A PIONEER IN AN UNKNOWN REALM.
Thus, either present elements are the true elements, or there is a probability of eventually obtaining some more high and general power of Nature, even than electricity; and which, at the same time, might reveal to us an entirely new grade of the elements of matter, now hidden from our view and almost from our suspicion.—The Nature of the Chemical Elements. Faraday, 1836.
A mysterious force exists in the vibrations of the ether, called sound, which science and invention have so far failed to utilize; but which, no doubt in the near future, will come under man’s control, for driving the wheels of industry.—Thought as Force. E. S. Huntington.
Force and forces—
No end of forces! Have they mind like men?
Browning.
The Spectator, commenting on the jubilee of the Chemical Society, last year, said it was notable for two remarkable speeches; one by Lord Salisbury, and the other by Sir Lyon Playfair. Lord Salisbury reminded his hearers that about one hundred years ago, a very celebrated tribunal had informed Lavoisier that the French Republic had no need of chemists; “but,” said his Lordship, “Lavoisier, though a man of very advanced opinions, was behind this age.” Lord Salisbury proceeded to exalt chemistry as an instrument of the higher educational discipline. Astronomy, he said, was hardly more than a science of things that probably are; for, at such distance in space, it was impossible to verify your inferences. Geology he regarded as a science of things as they probably were; verification being impossible after such a lapse of time. But chemistry he treated as a science of things as they actually are at the present time. The Spectator remarks:—Surely that is questionable. All hypothesis is more or less a matter of probability. No one has ever verified the existence of atoms.
Sir Lyon Playfair, following Lord Salisbury, said, Boyle has been called the father of chemistry and the brother of the Earl of Cork; ironically hinting, perhaps, that Lord Salisbury was reflecting as much immediate glory on chemistry, by his interest in it, as did the relationship of the first considerable chemist to the Irish earl. Sir Lyon, acknowledging the revolutionizing progress of chemistry, remarked that within the last fifty years it had seen great changes; then, oxygen was regarded as the universal lover of other elements; and nitrogen was looked upon as a quiet, confirmed bachelor; but oxygen had turned out to be a comparatively respectable bigamist, that only marries two wives at a time; and nitrogen had turned out to be a polygamist; generally requiring three conjugates, and sometimes five, at a time. The false teachings of physicists in the past were admitted, including Sir Lyon’s own errors; his old conceptions concerning carbonic acid and carbonic oxide all having broken down, under the crushing feet of progress. After all, says the Spectator, it seems that the French revolutionists should have welcomed chemistry, instead of snubbing it, for it has been the most revolutionary of sciences.
At the present time, notwithstanding the experiences of the past, Science stands as calmly on the pedestal, to which she has exalted herself, as if not even an earthquake could rock its foundations. In her own opinion, she holds the key to nature’s domains. Some few there are who are ready to admit that it is possible Nature still holds the key herself; and who are not unwilling to encounter another revolution, if they can extend their knowledge of Nature’s laws; even though it may leave only ruins, where now all is supposed to be so solid as to defy earthquakes and other revolutionizing forces.
In reviewing the history of the onward march of chemistry in the past, we find that Robert Boyle, who lived from 1627 to 1691, was the first chemist who grasped the idea of the distinctions between an elementary and a compound body. He has been called the first scientific chemist, and he certainly did much to advance chemical science, particularly in the borderland of chemistry and physics, but he did this more by his overthrow of false theories, than in any other way. It was left for Scheele (born 1742), an obscure Swedish chemist whose discoveries extended over the whole range of chemical science, and his French contemporary, Lavoisier (born 1743), to bring about a complete revolution in chemistry. Thus, step by step, and period by period, experimental science has prepared the way to reach that elevation which humanity is destined eventually to attain, when all errors have been discarded and truth reigns triumphant. The question has been asked, in view of the past history of discovery, what may not the science of the future accomplish in the unseen pathways of the air? That still unconquered field lies before us, and we know that it is only a question of time when man will hold dominion there with as firm sway as he now holds it on land and sea.