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GROSSBOTHEN, an hour's ride from Leipzig, stands in the gracious settmg of a wooded park an extensive country place to which its owner, Wilhelm Ostwald, when he established his residence there in 1906, gave a name that seemed a contradicWilhelm Ostwald tion of its peaceful natural environment, "Energie." Ostwald was then 53 years old and had just retired from the active professorship of physical chemistry a t the University of Leipzig. Few commentators have failed to read into the naming of his new home the devotion of Ostwald t o the tireless force which had actuated his work as an experimenter, a teacher, and an organizer of science. I t may well have been a challenge t o his future by a man, who, scarcely past his prime, had already laid the record of an average lifetime of much more than ordinary accomplishment and who was deliberately turning his remarkable gifts into new fields. Ostwald received his early training in the Polish city of Riga, which was his birthplace. A diversity of interests unrelated t o institutional routine retarded his progress in the preliminary schools, but after the application of a little parental moral suasion, applied himself to his work for the doctorate, which he received from the University of Dorpat a t the age of twenty-three. His first post was as assistant in physics a t this university, which he left in 1881 for a professorship a t Riga. Here he began his work on affinity constants, and the novelty of his investigations and their results attracted the notice of Wislicenus, through whose interest Ostwald was called to Leipzig in 1887. In the science of chemistry, the year and the event are the symbol of revolution, for the establishment of the school of physical chemistry by Ostwald a t Leipzig was coincident with his sponsoring of the cause of Arrhenius, who in that year pronounced the theory of electrolytic dissociation a t which Ostwald had himself arrived by a different method of approach. With Arrhenius and van't Hoff he arrayed his school of thought against the empiricals who made up the world of chemistry of that day, and with the aid of the collaborators and students who flocked to his standard, his was the victory-empirical chemistry became a science. It is difficult to relate within a narrow compass the work of Ostwald during the ensuing decade. Its remarkable variety is not t o he explained by the unusual physical and mental strength that supported its volume, but bespeaks an altogether uncommon intellectual capacity for generalization and organization t o account for its power in versatility. His career as a teacher was preeminent in its immediate success and its far-reaching influence. As evidence, one need but mention the names of a few of these who have been proud to claim an intellectual sonshipBeckmann, who is associated with the construction of the thermometric apparatus demanded by the new theories of measurement, Walden who 731
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worked in Ostwald's laboratory on solvents and abnormal electrolytes, Nernst, who studied the primary cell, the solution tensions of metals, the nature of saturated solutions, and the chemistry of thermodynamic relations, and LeBlanc, who laid the foundations of electrochemistry. Ostwald's editorship of the Zeitschrift far physikalische Chemie, which in association with van't Hoff and others he organized in 1887 as the mouthpiece of the Leipzig school of physical chemistry, and the first issue of which contained the papers by van't Hoff and Arrhenius which were the battle-cry of the new era, contmned until the publication of its hundredth volume in 1922. In addition to his duties as editor of this invaluable repository of scientific progress, he contributed to its numbers and to his texts a vast literature covering his own investigations on the law of dilution, solution conductivity, absorption of light by solutions, the theory of indicators, the work on allotropy, valence, and catalysis. No account of Ostwald would do justice to him without listing the textbooks through which his influence as a teacher spread. The first volume of the "Lehrbuch der Allgemeinen Chemie" appeared in his early teaching days at Riga; subsequent volumes and editions continued to come out in a rapid succession that was yet not rapid enough to keep up with the march of the science. In the "Grundlinien der Anorganischen Chemie" he advocated the logic of teaching ionic chemistry in fundamental courses. The "Physiko-Chemische Messungen" gave a unified discussion of the new physical chemical methods, many of which he had himself devised. His peculiar genius in selection was revealed to particular advantage in the "Klassiker Exakten Wissenschaften," which he planned and helped to organize, and which he edited for many years. Of particular interest to Americans is the service Ostwald rendered science in rescuing from comparative oblivion the work of Willard Gibbs on thermodynamics. Through the translation of these papers into German, Ostwald introduced the fame of Gibhs into Europe and materially advanced the American scientist's honor in his own country. In 1909, Ostwald was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry "in recognition of his works on catalysis, as well as for his investigations into the fundamental principles governing chemical equilibrium and rates of reaction." After his retirement from teaching, Ostwald continued his scientific work, but carried his amazing versatility outside the field of science. His interests have been artistic, philosophic, and social, and he makes it plain in his autobiography that he considers his services in these lines by no means inferior t o his scientific achievements. Blessed with a family who recognize the just demands of genius by lifting from him the burden of material cares, he spends his latter years in the applica-
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tion of his ripe experience t o a multiplicity of pursuits which give him a right to the title, "a full man," if ever a man deserved it. The Journal of Chemical Education acknowledges its indebtedness to
Mr. Sederholm, managing director of Nobelstiftelsen, Stockholm, Sweden, for the accompanying photograph of Wilhelm Ostwald.
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CARCELY any one will read the article on the chemical section of the Deutsches Museum which appears elsewhere in these pages without experiencing some curiosity concerning the man who founded that famous institution and who, at the age of 75, still Showman and devotes t o it a vigor and enthusiasm which might be Educator envied by many a man of half his years. How did he come by the idea originally? How did he contrive to give it concrete form? What special qualities and experiences prepared him to succeed so signally in this great and unusual undertaking? Such questions occur to one in passing and more often than not remain unanswered, either because of the pressure of other interests and duties, or through sheer inertia. It seemed to us a happy coincidence, therefore, that we chanced upon a sketch by Ishbell Ross in the magazine section of the Baltimore Sunday S u n shortly after Professor Prandtl's manusaipt had been set in type. Dr. Oskar van Miller, so the writer tells us, came of forebears who had been prominent in Bavaria for two generations. His grandfather was director of the Academy of Art in Munich; his father was a skilled worker in metals and a personality well known throughout Munich long before he cast the bronze figure in the Bavarian Ring which brought him his chief fame. As a boy von Miller showed little aptitude for classical studies but he had a pronounced mechanical bent. His father, taking note of these facts, sent him to the Technische Hochschule to be educated in engineering. After graduation he entered the civil service and occupied a succession of posts which brought him into first-hand contact with many of the prohlems of his profession. At the Electro-Technical Exposition in Paris he saw the first of Edison's incandescent lamps to be shown in Europe and became an enthusiastic believer in the future of electricity. Shortly afterward he was the leading spirit in the organization of an electrical exhibit in Munich. In 1891 he took charge of an industrial exposition a t Frankfurt and no doubt learned much about the necessities of an industrial museum which later stood him in good stead. The writer continues: When he k s t visioned his industrial museum he went to work with an immense
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energy and concentration that swept aside all obstacles and made i t possible for him to realize his dream, not with slow steps, but with swift, seven-league strides. I n 1903 he laid his conception before a convocation of the leading engineers, scientists, and industrinltsts of (>rrmlny. Hr pointed nut to thrm that t h e priwiplr of letting t h r pu1,lic rxyrr!ment on itiown account was to be npplit4 to the iullrst crtcnt throughout his projected museum. His enthusiasm awakened a response. Within a year the museum was under way. mew like maric. From its beginning the museum - The rulers of the German states and municipalities, as well as manufacturers, scientists, and engineers, contributed exhibits or money. Even the building material was .~ a r . t l vdonated bv industni and the unions gave their labor. Eventually, i t was possible to assemble 60,000 machines, models, pictures, and other exhibits. The exhibits were so arranged that as the visitor traversed the nine miles of corridor he walked from one century of industrial progress to another, from the first wheel to the completed locomotive, from a replica of the Wright airplane to the latest type of dirigibles sustained and fascinating record of man's mechanical success. At first the collections were housed in the old building of the Bavarian National Museum, but in 1911 the island of Insel, in the River Isar, was presented by the city and carefully prepared plans for a large and comprehensive set of buildings were developed. They were virtually completed in 1913, hut the World War delayed the actual task of removing and installing the collections. The museum was formally opened on May 6. 1925, its extensive buildings of reinforced concrete housing the most complete record in existence of the age of mechanical progress.
It is characteristic of Dr. von Miller that no new exhibit is assured of a permanent place in the museum until i t has passed the test of ability to arouse public interest. The original display on nutrition was thrown out bodily and the present group substituted. The room devoted to the chemistry of digestion soon became, and still is, one of the most popular in the museum. The ideas embodied in the Deutsches Museum have been amply justified in the minds of all who have had the privilege of visiting that famous institution. Happily they are taking root elsewhere and the beginnings of similar collections of exhibits are already springing up in America. The time should come when every great metropolis has its scientific and industrial museum. These probably would not be. and they should not be, exact duplicates of each other. The resources and activities of the regions surrounding them might well determine which fields were to receive greatest emphasis in each. Historical exhibits need not necessarily be duplicated save where they involve replicas of original machines and apparatus. In the illustration of scientific principles the ingenuity and originality of directors and their staffs might well lead to numerous different methods of presentation.
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N DISCUSSIONS of modern civilization and its problems one frequently encounters the intimation that science is non-moraloccasionally, that i t is destructive of morality. Is there any basis for
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such a charge and, if so, how seriously should it be taken? If morality is conceived to be a matter of taboos and fetishes there can he little doubt that science is a destructive force. However, it is well to remember that there is no intrinsic demerit in destruction: one must consider the nature of the thing destroyed. After all, the difference between construction and destruction is often a mere trick of language. Almost any idea may he phrased either positively or negatively, according to choice. Indeed one cannot affirm a truth without in effect denying the contrary untruth. If the critics of science can lay no more damaging charge than that the discoveries of science or the wider influence of the scientific attitude of mind have made some of our social mores look a bit ridiculous and outmoded, we need not he greatly disturbed by what they have to say. Perhaps, though, we are propping up a straw man hardly capable of standing alone when we consider this possible aspect of the question at all. I t might be better to eschew cynicisms and half-truths and to agree upon a more generally acceptable working definition of morality. Possibly we shall come as close to such a definition as may he if we say that morality is that mode of conduct which promotes the common good. From this point of view it seems that the possession of good morals is not entirely a matter of good intentions. It is necessary to be well informed in addition to being well disposed. This idea, we believe, might reasonably be construed as lending support to the thesis that science is friendly rather than inimical or neutral to morality. For science has taught us a great deal about the manner in which our conduct affects the common good. We no longer consider it moral to locate a cess-pool where it will contaminate a neighbor's well, or to permit a typhoid carrier to handle food products. A hundred years ago we were unaware that such offenses existed. Three hundred years ago we hung witches for exercising the baleful powers of the evil eye. Furthermore, one may reasonably maintain that science encourages to some extent the disposition to act ethically. For, as Huxley and others, before and since, have remarked, science demonstrates the general principle that in the long run the individual best serves his own interests by acting in promotion of the common good. And certainly science has confirmed rather than contradicted the warning that "the wages of sin is death." I t may be objected that to appeal to self-interest or to the fear of punishment is t o place motivation upon a low plane. Yet religion, always the champion of morality, has never disdained to employ these appeals. The chief difference is that, whereas religion promises rewards and punishments in a hypothetical hereafter, science promises them more or less immediately, and is able to point her promises with numerous concrete object lessons.
Science and
