 having resisted all attempts at its attainment by the application of 
 known principles in any way hitherto tried. A notable example of 
 this is afforded by the question of the artificial production of the 
 diamond. We know that the diamond is simply crystallized carbon; 
 we can procure carbon in abundance; and in the case of a vast number 
 of other substances we can by well-known methods readily cause them 
 to assume the crystalline form we can even crystallize a kindred ele- 
 ment, boron, and give it properties closely resembling those of the dia- 
 mond but, with regard to carbon, hundreds of chemists have tried 
 all known means of inducing crystallization in diamond form, without 
 success. So many such efforts have been made as to render it very 
 unlikely that any further experiment will be more fortunate, unless 
 tried in some as yet unforeseen direction, and this research cannot be 
 recommended to any one as a profitable occupation. Yet it would 
 not surprise chemists if a method for producing genuine diamonds 
 were to be discovered to-morrow surprise is rather felt on the con- 
 trary that no such method has as yet been found. 
 
 But the object at which we aim may be entirely possible in prin- 
 ciple, and attainable in point of scientific fact; and yet its attainment 
 may, under existing conditions, be commercially impossible, if either 
 it cost too much or will command too small a price. 
 
 The element of cost generally depends upon many and various 
 conditions some of which belong properly to the domain of science, 
 while others are of a purely commercial, a social, or even a political 
 character. 
 
 Thus, in some cases, the costliness of a product of art may be due 
 to the rarity in nature of the material necessary for its production ; 
 and, if this material be indispensable, and it cannot be had more 
 abundantly, there is little use in improving the processes of its after 
 treatment. 
 
 Here chemistry teaches us to carefully distinguish between the 
 elementary substances of which some 64 are now known, and 
 which we are unable to convert into each other and the compounds 
 of these elements, which may be built up from their constituents in 
 various ways. If the absolute scarcity of an element be the cause of 
 the great cost of some product in which it forms an essential constit- 
 uent, there is but one way in which we can get over the difficulty 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 19 
 
 we must search in nature for some as yet undiscovered source of 
 the element in question. 
 
 Any discovery which might be made at present, of no matter how 
 useful a kind, if it involved the use of the metal Bismuth upon a 
 large scale, would have little immediate practical value since this 
 metal is so far only known to occur at but few localities and in 
 comparatively small quantity. 
 
 An instance has recently occurred of the successful development 
 upon a large scale of a new source of supply of an elementary sub- 
 stance of great value. I allude to the working for compounds of 
 potassium of the immense deposit, at Stassfurt in Prussian Saxony, 
 of chloride of potassium and magnesium, which occurs there associ- 
 ated with rock salt this has at once enormously reduced the price 
 of potash in the great markets of the world, and has at the same 
 time furnished by-products of the manufacture which are highly 
 valuable as manures. Another though minor source of the same 
 element in an available form, which has heretofore been overlooked, 
 is the fleece of the sheep in its rough state. This, it has been found, 
 contains a considerable amount of potash in combination with fatty 
 acids. The water in which the wool is washed has hitherto been 
 thrown away, but now in France it is made to yield potash to the 
 extent of from 7 to 9 p. c. of the weight of the unwashed wool. 
 
 In the relation of which we are speaking a striking difference is 
 observable between inorganic and organic products. The former are 
 much more prominently characterized by the particular elements which 
 they contain the latter are composed of but few, and generally the 
 same, elements, and their properties depend chiefly upon the manner 
 in which these elements are combined. To this fact is largely due 
 the magnificent and often unexpected results which the arts of late 
 years have gained from the extended study of organic chemistry. 
 
 Amongst inorganic substances, however, there have been striking 
 examples of increased economy of production following a change in 
 the selection of the particular natural source of the material desired 
 The carbonate of soda so essential to the prosperity of the manu- 
 factures of glass and soap was formerly derived from the ash of 
 marine plants, and when LEBLANC had' shown how it might be 
 obtained from common salt the quantity manufactured was enor- 
 mously increased, and the cost was correspondingly diminished, 
 c 
 
20 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 Ultramarine was formerly prepared from the rare mineral Lapis 
 Lazuli, and then ranked amongst the most costly pigments, and was 
 found only in the hands of portrait painters and artists of the 
 highest order. GUIMET discovered the method of so combining the 
 silicic acid, alumina, soda and sulphur, which are the essential com- 
 ponents of the natural mineral and of the pigment prepared from 
 it, as to reproduce perfectly the desired color, and at a cost more than 
 a hundred fold less than formerly necessary, so that artificial ultra- 
 marine is now used upon the great scale for decorating wall paper 
 and for other common purposes of the arts. 
 
 Very often, therefore, a reduction in the cost of an article admits 
 of being obtained by an improvement in the method of preparing it. 
 And this remark applies, not only to money cost, but sometimes also 
 to the expenditure of human life and human health. In factories of 
 lucifer matches the introduction of the amorphous phosphorus dis- 
 covered by SCHROTTER, in place of the long known form of this ele- 
 ment, has largely diminished the danger from fire and explosion, and 
 has obviated all necessity for the sufferings previously endured by the 
 operatives from carious disease of the lower jaw produced by the 
 fumes of the ordinary phosphorus. 
 
 As has been stated, there are many other conditions which affect 
 the cost of a process or of its product the supply of fuel and water, 
 of labor and machine power the distance and cost of necessary 
 transportation. Many of these conditions require other than purely 
 scientific examination, and must depend upon other than purely sci- 
 entific means for improvement, but all must be taken into account, 
 and their effect carefully estimated, before any reasonable assurance 
 of success can be entertained in a question of economically applied 
 science. 
 
 Should, however, the object we aim at be physically possible of 
 attainment, and attainable at a moderate or even a trifling cost, there 
 remains to be considered whether when attained it is one which 
 mankind will value for which society will be willing to pay. 
 
 There are thousands of substances whose names are to be found in 
 text-books of chemistry, the properties of which are either such as 
 have no recognized use and value, or such as are presented by other 
 bodies, already found in commerce, in greater perfection or more con- 
 venient form. It is of no use at present to manufacture substan- 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 21 
 
 ces with which we know not what to do when we have obtained 
 them. 
 
 But we should cautiously guard against pronouncing a substance 
 or a process intrinsically valueless simply because no important use 
 for it has as yet been found. Sometimes a material, whose properties 
 may for a long time have been thoroughly known, but not usefully 
 applied, suddenly becomes of great value as new demands arising 
 often from very remote causes render evident the direction in which 
 it may be made of service. The value of a product often changes 
 enormously with the course of time and the general progress of the 
 world's industry. Two hundred years ago the metal platinum would 
 have been of little use the arts in connection with which it is 
 employed to-day with very gredt advantage had not then arisen. 
 
 Sometimes, too, a substance may have been examined, but not 
 thoroughly some of its characteristics ascertained, but not all and 
 such an imperfect knowledge of its properties may cause it to be neg- 
 lected as valueless, until further research or some fortunate accident 
 reveals the use which may be made of it. SOUBEIRAN, when in 
 1831 he discovered chloroform, and DUMAS and LIEBIG eminent 
 chemists as they were , who followed him in examining it, did not 
 ascertain its effect upon the animal body when respired in the form 
 of vapor, and little suspected what a " blessing in disguise" the mate- 
 rial they had under their hands would in a few years prove to be. 
 
 In like manner, errors of observation or experiment upon a new 
 'substance, or a failure to obtain it in a state of purity, may lead to 
 its true properties and value remaining long concealed. The ideas 
 entertained for many years with respect to the metal aluminum, 
 founded upon experiments made with very small quantities of the ele- 
 ment in an impure condition, were found to be quite erroneous when 
 it had been prepared on a larger scale and free from other sub- 
 stances that which was formerly supposed to be of no use was 
 found to possess some quite valuable properties. 
 
 Sometimes we find science suggesting a want, as well as the means 
 of supplying it, and society recognizing the importance of the sug- 
 gestion coming back upon science with demands upon a scale so 
 much greater than was originally foreseen that fresh researches and 
 new discoveries have to be made in order to respond to them. The 
 great demand for bones to be used in various forms as manure was 
 created by the teachings of science as to the value of the phosphate 
 
22 Cliemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 of lime which they contain; this value becoming fully recognized in 
 commerce, the demand has, of late years, so increased in England as 
 to seriously threaten its exceeding the means of supply but the 
 fresh activity given by this fact to scientific research has recently 
 resulted in the discovery of large quantities of fossil phosphate of 
 lime, in the form of coprolites, and the manufacture of this material 
 upon so large a scale that, in place of importing, England now 
 exports phosphatic manures. 
 
 It is often extremely interesting to notice the history, in order of 
 time, of the steps by which an invention or discovery is developed 
 by science and rendered available for the purposes of commerce. 
 
 Sometimes but very rarely a novel object is attained without 
 having been before specially sought for, its value at once recognized, 
 the means for its attainment put into a commercially practicable 
 form, and its results given to the world, by the exertions of a single 
 man, and within a comparatively short period of time. Of this the 
 most remarkable instance in our own day has been the production 
 and rapidly spreading use of the peculiar kind of steel, sometimes 
 called "homogeneous metal," but now more generally known by the 
 name of the man Mr. BESSEMER who originated the idea of its 
 manufacture, surmounted the practical difficulties that attended its 
 production at first, demonstrated its value and the uses which may 
 be made of it, introduced it into commerce, and now enjoys the 
 personal reward of his labors in the form of a princely income larger 
 perhaps than has ever before been derived from a patented invention. 
 
 Sometimes a material or a process fulfilling certain particular con- 
 ditions is called for by society, and long sought for with the aid of 
 science before success comes to crown the eiforts made under such 
 circumstances a powerful stimulus is given to research by the cer- 
 tainty and the immediate character of the reward to be looked for 
 by the successful discoverer or inventor. It was notorious that the 
 supply of illuminating and lubricating oil from the whale fisheries of 
 the world was fast diminishing, and that a substitute was urgently 
 demanded, when, some years ago, active scientific research led after a 
 time first to the production of kerosene or photogene oils, from the 
 dry distillation of highly bituminous coals and schists and later to 
 the discovery of large supplies of petroleum in the older rocks, and 
 the perfecting of methods for the purification of this new material. 
 Even now there are many industrial objects aimed at by scientific 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 23 
 
 men, the means of securing which have not yet been ascertained 
 but which we may reasonably hope will yet successfully be accom- 
 plished. A most tempting problem of this kind is that of the pro- 
 duction of artificial quinine, which is not deemed by any means hope- 
 less, though it has already been eagerly essayed by several chemists 
 of great ability. 
 
 Sometimes the order of time is reversed, and a substance or a 
 phenomenon may be said to be presented by science to the world in 
 anticipation of any demand for it, but with a good deal of confidence 
 that some day or other it will be found to be useful. Thus, the sub- 
 stance naphthaline has been known for many years as one of the 
 results of the dry distillation of coal in the manufacture of gas it 
 has been a mere waste product, accumulated and thrown away in 
 large quantity but chemists have long felt confident that it could be 
 turned to useful account, and quite recently a method has been dis- 
 covered by which a magnificent violet color may be obtained from it, 
 which has at once come into use as a dye. In like manner, bi-sulphu- 
 ret of carbon was for a long time a mere chemical curiosity only to 
 be found in small quantities in scientific laboratories but known to 
 possess properties which would most likely in the end render it com- 
 mercially valuable. It is now prepared upon a very large scale, and 
 used for dissolving indian rubber, extracting colza and other oils, 
 destroying weevil in grain, and various other purposes. As an 
 example of a body at present useless but with some properties 
 which perhaps indicate for it an important future, I may mention the 
 element silicon, as not very long ago prepared and described by the 
 eminent French chemist, DEVILLE. 
 
 Most usually, however, the history of an invention or discovery is 
 a complex one, and presents us with many partial additions to know- 
 ledge often following one another at long intervals and many 
 partial applications of the knowledge thus gained sometimes in the 
 direct line of the original enquiry, sometimes in quite .a different 
 direction the exertions of many independent workers often con- 
 spiring to the final result. 
 
 It may not be without interest to present you with one or two 
 examples such as are afforded by the history of the alkaline and 
 earthy metals and that of the coloring materials derived from coal 
 tar. 
 
24 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 In the year 1807 Sir HUMPHREY DAVY, who had just before dis- 
 covered the compound nature of potash, extending his research to 
 soda, found that it too on being subjected to the action of a power- 
 ful galvanic current separated into oxygen and a new metallic sub- 
 stance. This new metal, however, was obtained only in minute 
 globules, most of which burned again immediately in the air, repro- 
 ducing soda. Its extreme lightness, causing it to float upon water, 
 and the fact that it may be inflamed by mere contact with water, 
 while it possesses the lustre and other of the physical characters of 
 the long known metals, were properties which excited a lively interest 
 in sodium, as in the kindred metal potassium, but these promised 
 nothing of practical utility. 
 
 By further experiments DAVY satisfied himself that not only the 
 alkalies but the earths, including magnesia and alumina, are com- 
 pound bodies, each consisting of oxygen united to a peculiar metal 
 he did not succeed, however, in obtaining the metals themselves in 
 quantity or condition to exhibit their properties. 
 
 Soon after, GAY LUSSAC and THENARD devised a better process 
 for preparing potassium and sodium, by heating the alkalies with 
 i ron and, still later, charcoal was found to be a yet more conve- 
 nient reducing agent. Soon sodium could be found for sale, but as 
 a curiosity merely in little globules not larger than a pea, and at a 
 price that even in 1830 was fifty times greater than that at which it 
 can now be sold. It was long ago pointed out by GREGORY, however, 
 that the high price of sodium was due to its being prepared only in 
 small quantity as a scientific curiosity that, if any demand for it 
 in larger quantity should arise, it could be furnished at a price not 
 much exceeding that of zinc. 
 
 Meanwhile, WOHLER had, in 1827, produced aluminum the 
 metallic basis of the earth alumina in quantity sufficiently visible 
 to admit of examining many of its properties, some of which, how- 
 ever, were very imperfectly exhibited the metal being impure, and 
 not united into compact masses. BUSSY, in 1830, made a similar 
 improved but imperfect examination of magnesium. Neither of 
 these researches seemed to indicate any useful application of the 
 metals as probable in fact it was supposed that they could not be 
 preserved in the air from speedy oxidation and re conversion into the 
 earths. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 Up to the year 1853 sodium was to be found only in chemical 
 laboratories, and very few, even of scientific chemists, had ever seen 
 the smallest specimen of aluminum or magnesium. In that year 
 DEVILLE the illustrious chemist who has lately replaced DUMAS as 
 Professor in the Faculty of Sciences of Paris occupied himself 
 with the preparation of Jilumiuum upon the large scale and in a state 
 of almost perfect purity. He shewed that this the characteristic 
 constituent of common clay possesses a number of remarkable pro- 
 perties, some of which can be turned to useful account. 
 
 The metal, as you see it in this bar, is only about twice and-a-half 
 as heavy as water, has a bright white color, a high metallic lustre, 
 and considerable malleability and ductility combined with a certain 
 hardness, is highly sonorous, and can be melted, cast, hammered, 
 rolled, soldered, and alloyed with other metals. It remains untar- 
 nished in an atmosphere which turns silver black, and resists the 
 action of some, but not all, of the most energetic chemical solvents. 
 Greater expectations were perhaps formed of its utility than have yet 
 been fully justified but its production has been continued upon a 
 considerable scale, and it is used in the manufacture of jewelry* and 
 ornamental articles of many kinds, in the construction of surgical 
 and musical instruments, and by chemists as a convenient material 
 for the smallest standards of weight. Its alloy with silver is coming 
 into use as a cheap substitute of good color for the latter metal 
 itself; and alloyed to the extent of 10 per cent. with copper it 
 exhibits remarkable tenacity, and has lately, amongst other applica- 
 tions, been employed in France for the production of the little 
 punches with which the perforations in sheets of postage stamps are 
 made the steel punches formerly used were worn out in a single 
 day, while those of this "aluminum bronze" are found to last for 
 many months in good condition. 
 
 Attention was now again drawn to magnesium, and its preparation 
 upon a larger scale than before developed previously unsuspected 
 capabilities on the part of this metal also. In appearance it differs 
 not very much from aluminum, but it has only about once and three- 
 quarters the density of water. It may be melted, and even distilled, 
 without difficulty. It admits of being mechanically worked to some 
 extent, but is more readily oxidized and acted upon by chemical 
 
 * Contrasted with gold in the same article of jewelry it sometimes produces an excellent 
 effect. 
 
26 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 reagents in general than aluminum. Its chief practical value has 
 been found to depend upon the brilliant light measurably compara- 
 ble with that of the sun* which, as you see, it produces when a 
 thin wire or riband is burned in the air or in oxygen. This light 
 has been brought into use for military and other signals, for the pro- 
 duction of photographic pictures at times -and in places as at the 
 bottom of the sea where sunlight cannot be had, and for other pur- 
 poses requiring a very pure and very intense light. The metal, 
 purified by distillation, has also furnished chemists valuable aid in 
 the detection of arsenic in cases of poisoning. 
 
 But the manufacture of aluminum and magnesium created a 
 demand for sodium, to be used in reducing the former metals, and 
 soon GREGORY'S prediction was partially verified, and sodium became 
 as cheap and abundant as before it had been rare and costly. 
 
 In 1865 an independent use was found for this metal itself. It 
 was discovered that the addition of a very little not more than one- 
 half or one per cent. of sodium to mercury increases very greatly 
 the adhesion of the latter to other metals a fact which I can illus- 
 trate for you with a piece of iron, a metal to which mercury in its 
 ordinary condition will not adhere at all. This fact is taken advan- 
 tage of in the extraction of native gold from the quartz with which 
 it occurs. A solid amalgam is first formed of one part of sodium 
 and thirty of mercury this can be conveniently kept and trans- 
 ported, and is added for use to so much more mercury that there are 
 120 150 parts of the latter to 1 of sodium. Mercury thus treated, 
 when agitated with the finely divided quartz and water known as 
 :; slime," takes up the minute particles of gold much more quickly 
 and perfectly than ordinary quicksilver and actual experiments 
 upon the working scale have proved that the yield of gold is largely 
 increased in some cases to the extent of more than fifty per cent. 
 Poorer quartz than formerly can now be worked with profit, and, 
 at the same time, the loss of mercury itself is much diminished. 
 
 Such are the main points in the story of the " light metals" that 
 
 of the " coal-tar colors" is more simple, but not wanting in interest. 
 
 In 1826 UNVERDORBEN discovered that by distilling indigo under 
 
 * One set of comparative experiments is said to have indicated a light-producing power 
 equivalent to l-225th that of the Run, while the photographic effect was found to be l-36th 
 of the same. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 2? 
 
 certain conditions a liquid substance is produced to which he gave 
 the name crystalline, as it formed distinctly crystallizable compounds 
 with acids the name aniline was afterwards applied to it. 
 
 In 1835 RUNGE, who had obtained the same substance amongst 
 the products of the distillation of coal-tar, noticed that it developed 
 a violet-blue color by treatment with a solution of chloride of lime 
 (bleaching powder). 
 
 In 1840 FRITZSCHE, in experimenting upon aniline with a mix- 
 ture of chlorate of potash and hydrochloric acid, observed a blue 
 coloration. 
 
 In 1843 HOFMANN, to whose later researches we owe much of our 
 scientific knowledge of the aniline colors, developed a red color in 
 treating aniline with fuming nitric acid. 
 
 All these early observations, however, were simply recorded as 
 facts of scientific interest, the colors were not known to be dyes of 
 permanent tinctorial value, and no practical application was made of 
 them. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. PERKIN patented in England the first practical pro- 
 cess for manufacturing a dyeing material from the source in question. 
 The color which he had obtained was a violet, to which the tech- 
 nical name "mauve" was given it was produced by acting upon ani- 
 line with bi-chromate of potash and sulphuric acid. This color 
 attracted, however, no very great attention at first. 
 
 In 1858 HOFMANN, in again working upon aniline from the 
 purely scientific point of view, again noticed the appearance of a 
 rich crimson color, this time from the action of bi-chloride of car- 
 bon k u t of this fact again no practical application was made. 
 
 In 1859 came at last, in an indirect way and from an unexpected 
 quarter, the discovery which opened up the now important industry 
 of aniline colors. M. M. GUINON, MARNAS and BONNET of Lyons 
 produced a permanent and brilliant purple from orseille (the coloring 
 matter of lichens), which was introduced into commerce as " French 
 purple," and soon became widely and favorably known. This resem- 
 bled so closely the tint of Mr PERKIN'S " mauve," discovered three 
 years before, that the latter became fashionable, and attention was at 
 once bestowed upon it and the process by which it was made ; so 
 that fresh experiments were instituted upon aniline now with the 
 object of technical application distinctly in view. 
 D 
 
28 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 In the same year 1859 M. VERGUIN, of the firm of RENAUD 
 frcres of Lyons, discovered and patented the process for producing a 
 splendid red color by treating aniline with bi-chloride of tin. 
 
 Attention was now at once forcibly drawn to these new dyes their 
 great beauty, brilliancy, power of supporting artificial light and 
 intense colorific effect were recognized and chemists went to work in 
 all directions to look for new colors from the same source, and differ- 
 ent means of obtaining those already known. In 1859, 1860 and 
 1861 numerous patents were taken out, chiefly in England and 
 France, for processes connected with the new manufacture. By act- 
 ing with reducing agents upon aniline red it was found that beautiful 
 blue colors could be obtained, and subsequently fine tints of green, 
 yellow, brown, and black were successively brought forward. 
 
 Many persons have of late years become familiar with the names 
 of various fashionable colors Magenta, Solferino, fuchsine, azaleine, 
 peoninc, mauve, violine, imperial violet, regina purple, bleu de Paris, 
 bleu de Lyons, azurine, emeraldine, phosphine, couleur de mais, &c., 
 &c. without knowing that all these were derived from one and 
 the same source, and that source no other than the homely, dirty, 
 sticky and disagreeable substance coal-tar. 
 
 As the manufacture is now carried on, the tar is subjected to frac- 
 tional distillation, repeated several times upon the different products 
 obtained. The portion boiling between about 160 and 250 F. 
 called in commerce benzole consists mainly of the two substances 
 benzole and toluole. These are converted into nitro-benzole (also 
 known and used as artificial oil of bitter almonds) and nitro-toluole 
 by treatment of the liquid with fuming nitric acid. Further treat- 
 ment, now with reducing agents generally in practice acetic acid 
 and metallic iron produces aniline and toluidine, which mixed 
 together constitute the liquid known commercially as aniline. This 
 is the immediate source of the various colors, which are produced by 
 a great number of different processes some of which have just been 
 indicated, and which may, for the most part, be classed under the 
 heads of oxidation, reduction, and the substitution of compound 
 radicals for the element hydrogen. 
 
 Here are some specimens of these substances, of the colors derived 
 from them, (in the dry state and in solution in alcohol), and of fab- 
 rics which have been dyed with some of the more prominent tints. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 29 
 
 On the blackboard you will see the formulae which represent the 
 more important chemical reactions referred to. 
 
 The distillation of coal-tar, for the purpose of producing the light 
 oil or benzole to be used in making these colors, is now an impor- 
 tant business of itself, and involves the manufacture at the same 
 time of a number of secondary products from the same material 
 many of which are practically useful, and give rise in turn to inde- 
 pendent branches of industry. 
 
 Some of the fluid products are used, as " solvent naphtha," for 
 dissolving indian rubber and in the preparation of varnishes others 
 are employed to increase the illuminating power of coal gas others 
 for the manufacture of lubricators for machinery and railroad car- 
 riages. Naphthaline and carbolic acid have each been found to 
 afford new colors, rivalling in brilliancy and beauty those from ani- 
 line, and carbolic acid itself has come into use as one of the most 
 powerful antiseptics and disinfectants. 
 
 One of the fluid products of coal-tar distillation, and that by far 
 the most abundant in quantity the " dead oil,"' which comes over 
 at higher temperatures than the benzole still remains almost with- 
 out known, application. It is used for preserving timber from decay, 
 and for making lampblack, but the supply so far exceeds the demand 
 from these or any other sources that the oil is almost without value 
 in the market. It offers a fine field for further investigation. 
 
 In thus reviewing some of the points as to the relation between 
 purely scientific discoveries and their practical applications, I must 
 not omit to notice briefly one or two errors upon this subject, which 
 are not uncommon, and which sometimes bring undeserved contempt 
 upon the pursuit of researches in applied science. 
 
 Men are not uufrequently to be heard speaking of themselves or of 
 their neighbors as having made some business experiment in agricul- 
 ture, in mining, in manufactures, or the like with all the aids of mod- 
 ern science aids derived either from their own study of the subject 
 or from consultation with those professionally acquainted with it ; the 
 result is declared to be disastrous, and the "good old practical way" is 
 praised as far safer than the pursuit of any "new-fangled" and "theo- 
 retical" notions. Such men very often fail to see that several condi- 
 tions were necessary to the attainment of their object, every one of 
 
30 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 which had to be fulfilled in order to success in the final result that 
 they fulfilled, perhaps intelligently and completely, the greater num- 
 ber of such conditions, but failed in some one, or possibly overlooked it 
 altogether. We have seen that some such conditions are of a purely 
 scientific others of a commercial character. The former involve 
 the facts and laws of naturethe latter the principles and present 
 state of trade. If either be neglected, or their bearing upon each 
 other be overlooked, failure need not be wondered at 
 
 The man who would apply scientific knowledge to some special 
 purpose must be certain that he really has the knowledge in the first 
 instance must make sure of his facts, and fully understand the 
 principles involved. If he submit the scientific aspect of a question 
 to a professedly scientific man for advice, he must have some guaran- 
 tee that the adviser is well informed and, above all, honest enough not 
 to pretend to know more than he really does and, in laying the case 
 before such an adviser, care must be taken that all material facts 
 upon which an opinion is to be based are fully and fairly stated. The 
 same degree of attention must then be given to the commercial side 
 of the question the common-place considerations of cost and price, 
 profit and loss, interest and insurance, present condition and future 
 fluctuations of markets, must be looked into with the aid of the 
 fullest information and best judgment possessed by oneself or those 
 upon whom reliance may be placed; and, finally, the bearing upon 
 each other of the scientific and commercial conclusions arrived at 
 must be carefully taken into account in deciding to make or not to 
 make the experiment in view, and in choosing the form, time, and 
 manner of making it. 
 
 So-called " practical " men often regard with ridicule what they 
 suppose to be the failure of scientifically conducted experiments, in 
 consequence of their own failure to distinguish between experiments 
 made with a view to obtaining information and those which are made 
 in order to achieve a particular concrete result the ' k cxperimenta 
 lucifera" and " expcrimenta fructifera" so admirably contrasted by 
 the father of modern Inductive Philosophy. An excellent illustra- 
 tion of this may be drawn from the history of the cultivation for 
 four years, by the celebrated German chemist LIEBIG, of a piece of 
 land in the neighborhood of Giessen.* The land in question about 
 
 *LiEBio Principles of Agricultural Chemistry, etc., 1855, pp. 30-35. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 31 
 
 ten acres in extent was in 1845 a perfectly barren tract of sand, 
 upon which there did not grow in a whole year grass or anything 
 else in quantity to support a single sheep. Mineral manure of par- 
 ticular kinds was applied to this soil it improved in character year 
 by year and in 1849 it " excited the admiration and wonder of all 
 who had known the original state and quality of the land/' The 
 tract had now acquired value, and was sold. An account of the 
 total expenditure upon the place, as set against the price received lor 
 it, shewed that the former exceeded the latter by about 8,000 florins 
 or, say $3,200. A " practical " man, in the sense in which the 
 term is often erroneously used, might say (and such reflections were 
 actually made) thafthis was a glaring example of the absurd results 
 following the application of science to matters of business that the 
 land had, indeed, been enriched, and such result was very well as a 
 matter of scientific interest or amusement, but that the consequence 
 to the pocket of the experimenter was not profit, but the loss of no 
 small sum of money. 
 
 The object of the experiment was not immediate profit, but infor- 
 mation information which might at a later day be rendered profitable, 
 and which could only be obtained by means of this present outlay. 
 In order to render distinctly observable the effects of certain manures, 
 the scientific conditions were simplified by working upon a piece of 
 land so barren that it would not of itself support vegetation at all. 
 A distinct question was put to nature, and a distinct answer was 
 received. The knowledge thus gained was valuable, and like all 
 valuable things had to be paid for. The sum of 8.000 florins just 
 spoken of was the price paid for this knowledge, not the loss upon 
 an unsuccessful speculation. The knowledge once gained, the experi- 
 ment was not proposed as a model for imitation. The use to be made 
 afterwards of the knowledge itself was an entirely different affair 
 the true application was to be made in the cultivation of ordinary 
 land, poor enough to need manure, yet not so poor as entirely to pre- 
 clude financially successful cultivation. 
 
 One other popular error in connection with our general subject 
 consists in demanding more of science than she can at present give, 
 requiring full information upon subjects of which our real knowledge 
 is confessedly very incomplete. This is perhaps a more common 
 mistake in the present day than that just alluded to men have 
 become so accustomed to hear of the wonderful achievements of this 
 
32 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 scientific age, and the rate at which the frontier line that divides the 
 known from the unknown is being pushed forward, that they almost 
 forget the existence of such a line, and fancy that they have but to 
 call for whatever information they may need for their individual 
 purposes in order at once to receive it. 
 
 Such men bring a pound or two of soil from one of their fields to 
 a chemist, -and expect that, after he has looked at it, poured a little 
 acid upon a portion of it in a test-tube, or submitted it to some to 
 them unknown process of analysis, he shall inform them of something, 
 of moderate cost, peculiarly adapted to that field, that shall at once 
 remedy all its defects, and magically increase its fertility. Our real 
 knowledge of chemistry is almost as imperfect in reference to its 
 applications to agriculture as to medicine, and specific recipes for 
 specific diseases are about as imaginary in the one case as in the 
 other. No sensible man refuses to send for a doctor when he is sick 
 because pathology is a very imperfect science, and the physician 
 must often feel doubt about his diagnosis and hesitation as to the 
 remedies he ought to use. Yet the most extravagant expectations 
 are often formed of the precision and completeness with which ques- 
 tions can be answered as to the applications of science to' agriculture 
 and the arts the greatest disappointment is expressed when these 
 expectations fail to be realized and that which science can do at 
 present is pronounced to be valueless because she cannot yet do 
 everything. 
 
 I have already occupied your attention so long that I can devote 
 but little time to the consideration of the last topic which I proposed 
 to bring before you namely, the practical form which it seems desi- 
 rable to give to the teaching of Applied Chemistry in this University. 
 
 To place a student abreast of the present condition of such an 
 eminently progressive and practical department of science as this, 
 and to qualify him to keep up with its progress hereafter, two things 
 appear to bo chieily needed ; first, such didactic instruction as shall 
 fairly place before him the most important results of investigation on 
 the part of technical chemists in the past, our stock of knowledge 
 accumulated up to the present date ] in the second place, such prac- 
 tical instruction of the faculties of his mind and physical senses as 
 shall enable him hereafter to test for himself the results of others, 
 and to do his part in adding to our store of knowledge, and in apply- 
 ing it to practical questions as they arise. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 33 
 
 Hence the principal features in the systematic teaching proposed 
 are a course of lectures upon the Applications of Chemistry to the 
 Arts, and a course of laboratory instruction in Practical and Analyti- 
 cal Chemistry. 
 
 In the former of these the leading principles of Agriculture, 
 Metallurgy, and the more important Arts and Manufactures, so far as 
 these are dependent upon Chemistry, should be taken up in order 
 and discussed, with suitable illustration by specimens, models, 
 diagrams, and experiments. The order should be that of the arts 
 themselves, classified in relation to the nature and uses of their pro- 
 ducts, the materials and processes involved not that of the laws and 
 elementary substances of pure Chemistry, which are already fully 
 treated of in the able hands to which they have so long been com- 
 mitted in the University. There is great want of suitable text-books 
 at any rate in English to be used in connection with such a 
 course; and this is to be regretted, as a good, clearly written text- 
 book not too large embracing the topics cf a lecture within a 
 a moderate compass and following in the main the same order with 
 that pursued by the lecturer undoubtedly affords valuable assistance 
 to the student. Books of reference, however, which may be profita- 
 bly consulted on particular subjects, exist in abundance in English, 
 as well as in French and German. 
 
 The practical course in the laboratory should include the construc- 
 tion and use of the apparatus employed in chemical research, the 
 manipulation connected with the various processes of operative chem- 
 istry, the methods of analysis both qualitative and quantitative , 
 and especially the modifications of these most conveniently applica- 
 ble to the purposes of technical investigation. 
 
 Such a course is likely to be looked upon by most students as intrin- 
 sically attractive even amusing. The actual performance of chem- 
 ical experiments and observation of chemical phenomena have always 
 a certain charm. Even two hundred years ago BECIIER *, though he 
 speaks of chemists as a strange class of mortals impelled by an almost 
 insane impulse to seek their pleasures among smoke and vapour, soot 
 and flame, poisons and poverty, adds as regards himself " yet among 
 all these evils I seem to myself to live so sweetly, that may I die 
 if I would change places with the Persian King." 
 
 *The author of Physfr.a Subtcrmnca. 
 
34 Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 It is, however, scarcely possible to over-estimate the real advantages 
 of laboratory practice, to the student of general chemistry, but still 
 more to him who would learn how its teachings may be applied to 
 the purposes of daily life. By means of such practice he learns to 
 look directly at nature to see natural objects and natural phenom- 
 ena with his own eyes, not simply in the reflection of what he sup- 
 poses to be the appearance they present to others. The teacher or 
 the book may, and ought to, tell him what to look at, and how to 
 observe it but he must not rest satisfied with having been so told 
 he must look at it, observe it, familiarize himself with it, and 
 retain in his mind a distinct picture of the thing itself, instead of 
 the description merely which others have given of it. It is possible 
 to have the longest Latin and Greek names and the most mysterious 
 looking symbols firmly impressed upon the memory, while the things 
 which these names and symbols signify remain utterly unfamiliar. 
 Scientific terms are extremely valuable from their precision and con- 
 venience but, like all words, they are merely the representatives of 
 things, of facts, of principles, of ideas and with these themselves 
 we must become familiar if we would really understand their mutual 
 relations and the applications which may be made of them. 
 
 From books and lectures may be obtained a general or panoramic 
 view of the field of study of which we are speaking from them may 
 be derived a knowledge of the natural order, arrangement and con- 
 nection of the facts which have been observed by others, and which 
 the student is afterwards as far as possible to observe for himself 
 upon these he may have to depend for some facts the opportunity of 
 observing which is practically out of his reach but the more he 
 regards them as simply drawing his attention to and placing under 
 his own observation the unveiled face of nature herself, the sounder, 
 the more valuable, and the more practically available will be the 
 knowledge which he obtains.* 
 
 * "That a system of teaching the physical sciences should not remain barren of application 
 to useful purposes, and indeed that it should exercise any beneficial influence whatever on the 
 mind, it ought to be such as to ensure to the student an immediate, familiar, and, as it were, 
 personal acquaintance with the facts and laws of nature, and with the manner in which they 
 arise under our hands and eyes in scientific processes." Report (above quoted) of the Cam- 
 bridge University Commission p. 11G. (under the head of " Laboratories and apparatus : ") 
 
 " He " (the chemist) " must learn to interpret the effects of mixtiire, heat, and other chem- 
 ical agencies, so as to see in them those facts which chemistry makes the basis of her doctrines. 
 And, in learning to interpret this language, he must also learn to call it forth ; to place bodies 
 under the requisite conditions, by the apparatus of his own laboratory and the operation? of 
 hi? own fingers. WHEWF.LL Philosophy of fh? InrlHcliw Scifnr.es Vol. 2. p. .',01. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 35 
 
 Even as regards long known facts, the experiments in illustration 
 of which he merely repeats, he finds that no impressions equal in 
 clearness and accuracy those which he acquires with the blow-pipe 
 and the test-tube in his own hands and he soon perceives that the 
 use of such apparatus, and the performance of such experiments, 
 constitute in themselves an art which must be practically mastered 
 in order to be made available. 
 
 But it is only by coming into direct contact with natural phe- 
 nomena that anything like original investigation can be attempted, 
 and every student of applied chemistry, or indeed of any branch of 
 natural science, ought to be., in however humble and limited a way, 
 an original investigator. Our knowledge of nature is necessarily pro- 
 gressive the more we learn the more we find there remains to be 
 learned each question solved suggests other and new questions, and 
 new methods of attacking them. 
 
 It may be objected that we can only look to intellects of unusual 
 power for new discoveries, and thajt ordinary minds must be content 
 with merely receiving their novel teachings and endeavoring to 
 understand and remember them. 
 
 But in building up the stately edifice of scientific truth work- 
 men are employed of every grade great master masons, who far 
 excel their fellows in comprehension of the designs of the creative 
 mind active builders, who can lay stone upon stone, each in its 
 proper place, as the mighty plan becomes gradually revealed and 
 simple laborers, who can do nothing more than hew out of the rock 
 and bring to the builders the material destined for the structure. 
 In their appointed sphere of service the last are as important and 
 as useful as the first. The main thing that is required of them is 
 that they shall offer nought but sound material to be incorporated 
 in the pile that no spurious and valueless stones be permitted to 
 fill positions from which they must presently be rejected. 
 
 At intervals of centuries there appear the wonderful intellects 
 the BACONS and the NEWTONS by whom (themselves sometimes 
 accomplishing much sometimes very little in the details of sci- 
 entific research) the whole course of scientific progress is changed, 
 and the direction of successful intellectual effort pointed out to 
 their fellow-men. Then we have at all times, and more especially 
 in these modern days, many strong and active minds busily devo- 
 ting themselves to the establishment of new that is, unrecog- 
 
36 CJiemistry Applied to the Arts. 
 
 nized laws of nature, determining and putting together in the 
 form of principles the mutual relations of the facts which they 
 find for the most part already known, but which have hitherto 
 been more or less isolated and without order. And, lastly, we 
 have a far greater number of thinkers, observers, and experiment- 
 ers who occupy themselves with simply ascertaining and recording 
 facts themselves. These last do good and honorable service. 
 
 No fact, however apparently trivial and insignificant, is desti- 
 tute of value, provided only it be really a fact really a fragment, 
 however small, of the eternal truth of nature. And in the study 
 of nature, it matters not in what direction, no man can acquire 
 the power and the habit of accurate, original, practical observa- 
 tion without now and then coming across facts that are new, that 
 should be recorded and preserved, and that may in the future, 
 if not immediately turn out to be of the utmost interest, 
 importance, and practical value. 
 
 I have tried Gentlemen to place before your minds some 
 ideas with regard to a particular department of natural science to 
 point out some of the motives which invite our attention to it 
 to define to some extent its proper limits to indicate in general 
 terms the method of its study and to suggest some of the 
 errors and misapprehensions which occasionally prevail with regard 
 to it. 
 
 In conclusion, I would not, by altogether failing to notice the 
 noblest light in which it may be viewed, be guilty of what, in the 
 memorable words of BACON,* is " the greatest error of all the rest 
 the mistaking or misplacing of the last or farthest end of knowl- 
 edge for " says he : 
 
 " Men have entered into a desire of learning and knowledge, sometimes 
 upon a natural curiosity, and inquisitive appetite ; sometimes to entertain 
 their minds with variety and delight ; sometimes for ornament and reputa- 
 tion ; and sometimes to enable them to victory of wit and contradiction ; 
 and most times for lucre and profession ; and seldom sincerely to give a 
 true account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and use of men: as if 
 there were sought in knowledge a couch, whereupon to rest a searching 
 and restless spirit ; or a terras, for a wandering and variable mind to walk 
 up and down with a fair prospect ; or a tower of state, for a proud mind to 
 raise itself upon ; or a fort or commanding ground, for strife and conten- 
 tion ; or a shop, for profit or sale ; and not a rich store-house, for the glory 
 of the Creator, and the relief of man's estate." 
 
 * Of the Advancement of Learning Book I. 
 
Chemistry Applied to the Arts. 37 
 
 If the department of knowledge which we have been discussing 
 is peculiarly concerned with the "relief of man's estate," it is 
 4ilso peculiarly well fitted to raise up in our minds the remem- 
 brance, with gratitude and reverence, of Him who has bestowed 
 upon us all the good gifts of nature, with the highest gift of all 
 reason, wherewith to discern their uses and avail ourselves of 
 their benefits who has committed into our hand the beasts of 
 the field, the trees of the forest, the treasures of the dark mine 
 .and the fruitful soil, all that we need to surround ourselves with 
 -comfort and with beauty and who, at the same time, teaching 
 us humility, has himself so clothed the lilies of the field as that 
 .SOLOMON in all his glory was not like them arrayed. 
 
38 Chemistry Applied to the Art*. 
 
 AJCXDENDUM. 
 
 Since the above lecture was delivered the attention of the writer 
 has been drawn to the following recently published statements with 
 regard to the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures of Paris, which 
 are interesting as placing in a distinct and positive light the practical 
 results of technical education in France : 
 
 "The Ecole Centrale is now, perhaps, the most celebra- 
 ted school of applied sciences in the world, and so great have been the 
 services it has rendered that M. MICHEL CHEVALIER once said: 'If the 
 Ecole Centrale were not in existence, it would be necessary to create it a& 
 the complement of the treaties of commerce.' 
 
 It has 500 pupils, and the number of applications for admission is always 
 twice as large as the actual vacancies. The period of study occupies three 
 years, and the pupils are obliged to take up all the subjects comprised in 
 the course. It is thoroughly adapted to industrial science, the first year 
 being on theoretical subjects, and the second and third on theory and ap- 
 plication to practice. The heads of the subjects of these two years are: 
 applied mechanics ; the construction and erection of machinery ; analyti- 
 cal, industrial, and agricultural chemistry ; civil engineering ; natural 
 philosophy in its application to the arts; metallurgy; mineralogy; geology: 
 and mining. Amongst 2,000 young men who have left this school, the 
 career of 1,394 has been recently traced, and the issue was this: 247 had 
 died, while of the others 480 were engineers or superior officers of railways; 
 54 were mechanical engineers; 124 iron masters; 280 manufacturers of 
 considerable eminence ; 55 were architects ; 35 contractors for public 
 works ; and 42 professors of the applied sciences. The rest filled honoura- 
 ble posts in trade or in the service of the French and foreign governments. 
 The names of some of the engineers and manufacturers are widely known. 
 It would be impossible in any country to account more satisfactorily for 
 any 2,000 pupils of any school or college 
 
 . . . Throughout France there is but one opinion of the value of the 
 diploma of the Ecole Centrale. Whether those who hold it become chem- 
 ists, or metallurgists, or contractors, they are everywhere found to be 
 thoroughly well-prepared men, intelligent as draughtsmen, and ready in 
 the application of their theoretical knowledge." 
 
 Article on "Technical and Scientific Education" in the Edinburgh Review for April, 1808.. 
 (Am. ed.) pp. 227-228.