results in the synthesis of sugar to the last years of the century.
Lillienfeld, in Austria, has gone still further, and has built up a
body which has many of the properties of protein, one of the most
highly organized of organic substances.
[Illustration: SIR HENRY BESSEMER.]
In the inorganic world synthesis is not so difficult a matter as the
vast number of compounds attest. By means of the electric furnace,
Moissan, in France, has succeeded in uniting carbon with many of the
metallic elements, and thus opened the path for new achievements in
passing directly from inorganic to organic compounds.
The progress of chemical synthesis has already blotted out the old
distinction between inorganic and organic chemistry, and we can no
longer say of organic bodies that they are the products of living
cells. Organic bodies are those which contain a carbon or other
elementary skeleton, to which are attached the elements or groups of
elements forming the complete body.
The claim which has been made that synthetical chemistry would in the
near future produce the food of man, and thus relegate agriculture
to the domain of the useless or forgotten arts, is, however, wholly
without scientific foundation. The function of the farmer will not
be usurped by the chemist. The future will see the most important
contributions to chemistry coming from the field of organic chemistry,
but it will also see the farmer following in the furrow, and man
depending for his food on the fields of waving grain.
VI. METALLURGICAL CHEMISTRY.
This is the oldest branch of chemical science, and naturally the
one which was furthest advanced at the beginning of the century.
Nevertheless, the advances which the past one hundred years have seen
in this science are most surprising. Gold and silver are now secured
from ores so poor as to have rendered them of no value a hundred years
ago. The Bessemer process of steel making (1856) has revolutionized the
world, and made possible railroads and steamships. The basic Bessemer
process of making steel from pig-iron rich in phosphorus, has opened up
rich mines of iron ore hitherto valueless. The basic phosphatic slag,
resulting from this process, is of the highest value in the fields,
and has brought agriculture and metallurgy into intimate relationship.
The electric furnace has made aluminium almost as cheap as iron, bulk
for bulk, and electric welding bids fair to take the place of the old
process, with the cheapening of metals.
VII. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.
Sir Humphry Davy, in the beginning of the century, delivered a course
of lectures on the relations of chemistry to agriculture, and these
were published in book form. In France, important contributions
were made to agricultural chemical science by Vauquelin, Chevreul
(1786–1889), and Boussingault (1802–1887), who made important
researches before the middle of the century. The most important work in
agricultural chemistry, however, was done by Liebig. His achievements
so overshadowed those of his predecessors that he is generally
regarded, although improperly, as the father of that branch of the
science.
The early achievements of these workers showed the relatively small
portions of the crops that were derived from the soil. The study
of the ash constituents of plants laid the foundation of rational
fertilizing, and the utilization of the stores of plant food preserved
in great natural deposits.
Beginning with the middle of the century, the attention of agronomists
was called to the desirability of utilizing the deposits of guano,
found in the islands along the west coast of South America; of the
deposits of phosphate rock existing in many localities; and later, of
the potash salts, discovered near Stassfurt, which completed the trio
of available natural foods most useful to plants.
The establishment of an agricultural experiment station by Sir John
Lawes at Rothamstead (1834), before the middle of the century, set an
example which has been followed by the establishment of experiment
stations in all the civilized countries of the world.
Under the great stimulus given to agricultural research by these
stations, progress during the latter half of the century has been very
rapid. There now exist in Europe nearly one hundred stations devoted to
agricultural research, and in this country the number is half as great.
Conspicuous achievements, marking the closing years of the century,
have been the discovery of the methods whereby organic nitrogen is
rendered suitable for plant food, and atmospheric nitrogen fixed and
rendered available by leguminous plants. In the first instance, it has
been established that organic nitrogen in the soil can only be utilized
by plants after it has been oxidized by bacterial action. In the case
of leguminous plants, nitrogen is rendered available for nutrition by
means of bacteria inhabiting nodules in the roots of the legumes. These
two great discoveries have proved of incalculable benefit to practical
agriculture. Chemical science in its relations to agriculture has shown
that the fertility of the soil may be conserved and increased, while
the magnitude of the crops harvested is sustained or augmented. Thus,
no matter how rapid may be the increase of population, agricultural
chemistry will provide abundant food.
VIII. GRAPHIC CHEMISTRY.
[Illustration: LOUIS JACQUES DAGUERRE.]
The honor of discovering that prints could be made by the action of
light on certain salts, such as those of silver, belongs to Daguerre,
in 1839.
The fundamental principle of graphic chemistry is that metallic salts,
sensitive to the light, when in contact with organic matter, suffer
a complete or partial reduction and are rendered insoluble. The
intensity of the reduction is measured exactly by the intensity of the
light. When light is reflected from any object capable of producing
different degrees of intensity, as from the hair and face of a man,
the reduction of the metal is greatest by the light from that portion
of the physiognomy which gives the greatest reflection. Thus, when
the unreduced metallic salt is washed out, a permanent record, the
negative, of the object is left.
It is a long step from the first daguerreotype to the modern
photograph, but the principle of the process has remained unchanged.
Photographs in natural colors have of late years been obtained.
One method is by interposing a film of metallic mercury behind the
sensitive plate which must be transparent. The reflected rays of light,
having different wave lengths, precipitate the metal in superimposed
films, corresponding to the wave or half-wave length. When a negative
thus formed is seen by reflected light, the emergent rays from the
superimposed films acting as mirrors are transformed into the original
colors of the photographed object.
The various methods of printing by heliotypes, photolithographs,
photogravures, etc., are illustrations of the application of graphic
chemistry to the arts.
IX. DIDACTIC CHEMISTRY.
The lectures of Davy and Faraday in England, of Wöhler and Liebig in
Germany, of Chevreul and Dumas in France, and of Silliman (1779–1864)
in this country, made the study of chemistry attractive and easy during
the early part of the century.
It was noticed, however, that the students who finished these courses,
while well versed in the principles of the science, were not able to
apply them in practice. Towards the middle of the century, therefore,
a radical change in the system of instruction was inaugurated. The
student was put to work and taught to question nature for himself. The
universities of France and Germany were equipped with working desks
where students of chemistry put into practice at once the principles
of the science which they heard elucidated in the lecture room. Cooke,
at Harvard, was the chief apostle of the laboratory method in this
country, and this method of instruction has now spread, until even the
high and grammar schools have their chemical laboratories.
In our universities, students may now begin their chemical studies
associated with laboratory practice in the first year of their course,
and continue it to the end. Graduates of such courses are not only
grounded in the theories of chemistry, but are thoroughly familiar with
its practice. Under this system, coupled with the demand for chemical
services in every branch of industry, the number of trained chemists
has speedily increased. At this time (1899) there are more than four
thousand trained chemists in the United States.
X. CHEMISTRY OF FERMENTATION.
Our knowledge of fermentation and bacterial action is practically all
comprised in the achievements of the nineteenth century. Prior to this
time it was known that fermentation took place, but its causes and
character were wholly mysterious. The great work of Pasteur (1859)
resulted in the fact that fermentations were chiefly caused by the
activity of living cells, which have the capacity of reproduction. The
most common form of fermentation is that whereby sugar is converted
into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The name of the organism that produces
this change is _saccharomyces cerevisiae_.
Another class of fermentation is seen in the process of digestion. This
species of fermentation is typified by the action of sprouted barley
on starch, whereby the starch is converted into sugar. The active
principle of the saliva, ptyalin, has the same property, and when
starchy bodies are masticated, a part, at least, of the starch which
they contain is converted into sugar. The active principle of malt is
known as diastase, and this, as well as ptyalin, belongs to a class of
ferments which are incapable of reproduction.
[Illustration: LOUIS PASTEUR.]
All the decompositions of organic matter, such as the decay of meats
and vegetables, are now known to be forms of fermentation, due to the
action of certain organisms known by the group name of bacteria. This
discovery led naturally to the process of preserving organic compounds
by sterilization. The principles on which this process depends are
very simple. If an organic body, such as a fruit or vegetable, be
subjected for some time to a high temperature,—that of boiling water
will usually suffice,—the fermentation germs which it contains will be
destroyed. If then it be sealed in such a way, either hermetically or
with a plug of sterilized cotton, so that no living germ can reach it,
decomposition cannot take place. Certain chemicals, such for instance
as salicylic acid and formaldehyde, have the property of paralyzing or
suspending germ action, and hence organic bodies treated with these
substances may also be protected against decomposition.
The activity of fermentation is made use of in the technical arts.
Bread is made light by fermentation, and wine, beer, and cider are made
by the fermentation of fruits and grains. Alcohol is produced by the
fermentation of grains and potatoes, their starch having previously
been converted into sugar by malt.
Buchner has lately shown that all fermentation is of one kind, namely,
that due to ferments of the diastase type. The fermentation produced
by yeast, for instance, is not due, according to his observations, to
the living cells, but to the products of their activity. By destroying
yeast cells, by grinding and high pressure, and using their contents,
he has secured a vigorous fermentation similar in every respect to that
caused by the cells themselves.
XI. ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY.
The electric furnace, which affords a higher heat than chemists had
been able to secure, has been the promoter of great advances in
inorganic chemistry. Moissan (b. 1852), a French chemist, has been
the most successful in applying the heat of the electric furnace to
analytic and synthetic studies. One of the practical results which
has come from these studies has been the virtual bridging over of the
chasm which has been supposed to exist between organic and inorganic
compounds. Under the influence of the heat of the electric furnace,
carbon, which is the keystone of organic compounds, has been made to
combine directly with the metals, forming a series of bodies known as
metallic carbides. The carbide of calcium, under the action of water,
yields a gas known as acetylene, which by a series of reactions can be
converted into alcohol. Thus alcohol, which only a short time ago was
supposed to be solely the product of organic life, is shown also to
result from a simple inorganic reaction such as has been shown above.
The importance of electrolysis in metallurgical and analytical
chemistry has already been noticed. So rapid has been the progress
along these lines that the terms metallurgical chemistry and
electro-chemistry are in some respects almost synonymous.
Electricity has also been employed in many of the chemical arts; _e.
g._, in the promotion of crystallization and purification of organic
solutions as practiced in the sugar industry.
[Illustration: DRIVING A NAIL WITH A HAMMER MADE OF FROZEN MERCURY.]
Though belonging rather to analytical than to electro-chemistry, one
may here mention the wonders of that discovery which belongs to the
close of the nineteenth century, and which is known as “liquid air.”
Until 1877 air—oxygen and nitrogen—was regarded as a permanent gas.
Oxygen liquefies at 300° below zero and nitrogen at 320°. When air
is cooled to those degrees it assumes a misty form and falls like
raindrops to the bottom of the vessel. It then gives off vapor, like
boiling water. If poured out on a conductor, as iron or ice, it assumes
the gaseous state so rapidly as to amount to an explosion. The many
experiments with it are simply wonderful, and the practical claims for
it are without end. Already it runs an engine and motor vehicles. It is
claimed that it will complete the problem of aerial navigation; that
it is the coming power in gunnery and blasting; that it affords the
ideal sanitation; that in surgery it offers the most perfect chemical
cauterization.
CONCLUSION.
There is no branch of science that holds such an intimate relation
to the progress and welfare of man as chemistry. First of all, it
is chiefly instrumental in providing him with food and clothing, as
has been shown in the paragraph on agricultural chemistry. In the
second place it has extended his domain over matter and, in connection
with physics, has established the identity of the composition of the
universe with that of the earth. The universe has thus been shown to
be of a single origin and of uniform properties. By understanding
the constitution of matter, with which he is surrounded, man is able
to utilize to the best advantage the material at his disposal. Thus
invention is promoted and the application of chemical knowledge in the
arts extended.
THE CENTURY’S MUSIC AND DRAMA
BY RITER FITZGERALD, A.M.,
_Dramatic Critic “City Item,” Philadelphia_.
I. MUSIC.
Music finds its highest artistic development in the happy combinations
which go to make up the opera. These combinations passed through
various historic stages, and ripened into noble maturity by the end
of the eighteenth century, under the guiding genius of the Handels,
Mozarts, and Glucks of the times. Their legacy passed, in the
nineteenth century, to a host of worthy successors, among whom stands,
as a central figure, Verdi, the great Italian operatic composer; while
Wagner, of Germany, has striven with herculean might to revolutionize
the lyrical drama by polemical writing, by twofold authorship of
words and notes, and by a new application of principles gathered from
antecedent reformers. His efforts produced a commotion in the art
world which might be compared to that excited by the rivalry between
Buonocini and Handel in London, or Piccini and Gluck in Paris, but for
the fact that in each of these instances the contention was between
one composer and another, whereas in the case of Wagner it was the
opposition of one composer to all others in the world, save the few
who, believing in the man, his teachings, and his wonderful powers
of application, undertook propagandism as a duty, and endeavored to
make proselytes to their faith. He did not live to see the day when
his efforts could be called completely successful, and his death in
1883 left judgment quite wide open as to his theoretical and practical
merits. The nineteenth century closes with the question still on as
to the permanence or evanescence of his many unique, ponderous, and
revolutionizing productions.
Verdi, who still lives, surpasses all the composers of his time in the
beauty of his melodies and the intensity of his dramatic power.
Rossini, whose “Guillaume Tell,” which was produced in Paris in 1829,
was his masterpiece, ruled the operatic world before Verdi, until he
died in Paris in 1868.
Meyerbeer, whose principal operas are “Les Huguenots,” “Le Prophète,”
and “L’Africaine” (the latter produced in Paris in 1865, the year after
its composer’s death), was regarded as a remarkable composer, whose
knowledge of effect was unsurpassed, and whose fine intelligence and
musical knowledge almost made the world forgive him for frequent lack
of inspiration.
Halévy, whose only lasting success was “La Juive,” composed other
operas, such as “Charles VI.,” “La Reine de Chypre,” “L’Eclair,” and
“Les Mousquetaires de la Reine,” that achieved a certain amount of
success in France, which success was interrupted by Halévy’s death at
Nice in 1862.
Gounod, in 1859, made his most remarkable success with his greatest
opera, “Faust,” which, after the subject had been treated by Spohr,
Lindpainter, Schumann, Berlioz, and other distinguished composers, has
remained the only completely successful opera on the subject, although
Boito’s “Mefistofile” (another version of the subject) achieved a
marked success in Italy in 1868, and placed Boito among the remarkable
composers of the day. As for Gounod, his other operas never equaled his
“Faust.” Next in merit comes “Roméo et Juliette” (produced in Paris in
1867) and then his “Mireille,” which appeared in 1864, and “Philémon
et Baucis,” an exquisite little comic opera produced in 1860. His last
opera, “Le Tribut de Zamora,” was given at the Grand Opera, Paris, in
1881, and failed.
[Illustration: GIUSEPPE VERDI.]
Donizetti, who died in Bergamo in 1848, was for many years one of the
most popular operatic composers. He possessed undoubted ability, but
wrote carelessly, as the Italians did in that day. But his operas
contain much that is beautiful, and often show fine dramatic power. His
“Lucia” contains inspired pages, while other portions are inexcusably
commonplace. The same remark applies to his “Lucrezia Borgia,” “La
Favorita,” and “Maria di Rohan;” while in his comic operas, such as
“Don Pasquale” (which was composed in three weeks), his “L’Elisire
d’Amore” and “La Fille du Régiment,” Donizetti appears to better
advantage. They are melodious and very agreeably written. His fertility
may be imagined when you are told that he composed over sixty operas
during his career, as well as other compositions.
Bellini, whose career was a short one, as he was born in 1802 and died
in 1835, was badly trained and could not be called a well-schooled
musician, being rather a musician by instinct. But he possessed
remarkable ability, and, perceiving that the persistently florid style
of Rossini (which all the composers of that time blindly imitated)
was approaching an end, treated his melodies with a simplicity and
directness that at once attracted attention and met with approval.
Bellini’s knowledge of instrumentation was childish, but his intimacy
with Rubini, the famous tenor, aided him in achieving an admirable
treatment of the voice. His operas were very sweet and melodious. The
two operas by which he will be remembered are “La Sonnambula” and
“Norma,” the latter being, with all its faults, a great opera.
Another talented and prolific operatic composer was Mercadante, whose
“Il Giuramento” (produced in 1837) achieved considerable popularity.
But Mercadante’s successes were generally confined to Italy. He
composed sixty operas, and died in 1870 in Naples.
Ponchielli, who was born in 1834 and died in 1886, will be principally
remembered by his remarkably beautiful opera, “La Gioconda” (produced
in 1876), which, together with a re-written version of his first opera,
“I Promessi Sposi,” gave him great popularity in Italy and spread his
reputation to other countries.
[Illustration: BEETHOVEN IN HIS STUDY.]
As for Italy’s young composers that profess to represent the modern
Italian school of opera, they are led by Puccini, whose “Manon Lescaut”
and “La Bohême” are melodious and full of merit.
Mascagni and Leoncavallo, whose “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “I
Pagliacci” achieved popularity, have not realized expectations. Nor has
Giordano, whose “Andrea Chenier” was well received in Italy.
Bizet, whose “Carmen” is one of the most remarkable of modern operas,
died in Paris in 1875. “Carmen” has remained in the repertoire. His
other opera, “Les Pécheurs de Perles,” only achieved a moderate success.
[Illustration: GRAND OPERA HOUSE, PARIS.]
One of France’s greatest musicians, Hector Berlioz, was born in 1803
and died in 1869. His operas, “Les Troyens,” “Benvenuto Cellini,” his
“Damnation de Faust,” his “Roméo et Juliette” symphony, are all great
and afforded Wagner a model that he imitated persistently.
In 1871 France lost one of its most talented operatic composers, Auber,
whose “Masaniello” and “Fra Diavolo” are two of the most popular operas
ever written by a Frenchman. Auber composed comic operas charmingly,
and his “Domino Noir,” “Diamants de la Couronne,” “Haydée,” and other
works of a similar character, entertained the French people for many
years. Auber’s death has left a vacancy that has not been filled.
The modern French composers cannot be called great. Saint-Saens,
whose most successful work is “Samson et Dalila” (which is more of an
oratorio than an opera, and which was produced in 1877), has composed
other operas, such as “Henri VIII.,” “Ascanio,” et cetera, which lack
originality and inspiration.
Massenet has composed “Le Roi de Lahore,” “Hérodiade,” “Manon,”
“Werther,” et cetera, that have had passing successes.
Both Saint-Saens and Massenet have attempted to follow Wagner in their
sonorous orchestration; but their works lack distinction. The French
composers of to-day have been demoralized by Wagner’s affectations.
The death of Ambroise Thomas, in 1895, caused France the loss of one of
her most successful and accomplished operatic composers, whose “Mignon”
will be long admired as a very charming opera comique, while his
“Hamlet,” though containing portions that are ably written, has never
attained outside France any remarkable success.
[Illustration: METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE, NEW YORK.]
Reyer, whose “Sigurd” was produced in 1884 with considerable success,
is a follower of Meyerbeer. His “Salammbo” was produced in 1890, but
did not attract the attention expected outside of France.
German opera of the latter part of the century has been so demoralized
by the influence of Wagner that the German composers have become little
more than imitators of his pronounced mannerisms.
Weber’s “Der Freischütz” remains the most popular of German operas,
just as Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” is the most popular of Italian operas.
Spohr, Lindpainter, and many other German composers of ability have
been laid on the shelf.
Marshner, who died in Hanover in 1861, showed in his “Hans Heiling”
that he was a follower of Weber, as well as in his “Templar and Jewess.”
[Illustration: WILLIAM RICHARD WAGNER.]
Cornelius, who died in Mainz in 1874, made his principal success with
his “Barber of Bagdad,” a comic opera in which the manner of Wagner was
imitated. In 1864 “The Cid” was produced in Weimar, but it was found
depressingly heavy and labored.