Chemical Digest OVER-SOLD CHEMISTRY James Harvey Robinson, in his little book "Humanizing Knowledge," pays tribute to the scientist who seeks to bridge the gap between the thinking of the research worker and that of the lay public. In chemistry, efforts in that direction have, in one respect, miscarried. I t would seem that too generally the net result of such efforts has been to give the uncritical, miracle-loving public an over-confidence in the omnipotence of scientists in general and of chemists in particular. A short time ago, a well-known chemist told of a smoking-car conversation with a "successful business man". . .college graduate as well. . .during which the possible effect of a shortage in our liquid and gaseous fuel was under discussion. The chemist was returning from the spring (1927) meeting of the American Chemical Society a t Tulsa, Okla. He had heard much of oil and gas a t that meeting and from what he heard was concerned over the outlook. The business man, on the contrary, with more faith in science than Moses had in the effect of his magic upon Pharaoh, dismissed the whole matter with the remark, "When the time really comes, we need not worry. The chemist will readily create a substitute for gasoline which will probably be even better than what we are now using." A friend of the writer, a dean in one of the larger midwestern state universities, was professor of biochemistty before he was called to administrative work. A short time ago this dean was approached by a practicing physician, a graduate of a reputable college of medicine, with the question, "What is the effect of mercury upon b l o o d ? W h e n the dean demurred and suggested that there was probably much more yet to learn than was known in regard to the chemistry of blood and mercury, he was rewarded by a veritable flood of invectives to the effect that a chemist should know all about such things and ought to be removed for incompetence when he showed such ignorance. One wonders, when such attitudes, even granted they are somewhat exceptional, are found among college-trained men, what must be the attitude of men with less breadth of training? Especially when so much of our "newspaper science" is played up under such titles as "Mercury Transmuted into Gold;" "Lo, the Chemical Revolution;" "The Physical Chemist Plans New Metals as an Engineer Plans a Bridge;" "Uncle Sam Has His 'House of Miracles;' " and others in a similar vein, appealing as they do not to the rational but to the primeval in man. In line with what has been said, the following is quoted from an address
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDU~TION
MAY,1928
by Doctor Frank C . Whitmore upon Chemistry and the Institute of Politics (Chemical Bulletin, Feb., 1927, page 39) : A good deal was done a t the Institute of Politics a t Williamstown, Mass., in selling chemistry to the public. The general public already knew a good deal about chemistry Many but there seemed t o be a general impression that chemistry was magic. people seemed to believe that the chemist really could do anything he wanted t o and what was needed as soon as the demand do i t right away and that if he failed to supply ~arose it was either because of laziness or just plain meanness. I t is our fault that the public has that feeling about chemistry. We have shown them its magic and little else. It is time now to show them there is something mom-that i t usually requires a lot of hard work and a reasonable amount of time and capital before the chemist is able to perform magic. We must continue to impress the people with the fact that we can do things for them, but we must also make them see that we are not able to meet their demands as soon as they arise unless we have had the opportunity to work on them for a while beforehand.
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I believe there are a host of other chemists who feel quite as Doctor Whitmore upon this matter. They, with the writer, feel there should be a conscious effort made to get the public out of the attitude which associates chemists with wizards, magicians, and other medieval superstitions. We meet this in our freshmen; we meet it in the doctors, some of whom expect a chemist t o be omniscient in the field of chemistry, and we meet i t even in our educated business man who views the world's dwindling fuel supply without alarm because "the chemist will find a substitute."
