Evening star., 1919-02-23

is.
were utilized in quantity production.
But there officialism stepped In. We
had available efficient poison gases in
quantities undreamed of by the. Ger
mans. The fact that this material.
loaded in American shells, did not
reach the front In time to save the
many lives which were sacrificed in
clearing, for instance. the forest OF
Argonne without gas, was in no sense
the fault of the American chemist
Such episodes, among others, in
dicate clearly to me that the great
work of searching chemistry for it's
undiscovered medical treasures must
not be conducted by the government,
but can be done best by private en-
terprise. This, ] think, Will prove
true with regard to other things as
well but that is neither here nor
there. 1t may be that In some dis
ciplined countries the socialist idea
might work out. 1t never would IN
the United States, where every man is
trained to individualism.
But it is certain that If we are to
lead the world, we must Systematize
all our science, and perhaps our
chemistry needs systematization to
a greater extent than any other
branch.
been made by men VIII, conceived
one idea at a time and worked at
1t with an Unexampled devotion. ig-
noring side-liues and doubtless often
missing values because neither they
nor any one else could follow up the
paths half opened, Gradually, how
ever, chemistry in the United States
has been approaching the basis which
might be made the foundation for
true advance. This must consist of
systema les, thorough research made
under conditions which assure thor
ough exploration of any side llne
which may open, and the certainty
that for each result the true reason
viii be assigned
"
That will mark the difference be
tween the true science of the future
and the haphazard science of the
past. Some wonderful things have
been accomplished by haphazard
science. and / mean no disrespect to
them or those who have achieved
them; but / am absolutely certain
that fully systematized science de-
veloped in chemistry under the most
favorable possible circumstances
quickly would take us to results
which at present have not been
dreamed of even, and I sincerely hope
that the glory of such advance VIII
belong to our country.
1.-THE Indians who occupied this land
when Christopher Columbus landed
at San Salvador already had certain
pharmacopae Among the substances
which it included were some OF value,
but mostly they were useless The
untutored savages had tried one thing
after another. when illness visited
which they thought produced ia
vorable result. From that sprang their
AS matter of fact, their
methods were not so very different
from our own or those of any other
nation you can name today
STUDY the history of chemistry and
be astonished by the truth OF this.
Chemistry has diverged from medi-
cine amazingly Scientific research
has been resorted to In industrial
chemistry. not in medicinal chemistry.
While there has been minute and
systematic search Of every possible
fertile field for dyestuffs. there has
been no such search for remedies to
save the lives of those who wear the
garments which the dyestuffs tint.
Undoubtedly the result of this has
been untold suffering which might
have been prevented and tremen-
dous unnecessary loss of life. The in
dustrial cost Of this has been beyond
belief and the psychological cost has
been still greater.
The neglect of chemistry as a field
for medical study may have been to
some extent an accident 1t happened
that series Of great geniuses devel-
oped in group and thrust their gem
ius into bacteriology. Their great
achievements hynotized the scientific
world. Brains by hundreds volun-
teered to serve beneath the standard
they had chosen, That of chemistry,
which had not been brought to the
tore so strikingly, was forgotten for
the time. 1t must head mighty regi-
ments in days to come and they will
march to startling victories tending
to give health and happiness as the
deVotees of industrial chemistry have
given wealth to humanity.
"Practically nothing in this most
important Of all fields has been done,
The coal-tar drug industry was not an
outGrowth of true search for chemi-
cal medicine. but was an offshoot of
the dye induStry--a means Of utilizing
its by-products, The production OF
synthetic coal-tar medical substances
had no scientific basis 1t was found
ed by the German genius for utiliz-
ing waste in some form. which, by ad-