Ferments and Microbes

Chemistry, far more than physics, was the dominant science of the nineteenth century. This is so, in spite of the fact that the major physical discoveries found their development and application in the steam engine at the beginning, and electric power at the end, of the century. With chemistry, however, there was a far larger number of new processes that could be turned more immediately to profitable use, and this afforded directly and indirectly for the training and employment of an ever-increasing number of chemists. Indeed from the beginning of the century and increasingly till its end the chemists were the most numerous of the newly differentiated groups of scientists. Here Scotland was in the van. A Chemical Society, ¹ the first in the world, was in existence in Edinburgh before 1785. In 1814 Sir John Sinclair could write ‘At present there are a greater number of intelligent practical chemists in Scotland in proportion to the population than perhaps in any other country of the world.’ ¹ The absolute number was however greatest in France, though England was not far behind. The Chemical Society of London was founded in 1845 with 77 fellows; in 1900 it had 2292, and now more than half the scientists in the country are chemists.