Chemistry and Modern Society. Historical Essays in Honor of Aaron J. Ihde

210 Pages·1984·2.7 MB·English

by  John Parascandola and James C. Whorton (Eds.)

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In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
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In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
Chemistry and Modern Society
Historical Essays in Honor of
Aaron J. Ihde
John Parascandola, EDITOR
University of Wisconsin
James C. Whorton, EDITOR
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00 University of Washington
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228
ACS SYMPOSIUM SERIES
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
WASHINGTON, D. C.
1983
In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Chemistry and modern society.
(ACS symposium series, ISSN 0097-6156;228)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1 1. Chemistry—History—Congresses. 2. Ihde, Aaron
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0 John, 1909- . I. Ihde, Aaron John, 1909- . II. Para-
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84-0 QISDB1N5 .C0-4864 12-0791598-X3 306'.45 83-11740
19 ISBN 0-8412-0803-4 (pbk)
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st Copyright © 1983
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A American Chemical Society
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In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
ACS Symposium Series
M. Joan Comstock, Series Editor
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1 Robert Baker Geoffrey D. Parfitt
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doi: Donald D. Dollberg Theodore Provder
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In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
FOREWORD
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4-0 format of the Series parallels that of the continuing ADVANCES
98 IN CHEMISTRY SERIES except that in order to save time the
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21/ mitted by the authors in camera-ready form. Papers are re
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0.1 viewed under the supervision of the Editors with the assistance
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98 previously published papers are not accepted. Both reviews
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In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
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Professor Ihde in his office at the University of Wisconsin about 1964
viii
In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
PREFACE
A.ARON IHDE'S CONTRIBUTIONS to our understanding of the evolution
of chemistry are remarkable nearly as much for their breadth as for their
quantity and quality.
This volume originated in a desire to honor the dean of American
1 historians of chemistry, Aaron J. Ihde, at the time of his retirement from
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pr0 the University of Wisconsin faculty in 1980. From the beginning, how
28. ever, the editors were determined to avoid the typical "Festschrift" volume
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4-0 consisting of a collection of papers on miscellaneous subjects held to
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9 gether only by the association of the authors as students or colleagues of
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k- the honorée. Convinced that a book of essays with a central unifying
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21/ theme would be a more valuable contribution to the literature we strove
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0.1 to achieve that objective. More as a result of chance than editorial wisdom,
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4 | d The result is this publication on "Chemistry and Modern Society".
98 A bibliography of Idhe's contibutions (see appendix) which ranges
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3, from Boyle's definition of the element to the establishment of food stan
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st dards, from Paracelsus to pesticides, reflects something more than Idhe's
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ug extra-ordinary curiosity. It expresses a rich appreciation of the insepa
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e: rability of theoretical and technical progress in chemistry, and of the
Dat participation of each in intellectual and social history. That last topic, the
on impact of chemistry on its social environment, has long been a special
cati interest of Professor Ihde's, and he and his students have made significant
ubli contributions to the literature on this subject. Indeed, his chief work,
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"The Development of Modern Chemistry," opens with the announce
ment that one of its purposes is to provide "an object lesson of the role
of pure science in the development of technology, agriculture, and med
icine." Subsequent chapters fulfill that promise, exploring chemistry's
influence on western society's transformation from an agricultural to a
high-technology industrial base with more thorough and up-to-date cov
erage than any other broad survey of chemical history. The purpose of
the present volume is to modestly offer in tribute a few additional object
lessons illuminating chemistry's diverse roles in modern civilization, fo
cusing especially on the American scene.
ix
In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
The theme of Professor Ihde's Dexter Award address, the formation
of hybrid sciences, is extended by an analysis of the conceptual origins
of geochemistry. This analysis reveals how the maturation of physical
chemistry in the late nineteenth century provided access to the internal
dynamics of geological processes and spawned a new specialty in which
American scientists took the lead. A more pragmatic application of chem­
istry to geological deposits (and one having renewed relevance of late) is
examined in a detailed study of the history of the production of synthetic
petroleum from coal. Petroleum synthesis, of course, has been largely an
exercise in chemical engineering, another hybrid discipline. A crucial
stage in that profession's conceptual development is dealt with in a dis­
01 cussion of the early twentieth century utilization of the notions of unit
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22 Another area in which chemistry has had an important impact on
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4- modern society is in the field of health. Professor Ihde has been a major
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02 tory of vitamin research. A somewhat different merger between chem­
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0. istry and the health sciences has been the pursuit of pharmaceutical in­
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oi: vestigation, an activity that, however thriving now, at first took fre­
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4 | quently halting steps. The checkered fortunes of Charles Holmes Herty
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9 are striking testimony to the difficulties of organizing sophisticated drug
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3, research in the 1920s.
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Au istry has been checkered during the twentieth century. The term "drug
e: therapy" is nearly as likely to trigger the response "thalidomide" as to
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atio have become more apparent, the whole science has come to be regarded
blic as the great benefactor as well as the great despoiler, a symbol of modern
Pu society's paradox of unprecedented prosperity shadowed by the potential

for unparalleled devastation. "The Development of Modern Chemistry"
concludes on just such a note, with the ominous injunction that although
chemistry "can still do much for mankind," it "can also be his undoing."
The double-edged action of chemistry on society is the minor theme run­
ning through this volume. The 1937 Elixir Sulfanilamide tragedy, for ex­
ample, serves as a dramatic backdrop for a presentation of the vicissi­
tudes affecting drug regulation, while the establishment of standards for
synthetic food colors demonstrates the uncertainties confounding the po­
licing of substances of significant economic value but indeterminate tox­
icity. Diet has been contaminated by chemical theory as well. Food fads
such as the uric acid fetish have been legitimized in practitioners' minds
χ
In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.
by self-serving distortions of biochemical principles. Finally, chemistry
has altered the face of war in the twentieth century, as exemplified by
the production of toxic gases for use in World War I.
The interface between chemistry and society refuses to be drawn in
such neat lines as good and bad, however. The search for chemical war
fare agents popularized the method of project research that would be
used so fruitfully in peacetime investigations. The ravages of Elixir Sul
fanilamide provoked the present stricter food and drug legislation. These
case studies suggest some of the complexity, as well as the diversity, of
chemistry's influence on modern civilization.
1 JOHN PARASCANDOLA
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28. Madison, Wisconsin
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9 JAMES WHORTON
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In Chemistry and Modern Society; Parascandola, J., el al.;
ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1984.