The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-01-22

We know now whatwill happen to any
experimentallst if he dips ,blotting- paper
in nitric acid, washes it, dries it, and then
incautiously treads upon it. What hap
pened to the man who is believed-for
his record persisted with him-to have
first discovered illuminate of silver is a
matter Of scientific record. That he was
engaged in researches upon the fulmin-
ates Of the higher metals,wa well known.
How it precisely came about that he dis
appeared as he did will remain a matter
of conjecture. There came one day puff,
slight shock, and smart noise as If |
burst it between his hands Of the |
Professor himself, of his laboratory,
his apparatus, and of much else within |
radius of some yards, not vestige or
trace was left.
So it used to be with the alchemists-
the heritors Of the hidden wisdom Of
Bohne, and Roger Bacon, and Albertus
Magnus. They were always blowing
themselves up, or asphyxiating them
selves which some noxious vapor. For
a man who knews nothing, or next to
nothing, of chemistry, it is very danger
GUS game indeed, to mix together couple
of substances Of which he knows nothing,
and then bray them in a mortar. Com
mon sulphur is harmless stuff enough, so
is charcoal, so is inter; but let an igno.
rant man mix the three and apply light
to them, and the result will astonish him.
When of old an alchemsst was reduced
to fragments in this fashion, our ancestor,
had an easy explanation. He was a
magician, they used to say, and the devil
had come suddenly and had carried him
off. There was time, between the days
of Roger Bacon and those of Davy, Black
and Cavendish, when the foul fend was
thus always carrying off alchemists. We
know now how it happened. If man
goes into the chemical laboratory and
takes up big peaker and pours into it
the contents of the first two bottles that
are ready to his hand, the probabilities
that he will be reduced to atoms on the
spot are sufficiently serious to call for his
careful consideration. " a
Apart from the sad fact that a young
man with bright and brilliant future
before him should be thus suddenly cut
off. the death of Professor Fischer has
+ another moral. Chemistry whatever
Mr.. Lowe my have to say in praise of
t civil engineering-is the science of the
world and of the future. The bridge which
takes the engineer years upon years to con-
t struct the chemist can in so many six
tieths Of second reduce to atoms.
e Chemistry has given the balloon it has
put in our hands gunpowder, nitro. glyce1-
inc, dynamite, and above all, illuminate
n of gold-an explosive so terrible that if
an ounce OF it be left in stoppered bottle
its grains falling among themselves by
their own weight, will create convulslon
sufficient to lay all London in ruins. II
has given US poisons so subtle that-were
's we to employ such means of warfare-we
IS could sail in balloon over the camp Of
it the enemy and drop upon it shell, the
,. bursting of which would kill every human
being within mile of its range.
Then, too, chemistry has given us dis
infectants. To the chemist we owe
- carbolic acid, chloride Of lime and per
- manganate Of potash. Chemists hav,
=, tapght us to disinfect our sewers arc
= drains, to ventilate our houses, to burr
~ gas instead of oil, and to light our street
y, % with what is more powerful than evel
~ gas itself, the electric light. 1t is t
~ chemistry, inoeed, that we owe almost al
= the comforts of everyday life.
- But, on the other hand, the POSSIBLE
= ties of chemistry are almost too terribl
=, - to be contemplated. AS the science q
- present stands any student can, if b
- have access to well-stored laboratory
rs carry away in a pill-box matter suffeien
~ | IN. T inv ~ h
bo whole community of its inhabitants
~. The chemist can, as every schcol'bo
~ knows, convert water into ice in the Ger
~ ter of red-hot crucible. He can cor
NJ struct shell the size of a cricket-ba
III which will explode the moment it touche
10 the water, and overwhelm in flames
}be hostile fleet. Indeed, the chemist reduce
.o1 the world to its original and primal eli
'0 ments. For him, even more than for th
20 engineer, nothing is impossible. An
o. yet his power, vast as it is, is Limited
is' He can more easily destroy than CO,
oh struct. He can take life, but he came
70 give it. He can level the city with tt
th plain, but he cannot build it again. b
- can create prusslc acid, but he is ignoral
NO of its antldote. He is like the fisherms
, who rashly opened the vessel sealed wit
s4a the ring of Suleiman Ben Daoud. TT
&c forces at his control are beyond this COL
,ua mand; the powers he can evoke he ca
- not lay It is the old story of Cornell
Agrippa-those who trife with nature
'o+ secrets do so at their peril.
be- ..s
lch Put to the Test.
an. Not long since, says Peck's Sun, t
7er, 1o1lo"lng utteranceol oop AngeisolA We