Hofmann obviously had no fear of forcing the young intellect
prematurely. He perhaps had never heard that "the tender petals of the
adolescent mind must be allowed to open slowly." He admitted young
Perkin at the age of fifteen and started him on research at the end of
his second year. An American student nowadays thinks he is lucky if he
gets started on his research five years older than Perkin. Now if
Hofmann had studied pedagogical psychology he would have been informed
that nothing chills the ardor of the adolescent mind like being set at
tasks too great for its powers. If he had heard this and believed it, he
would not have allowed Perkin to spend two years in fruitless endeavors
to isolate phenanthrene from coal tar and to prepare artificial
quinine--and in that case Perkin would never have discovered the aniline
dyes. But Perkin, so far from being discouraged, set up a private
laboratory so he could work over-time. While working here during the
Easter vacation of 1856--the date is as well worth remembering as
1066--he was oxidizing some aniline oil when he got what chemists most
detest, a black, tarry mass instead of nice, clean crystals.
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