, 1888-02-24
NEW DISCOVERIES IN CHEMISTRY.
Chemical Reproductions of the Valuable

Reproductions of the Valuable
Principles In Natural Products.
1t will be a long time before the farmer
finds himself supplanted by the chemical
laboratory in the production of such com
modities MS sugar, tea, alcohol, drugs and
dye stuffs, though sanguine chemists tell
us that the recent triumphs of their sci
c indicate the probability that these
and other articles will some day be prof
itably produced from purely inorganic
materials. Synthetic chemistry, or the
forming of compounds by recombina-
tions of chemical elements, is making
steady progress, and lbs already affected
agriculture.
Mr.. Robert Hugh Mills, in a.recent lect-
ure, called attention to the fact that the
cultivation of madden has been almost de-
stroyed by the chemical discovery that its
identical coloring matter can be cheaply
produced from coal tar. The production
of indigo is also threatened by an arti-
fetal production which the chemists nave
discovered. A while ago it was found
that the cinchona tree could be profitably
planted in India, and n fine new field of
industry was believed to have opened for
the farmers OF that country. Scores of
chemists, however, have been at work
uPon the synthesis of ~quinine, and their
researches have advanced so far that the
prediction is now confidently made that
the manufacture of the principle of
quinine will o be a commercial sue
cess, and that cinchona planting will be-
come n thing of the past. These chemi-
cal reproductions of the valuable princi-
pies inherent in natural products are often
easier to handle and utilize thar the prod
ucts from which they nave hitherto been
derived, and thus the tendency of manu-
features is to substitute artificial for
natural sources of supply.
The problem of sugar making from in
organic materials has engaged some
chemists for a number of years. The
s~ynthesis of glucose by Fischer and Tafel
is said to promise an ample supply of
this commodity without the aid of grapes
or starch. Two years ago somo German
chemists announced that they had pro-
duced saccharose, the equivalent of cane
sugar, by passing al electric current
through a mixture of starch, sulphuric
acid and water. Nothing has yet been
heard of the commercial value of this
new product, and there is no reason to
think it will prove a dangerous rival to
the sweets we derive from the cane and
the beet. Some sugar growers, however,
have been prophesying for years that
something would happen to ruin the
sugar industry, and their alarm receives
a fresh impetus at every new discovery
like that of Remsen's saccharine, an ex-
ceedingly sweet article produced from
coal tar. The day may come when pro-
cesses of sugar making by the use of in
organic materials will seriously affect the
sugar planter, but there is no reason as
yet to believe that his industry will soon
be imperiled.
Legislation has interviewed in some
places to protect the dairy farmer against
oleomargarine, even where this product is
honestly sold IS artificial butter. 1t is
not to be expected that in many cases
where science supplies us with a desirable
substitute for any product, the law can
be successfully invoked to keep the world
from reaping the benefit of increasing
knowledge. Future discoveries may
compel the farmer to cease raising some
produce by which he has thrived, or TO
change and improve his methods of agri-
culture; but it is certain that the tillers
of soil will continue to supply the chief
of food and apparel.-New
York Sun.