Chemical Prefaces HUGH J. McDONALD Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois
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HRISTOPHER MORLEY, in his essay on "Prefaces,"' has said:
"It has long been my conviction that the most graceful function of authorship is the writing of prefaces. What is more pleasant than dashing off those few pages of genial introduction after all the dreary months of spading a t the text? A paragraph or two as t o the intentions of the book; allusions t o the unexpected difficulties encountered during composition; neatly phrased gratitude t o eminent friends who have given gracious assistance; and a touching allusion t o the Critic on the Hearth who has done the indexing. A pious wish to receive criticisms 'in case a second edition should be called for'; your address, and the date, add a homely touch a t the end. "How delightful this bit of pleasant intimacy after the real toil i.; over! I-~ t is like naterfamilias comine out of his house a t ....~. dusk, after thc hard day's work, to read his newspaper on the doorstep. Or it may he a bit bi superh gcsturing. No hook i% complete without a preface. Better a pr~facewithout a bwk ~~~
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Many will agree with this sentiment. In a scientific work a preface should be a graceful introduction, as the pathway to the home, as the extended hand of greeting of the author to his reader, and not a lengthy compilation of acknowledgments and sources. Such matter. belongs rightfully in footnotes or perhaps a t the end of the book. Not that a few acknowledgments have no place in a preface, but rather that the absence of many acknowledgments helps it. Just as a host does not turn from the guest of honor to thank his wife for preparing the dinner, so should an author not leave his wader uoised on the threshold of his book while ac..---knowledging the help of the many friends who contributed to its building. In the preface the author has an oppoitunity to reflect some of his personality and character. Fmm its pemsal the reader will form his opinion of the author as an individual, and of his philosophy and temperament. Whether he is to be remembered as warm and sunlit, or cold and austere, will depend in large measure on the unconscious decision that is then reached. Has there ever been an author who did not wish to obtain the personal esteem of his readers? Yet all too few have taken due advantage of the preface as a means to that end. In the literature of chemistry, a preface that is interesting, and still fresh, although written almost sixty years ago, is that of Dmitri Mendeleeff in his "The Principles of Chemistry." Many of us retain in our memories images of great men, images gained from poor photographs or paintings made late in their lives. In my student days Mendeleeff was envisaged as a very old man seated a t a table in an ill-lighted room, hard a t
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MORLBY."Shandygaff." Garden City Publishing Co., Inc., Garden City. N. Y., 1918.
work on a manuscript. It is difficult from such associations to endow the man with life and accomplishment, but on reading his preface the scientist comes to life-we can hear his voice, see the penetrating glance of his bright blue eyes, and feel the freshness of thought that marked so many of his improvisations of argument for and against each topic he discussed. Two excerpts from this remarkable preface are: "Experimental and practical data occupy their place, hut the philosophical principles of our science form the chief theme of the work. I n former times sciences, like bridges, could only be built by supporting them on a few broad buttresses and long girders. I n addition t o the exposition of the principles of chemistry, it has been my desire to show how science has now been built up like a suspension bridge, supported by the united strength of a number of slender, but firmly fixed, chains, which individually are of little strength, and has thus beencarried over difficulties which before appeared insuperable. I n comparing the science of the past, the present, and the future, in placing the particulars of its restricted experiments side by side with its aspirations after unbounded and infinite truth, and in restraining myself from yielding to a bias towards the most attractive path, I have endeavoured t o incite in the reader a spirit of inquiry, which, dissatisfied with speculative reasonings alone, should subject every idea to experiment, encourage the habit of stubborn work, and excite a search for fresh chains of evidence to complete the bridge aver the bottomless unknown. History proves that it is possible by this means t o avoid two equally pernicious extremes, the Utopian-a visionary contemplation which proceeds from a current of thought only--and the stainant realism which is content with bare facts. Sciences like chemistry, which deal with ideas as well as with material substances, and create a possibilitv of immediately verifying- that which has been or may be discovered or assumed, demonstrate a t every step that the work of the past has availed much, and that without it, it would be impossible to advance into the ocean of the urikhqwn." ~
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Again: "The time has arrived when a knowledge of physics and chemistry forms as important a part of education as that of the classics did two centuries ago. I n those days the nations which excelled in classical learnings stood foremost, just as now the most advanced are those which are superior i n the knowledge of the natural sciences, for they form the strength and characteristic of our times."
Another example of a preface to a work of chemistry, which has called forth expressions of admiration from many readers, is that of Lewis and Randall, to their great work, "Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical substance^,"^ a volume which has probably influencedthe science of chemistry more than any other contribution to chemical literature in America since the ..----time of Willard Gibbs. Some excerpts from this scholarly introduction are: ~~~~
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a L ~ w r AND s RANDALL. "Themodymamics and the free energy of chemical substances," McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc.. New York City. 1923.
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"There are ancient cathedrals which, apart from their consecrated purpose, inspire solemnity and awe. Even the curious visitor speaks of serious things, with hushed voice, and as each whisper reverberates through the vaulted nave, the returning echo seems to bear a message of mystery. The labor of generations of architects and artisans has been forgotten, the scaffolding erected for their toil has long since been removed, their mistakes have been erased, or have became hidden by the dust of centuries. Seeing only the perfection of the completed whole, we are impressedas by somesuperhumanapnc~. But sometimes we enter such an edifice that is still partly under construction; then the sound of hammers, the reek of tobacco, the trivial jests bandied from workman to workman, enable us t o realize that these great structures are but the result of giving to ordinary human effort a direction and a purpose. "Science has its cathedrals. built bv the efforts of a few architccts and of many work
