VOL.5, No. 9
RELATION OF C ~ M I S T R TOYENRICWNTOF LIFE
1067
It too has felt the hand of the chemist, for the metal f r o m which i t is made has been subjected to suitable chemical processes. The service of Chemistry, the Liberator, is making man's life inimeasurably richer and fuller year by year. From his weak shoulders it is lifting a load of poverty and dependence upon the earth. It is making him free, the master of nature. Chemistry is dispelling disease and pain and leaving m a n whole and strong and happy. Its power is gradually lifting him from the oppression of his fellows and the darker oppression of ignorance. A n d the glory of Chemistry's work is that it never ceases, b u t w i t h every month, every year adds some new 'factor to t h e uplifting and enriching of t h e life of humanity.
Bibliography "Creative Chemistry." by Edwin E. Slasson. "The Life of Pasteur," by R. Vallery-Radot. "Science Remaking the World," by Otis W. Caldwell and Edwin E. Slosson. "The Future Independence and Progress of American Medicine in the Age of Chemistry."
Using Science to Brown Cookies. Just how brown is the "golden brown" cookie of the recipe books and how does it get that way? Three scientists, Prof. C. H. Bailey, Eva L. Stephens, and Alice M. Child, of the Minnesota Experiment Station, have found a way to tell and have reported it to the American Association of Cereal Chemists. An instrument called a spectropbotometer i5 used to measure the color quantitatively. The reflection of light from the cookies is compared with that from a standard of a certain degree of brownness, and the color of the cookies is determined by mathematics. The color of the cookies depends somewhat on the color of the molasses, as every cook knows. Also, increasing the amount of the baking soda makes the cookies darker as does increased temperature of baking. By the use of this instrument it is possible to determine the difference in color of baked products which results from changing the recipe or the time or temperature of baking.-Science Senrice Borax Discovered to Be Deadly to Mosquito Larvae. Borax has had another use added to the long List of things it is good for, by Prof. Robert Matheson and E. H. Hinman of Cornell University. They have discovered that a concentration of one and one-half parts in a thousand of water is very quickly fatal to the larvae, or "wigglers," of mosquitoes that breed in rainwater barrels, cisterns, and other exposed reservoirs. The borax seems to hold its larvae-killing properties for a long time; one etperiment ran from July 25th to September 7th of last year without any sign of weakening at the end. The two entomologists add however that borax should be used only where its possible effects on other animals and on plant life will he of no consequence. They are of the opinion that a cheap form of the chemical can be successfully marketed for mosquita-fighting purposes. In the course of their experiments they raised large numbers of mosquito larvae, which had to be fed artificially. They state that they found common compressed yeast, such as gws into the collegiate "douhle malted." very good wiggler food.Sciace Service
