The Success of a FailureSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 16, No. 5 (May, 1923), pp. 553-555Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/6878 .

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I'E PROGRESS OF SCIE L,NCE 553

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE CURRENT COMMENT

BY DR. EDWIN E. SLOSSON Science Ser vice, Washiagtoa

TIIE SUCCESS OF A FAILUTRE "'Non ' sai(l the lumber (lealer,

''your boy is good for nothing in iny business. In fact, he is the most miserable failure Ii have ever seen anii( will never aimount to aunything.''

"'Well,'' replied the disappointed father, ''sintce Emil is too stuipid to mi-.ake a livinig in lumbler, 1 SLI)POSC I muiglht is wvell let him go to college as lie wauts to."

So Emli] Fischer wenit to Bonnl Unii- versity to study chemistry. Here he was recogniized ais onie of the most bfilliaint and in(iustrious stu(leilts in the latboratory and by the timne he was twenty-thlree he hacl discovered a key thait unlocked one of the most mysterious processes of life. This key wals a coal-tar conmpound kniowni to ehemists as " 'phenyl hydrazine.' It was 1oth fortunate and(l fatal to Fischer. It miaile hini one of the most fanmous chemllists in the worl1 ntld(l it brought himii disease and death. For the fullies of it arc p)oisonous and constanmt workinig with it mmuide(l his health0.

But miotlminlg could impa.tir hiis enier gy or dampen h is an dmn. For atfter he got fr ee from the lumber businiess 111(1 started on his owvn track, he pui suced it for fortv-Jive years witlhout inlterrilpt ioIn or (liver'sioni. As onle of his colleagues said at the time of his death in 1919:

A life is end(led in which ther e wa s 110 failure, 110 let-up in restless aic- tivity, 110 lonlg gropinig about for soniethintg to accomplish. After oii e quick, clear visioll of the goal the path led stra1 ight to its accomnplish- ment, a chain of brillianit successes.

How Professor Fischer himself looked at his life wvork is showmm by these words:

Still imore enticiing to somBe, aionoiig whom I ini-clude nyself, is the hope to climl) up out of the vallevs to those passes seeni afar off, which lea-d to vast aind as yet uniexplore(1 counitries.

The unexp)lored coumitr-v that he had in view and( ventured inl was nio less than the f ormiative functionls of vegetable and ainimal life. With tlhe ,aid of plheniyl hlcydr-azinie he was -ble to solve the secret of sugar.

N,ot conitenit Avith fidiiig out how stigari may be made bv the plant, lbe learned to make it himself. He founi(d it possible to pr oduce in the laboratot r many more kinids of sugar thailln can1 be (liscover'ed in na- ture. Finally, he worked out a pro- cess )y wlich lie could start with 1plaill coal and( wa.tter aind build up ai ser ies of edible sugars.

Th-en Fischer tackled a, still mor e difficult problemn in nutr-ition, the conistituti(o of the proteins. These formii ani essential part of oar food since theyv contain the niitrogeni neees- salry to all life. It used to be thought that the proteins, whether of vege- tal)le origini like the gluteni of wheat, or of animal origin like the caseini of milk, were miiucih alike, and that it made little (liffereniee which of the many we got in our foo(l. Buit Fiserlei showe(d that a protein mole- cule was made up of a loig chain of calrbon and niitr-ogen cOml)Opuiids and tlmat the linlks were of ver y different kincds. Finallv, lie imiacle a sort of airtificial lplotein, whalt mlliglht be called a, laboratory beefsteak, but wlhether it was good to eat or inot

couldl not be determiiied sinee there was so little of it amid it cost sa miiuchl. I-le spenit $250 for the material alone, to say iiothiiig of hiis timie in coii- structiiig this compound, so, as lie said, "'It has not yet inade its ap- pearance on the dining table.''

Tlhem e is little prospect that the

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'HE PRO GRESS OF SCIENCE 555

food of the future will conic fiorm the laboratory- instead of the field. Evein a professor of chemistry caa not live as cheaply as a cornstalk. But the work of Fischelr oni thc sugars ancd proteinis has taldrea(ly bee of im- miienise value to the world in leading to the niewer kniowle(dge of nulitri- tion wlhieh is alreadyr heinig al)lieCl to the feediing of stock and people.

As Sir Henry i Roscoe, professor of chemistry at MIianchester, sa.id of Fischler when lie w*vas . award(led the Farfaradayl me(lal: 'I'is name hans the sweetest of tastes in the moulth of every chemist. " F'ischer conquered for chemistry a field for lllerlly elaimed by biology. He brought withinti the reaclh of experimentation w\vhat had becn regar(led as the exclusive pr ov- ince of vital processes.

So it seems that a m.an mayv 1)e a miserable failur e as a luniilber mer- clhnnit and vet mainke a success of somethlinlg else. 'rhe problemn of eclucationi is to fit squariie(' pegs in1to round holes wvithout wvhittlinig tlhemn (dow\n too imiuel ill the p)roess of schloolingg.

TIlE SIUN CURE OLD Tut-Ankli-Ainaei whlo figtures

so prominently InI oU1 laily lpress, was brought up as a niitarian sUll- worshlipei, but later relapsed into the priestl1- polytheism, which was a pity, for if a people miust pick its godl froii iiatural objects, ais the Egypfianis in their bliui(Iness hald to, it is better to take the sull thami to adolre cats, eirocodiles, hippopotaimuses andl beetles. The sUnl is quite liter- allY the souree of our v-ital and mec.hlanical energy, the sole support of all life and ml1otioIn on1 the earth, as thie ancient Egyptiani hynliil i de-

clares, and wve are beginning to 1Cee- ognize, perha,ps I should say re- recogntize, that it may cure diseases too.

or1 nian has a p0ooi memorly. HIe forgets miiuch that prievionis genera- tionls have learnedl. The Ilosuans used to mnake great use of the suni for the healing of sor'es and the m1ainteni-

aiicec of health. Pliny, in writiing aihout how his aged fricend, Spurini- .a, keeps his youthful v'igor', says: Wlheni the baths are readly, which

in winter is ab6ut three o 'clock anid in sutmmel about two, he undresses himiself; and if there happens to he o willnl, he wa,tlks ahbout in the suni.

After this he puts hiimself into pro, lonigecl anid violenit imiotion at playiing hall; aind by this sort of exercise lhe comhats the effect of old age.

But we northerii racess, halving to w,vear thick clothing2, Pamd sta-y In warmi lOloses, get out of the h1'ahit of ex- posing our skiiis to s,,uishiiie. The iInvenition of winCdow glalss lecl us astray, for glalss lets through all the liglht that wve cani see, and wve (lid niot realize tha,it it is op.-tque to thc invi-isible ultra-violet rayis whicih hlave the stronIgest effect upoln the skini for good or ill. We thouglht if w e had fresh air Mid suLnlight (ev-eni tlhough strained thlrough glass) we ha d aill that we needed from nature.

The rediscovery of the curativ-c pow:er of (direct sunislhinie caine hy ac- e dent. In at hospit.l1 for ricket v ehildre(nie, it wa,is founi(d tha-it the chi]ld who lhad the luck to lie in a certain cot exposed to thhe rtays of the suni recovere(l witlh amazi a g raipidlity. Tholroulgh experimentation, first oni wlhite rats, lateri oil childtreni, prov-ed thalt rickets could be culred either lbv sunmshinie or cod-liver oil. There is no questioni which remedy the chil- dren1 will take if they have their clhoice.

Dr. Rollier set up a sanitariumi on the sunny Alps of Switzerland wlhere the childreii work anid playi all d1ayi in the sunshine almost naked, and hle r eports remalrkable cures of tul)erculous hones anid skini troubles. Si mi hi r establishmenits for heliother- py have since been st.arted in Eng- land anid America. The treatment of the pa,tients is begun wvith two minute doses several timiies a day and in- creased by two miinutes daily for a fortnight, with protec tioni for the eves an1ld lhead. It is necessSa'ry to avoid both chlill ancd sun]bilurn. Thin whliite cotton cloth does not serious- lv shut out the curative rlays.

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