Before leaving this part of my subject let me take a
much less important example than those already spoken of,
but one that comes nearer home. Nearly twenty-five years
ago in the laboratory under my charge, an investigation
was being carried on that seemed as little likely to lead to
practical results as any that could well be imagined. It
would be quite out of the question to explain what we were
trying to do. Anj'- practical man would unhesitatingly



THE AGE OF SCIENCE 243

have condemned the work as being utterly useless, and I
may add that some did condemn it. There was no hope,
no thought entertained by us that anything practical would
come of it. But lo! one day it appeared that one of the
substances discovered in the course of the investigation is
the sweetest thing on earth ; and then it was shown that it
can be taken into the system without injury; and finally,
that it can be manufactured at such a price as to furnish
sweetness at a cheaper rate than it is furnished by the
sugar cane or the beet. And soon a great demand for it
was created, and to-day it is manufactured in surprising
quantities and used extensively in all corners of the globe.
Thousands have found employment in the factories in which
it is now made, and it appears that in some European
countries the new substance has become the sweetening
agent of the poor, it being sold in solution by the drop.
