The Romance of Modern Chemistry

THE DAWN OF CHEMISTRY vived till the Middle Ages, and in old prints one may see a flask or bottle within which is sketched a representation of the sun. This is to be taken as indicating that the flask or bottle contains a solution of gold. Besides metallurgical operations the processes of soap and glass manufacture, of pottery making, and of dyeing were known and practised, in ancient times. Such sub- stances as lime, acetic acid, sugar, soda, potash, alum, and oil of turpentine were in frequent use. The manufactur- ing processes just mentioned are all essentially chemical, but they were carried out merely by rule of thumb, and not on any scientific plan. This is not to be wondered at, for the practical operations were in the hands of artisans alone, and it was not the correct thing for the philosophers of the ancient world to bring their wisdom to bear on arts and crafts. There was in fact a complete divorce between the practical and. the theoretical, and therefore no real science; the educated people did not come into touch with the experimental facts on which alone a science could be soundly based. The proper sphere of philosophers was considered to be speculation pure and simple, and to such purpose did they speculate on casual observations that the most grotesque theories were evolved, quite out of harmony with actual facts. An instance of the sort of thing to which this purely speculative science led is furnished by an argument of the eminent philosopher Aristotle. As a result of some of his speculations he came to the con- clusion that a vessel filled with ashes would contain as much water as one of the same size which has no ashes in it. But there was absolutely no desire to see whether this was actually the case or not. These philosophers in fact stood on the threshold of Nature’s storehouse, 19