New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-07-21
The Men Who Were Curious.

The Men Who Were Curious.
| Some of them lived long ago when
the world was young. before men mad
l.studied so deeply into it, and Their
minds were filed with wonder and awe
at the mysteries they saw all around
| them; some of which are plain enough.
to us now, but others remain mysteries
still.
To these men all things are plainly
! divided into four classes of matter:
Earth, air. fire and water. These they
called elements or simple bodies, and
| in all of them they saw strange things
which they could not understand. They
spoke of the elements warning with
one another when they saw fire in the
form of lightning flash through the air,
when the storm wind whirled up the
dust from the earth. and the waters OF
the sea dashed furiously against the
shore.
But there were other changes, I'M
ceasing changes, more impressive even
than the storm, though they were silent
and slow.
Why did the fire consume the wood
and change it, apparently. into air;
and why will it not burn when the air
is Shut off from it? Why does the tree
decay and disappear from sight when it
falls? Why is the water falling from
the cloud more soft and pure than that
floxing in the stream, and why does
sea water leave a white salt when
evaporstcd?
Why is one plant cure for disease,
while another growing beside it is q
deadly poison?
Why do some BITS of earth keep al
ways bright and hard. while others soon
grow dull and crunbie away?
When innumerable questions such AS
these, which our boys and girls ask
every day, We're brought up in those
days, there were none could answer.
So those men Of noble curiosity set
themselves to observe, investigate and
experiment on these secrets of nature,
and were callei Alchcn1ists (people who
look into hidden thngs), from an old
Arabic word which means hidden or
secret.
1t is claimed by many that this name
was derived from Greek word mean
ing JUICE of plants. If this is true it
is still appropriate, for one of the first
things the alchcmists studied was the
medicinal properties of plants that they
might know '.all that was healing and
sweet in field OF wood,'' for they were
the physicians as we'll as the chemists
of their times.
There is something almost pathetic
in the picture of these men in their
plain garb working patiently under al
their disadvantages, hoping against re-
peated disappontments, giving anxious
days and sleepless nights to toll only &c
find, in many cases, their labor frutless.
1t makes one almost culver to sec
how near they often were to some great
truth-some fact that would throw ;
flood of light into their dim researches
but how often they missed it from the
lack of some simple underlying princi
pie of which they were ignorant!
The want of suitable implements wa;
also Il great hindrance in their work
Instead OF the complete apparatus 1ol
conducting all sorts of experiments.
which we have in our laboratories ant
workshops now. their utensils were O
the rudest pattern, and they had no
the means for obtaining acc,lrat.
weights and measures-an inportan
part of scientific investigation.
Notwithstanding all these obstacle!
men worked on year after year, life af
ter life, one taking up the thread where
another dropped it, each generation
gaining new light and leaving those
who followed to profit, not only b,
tacir discoveries, but also by thei]
mistakes. Great discoveries came slow
ly in the scientific world, and it was on
ly at long intervals that startling rev
Citations were made. but the unwilling
of one mystery opened the way to man,
others, SO that in the course of man,
hundred of years Il great, confused mas.
of facts relating to natural science hae
become known. and the knowledge
was often applied to useful purposes
which is G1t-hnowledge applied t.
practice; but it is only within the las
century OF two that these disconnected
aud scattered truths have been gather
I'd up and united so as to form one
clearly defined bod,,-, which is science
I knowledge systemmatizcd.
Time has changed the name alchemy
through some variations. to chemistry
rs we now write it, but the science is
still full of hidden riches, and the chem
ist is still the man who looks into it's Sc.
| crctS-MIr0nret r. HOns!O72 ~, tin