Article June 8, 1907 Issue

A LESSON FROM THE LABORATORY

M. G. KAINS, M.S.

A man of my acquaintance, who when a boy used to make simple fireworks to add variety to the ordinary pin-wheels and Roman candles of those days, at first had little idea that he was studying chemistry. He only knew that certain combinations of chemicals produced certain results, and that every variation from the correct method or any impurity of the chemicals resulted in more or less of a failure. While interested in this manufacture a friend lent him a book on chemistry, telling him that by its aid he could learn a great deal more than by his rule of thumb methods; but the book seemed too dry or difficult and it was soon returned.

After spending some years in business life the young man told an acquaintance of his simple chemical experiments, and was scarcely surprised when the friend said, "You are not in your right place; you should be a scientist." The result was that the young man resigned his position and went to college, where a year or so later he was studying chemistry from a different view-point than that of his boyhood. Instead of mixing chemicals to make more complex compounds, he was discovering the nature of materials given him by the professor. For instance, a small bottle would be handed him and he would be required without hint to find out all the chemicals it contained. The process was something like the following: A small quantity of the mixture was poured into a thin glass tube, and a few drops of what is called a reagent added. Perhaps there would be no change in the contents of the tube; if so, this lack of reaction proved that certain kinds of chemicals were not present. Then another reagent would be tried. Let us suppose sulfureted hydrogen to be added by blowing it through the liquid. If the contents turned black, this change was proof positive that at least one chemical, namely, lead, was present. For even the most minute particle of lead in any of its many beautifully colored compounds at once acts in this way; never in any other with the same gas. In similar ways other materials would be recognized by means of other reagents, until all were discovered and removed, leaving only a mixture of reagents and water.

The experiences discussed are paralleled in the experience of the majority of people who become Christian Scientists. At first, in their prayers, they practised the simple faith of their childhood. These prayers in time became mere repetitions. Perhaps for a time they may have produced apparently satisfactory results, but as personal interest blinded faith they failed to get the results desired, until many grew tired of failures, ceased to experiment, and declared that former results were due to chance or to something they had forgotten. While in this state of mind they may have been given a copy of the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, but concluded that it was too deep or hard to understand, or they may have been too lazy to test its rules; and so they got off into other lines where they did not belong, and were only recalled by some one who recognized their true sphere. Just how they may ultimately have become interested in Christian Science is not the point that interests us here. It is the application of the methods. As with the boy making fireworks, a certain kind of prayer produced certain results, but the introduction of variations and impurities, coupled with a disinclination to work scientifically, resulted in failures, and so the people gave up their perfunctory prayers and found themselves in undesirable conditions, from which they were rescued only when some one who understood these conditions explained their true meaning.

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