The Romance of Modern Chemistry

PREFACE PROBABLY most people, when they think of Chemistry, suppose that its fascination and its practical bearings can be appreciated only by those who have access to some sequestered laboratory, the doors of which are closed to the uninitiated. This is a mistaken view, for in countless wonderful ways, unknown to the general reader, chemical science is supplying the ordinary needs and contributing to the conveniences of modem life. In the present volume an attempt has been made to deal with this aspect of the subject, and the points of view adopted are different from those of the ordinary text- book. The author ventures to think that those readers who have no technical knowledge may be convinced that radium and other things which figure so largely in the newspapers are by no means the only scientific matters of thi’illing interest; and perhaps even readers who are already familiar with the elements of the science may be helped to see afresh the many unsuspected and marvellous ways in which chemical forces are at work beneath our very eyes. The chapters are so arranged that the reader who