chemistry, he
continues with like spirit--

"If ever there was a time to bring the Arts and Manufactures
to perfection in this Country, it is the present; for the
season is approaching, when, of necessity, which is the
mother of invention, our internal resources, and the
application of them to our wants, will advance a brilliant
and glorious epoch in the annals of our Country--second to
none but the declaration of independence. Who is to establish
the _chain_ of manufactures--to convert the crude productions
of Nature into useful articles; but you enlightened citizens,
men of _science_ and _improvement_, _artists_ and
manufacturers. The laboratory of Nature will be thrown open
to you, and to use the scriptural phrase, 'Ye shall know
even as ye are known.'"

Throughout the whole series of these papers there is manifest that
noble patriotic spirit which shows itself in the last paragraph. There
exists also an intelligent and unselfish spirit, so that as one
finishes his reading there comes to mind a query as to the author who
wrote thus in 1808--who was this early advocate of applied
chemistry--this enthusiast in chemistry? Each article bears at its
conclusion the initials _J.C._, which in several of the earlier
articles are erroneously given as I.C. They throw no light on our
curiosity and probably no one would ever have known whom _J.C._
represented had not the man himself in later life confessed that as a
lad of twenty years he penned these papers. They are exceedingly well
composed. They show a wide, general knowledge and also great
familiarity with the science of chemistry. Their young author was
_James Cutbush_.

When Robert Hare was twenty years of age he gave to the world one of
the finest discoveries made by a chemist. Cutbush presented known
chemical facts for the use and improvement of natural conditions.
Might not the young men of these days, surrounded by every sort of
help, make similar earnest and worthwhile contributions? They surely
can do this if they are imbued with the spirit of the forefathers--the
American spirit in chemistry.

Additional evidence of Cutbush's chemical activity at this early age
may be seen in a contribution to the Philadelphia _Medical Museum_
(1808) upon mercury fulminate. This interesting body he declared to be
mercury oxalate and cited as his authority Aikin's Chemical and
Mineralogical Dictionary. He believed that its ox