BIBLIOTHECA    CHEMICA


Of  more  living  importance,  however,  is  the  recent  movement,  in
Germany  especially,  which  has  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Society
for  the  History  of  Medicine  and  the  Natural  Sciences,  to  the  estab-
lishment of  courses  of  lectures  on  that  subject  and  to  the  recognition
of  it  as  an  important  branch  of  knowledge  by  both  the  International
Historical  and  the  Medical  Congresses.  As  yet  no  action  in  this
direction  has  been  taken  in  Britain  ;  the  history  and  evolution  of
chemical,  natural,  and  physical  science  are  ignored  by  the  British
Association,  of  medicine  by  the  Medical  Association,  and  the  Anti-
quarian Societies  have  their  attention  otherwise  occupied.  Still  there
is  not  wanting  proof  that  even  in  this  country  there  is  interest  in  this
section  of  history  and  that  there  are  some  who  pursue  it.1  Perhaps  if
the  few  who  do  this  could  combine  their  efforts,  a  stimulus  might  be
given  to  a  systematic  cultivation  of  the  subject.  Dr.  Young's  pre-
science was  exhibited  in  various  ways,  but  in  none  was  his  breadth  of
view  and  foresight  more  conspicuously  displayed  than  when,  long  before
this  movement  had  begun,  he  was  making  provision  for  the  study
and  teaching  of  the  history  of  the  science,  which  he  had  cultivated
practically  and  technically  with  such  success.  The  founder  of  a  great
industry,  which  has  added  so  much  to  the  comfort,  and  even  luxury  of
life,  immersed  as  he  was  in  the  mechanical  and  chemical  details  of  the
process,  engrossed  in  business  transactions,  distracted  by  the  worries  of
competition,  and  by  attempts  to  minimize  the  merit  of  his  invention,
was  hardly  the  person  whom  one  would  have  expected  to  undertake
the  formation  of  a  library  of  old,  neglected,  and  out  of  the  way
books  on  the  practically  extinct  topic  of  alchemy ;  yet  Dr.  Young
did  this  because  he  perceived  that  as  alchemy  happens  to  be
one  of  the  phases  which  chemistry  formerly  presented,  a  survey
of  it  is  indispensable  for  completing  the  history  of  the  whole  science.
