UC-NRLF 
 
 SB E77 
 
 IICAL RESEARCH 
 
 I 
 
GIFT OF 
 
 MICHAEL REESE 
 
 Jill 
 
CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
THE ROMANCE OF SCIENCE 
 
 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 IN ITS 
 
 BEARINGS ON NATIONAL WELFARE 
 
 [INCORPORATING, BY PERMISSION OF PUBLISHERS OF 
 
 " 
 
 "NATURE, A LECTURE DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR 
 EMIL FISCHER IN BERLIN, JANUARY II, IQI 
 
 LONDON 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.J 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.G. 
 
 BRIGHTON : 129, NORTH STREET 
 
 NEW YORK: E. S. GORHAM 
 
 1912 
 
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 
 GENERAL LITERATURE COMMITTEE 
 
CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 DURING the past century the scope of technical 
 industry has developed to an extent even greater 
 than that attained during the many previous 
 centuries of the Christian era, and this sudden 
 development has been coincident with the rapid 
 progress of experimental science in the hands of 
 the last four generations. It is not within our 
 present purpose to enter in detail into the reasons 
 for this phenomenal growth ; but we may well con- 
 sider the close relation between the advance of 
 experimental knowledge and the development of 
 chemical manufactures. 
 
 From the earliest records of man we learn that 
 the most primitive industries were based upon the 
 imitation of natural processes ; but with the advent 
 of the more cultured ancient civilisations, such as 
 those of the earliest Egyptians and Assyrians, 
 man, in his gropings, had stumbled upon pro- 
 cesses, often to us astonishingly subtle, by means 
 of which he could convert to his use the raw 
 materials of nature. Examples of these are the 
 
 5 
 
 285411 
 
6 .. CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 reduction of ores and the refining of metals, and 
 the preparation of glass and enamels. Of syste- 
 matic or intelligent investigation from a theo- 
 retical standpoint there was practically nothing ; 
 all processes were based upon the accidental dis- 
 coveries of random experimentation. Nevertheless, 
 such progress in material welfare as was made was 
 entirely due to trial and observation. 
 
 But as soon as men began to attempt to co- 
 ordinate their observations, and thus lay the first 
 stones in the beautifully symmetrical and interde- 
 pendent mosaic of science, advance became rapid. 
 From the orderly arrangement of known facts it 
 became possible to predict and establish further 
 facts, each new observation leading to others. 
 Thus it was not long before industries were 
 established which involved the known processes 
 of science, and to the furtherance and technical 
 improvement of these processes the methods of 
 science were applied. It is therefore evident 
 that the welfare of industry is directly contingent 
 on the progress of science, however purposeless 
 and theoretical the line of advance might at first 
 sight appear. 
 
 Of all nations, Germany has been the one to 
 appreciate this fact the most keenly. The German 
 mind, although by no means strikingly original, is 
 rapid to perceive, ready to adapt, and methodical 
 in the development of lines initiated by its neigh- 
 bours. From the outset science has been carefully 
 
INTRODUCTORY 7 
 
 fostered in that country, with the result that in no 
 other have technical industries attained such im- 
 portance. No nation has been able to compete 
 against the scientifically managed manufactures of 
 Germany, many of the most important of which 
 were originally instituted in England, France, or 
 the United States. No other country can boast 
 of a single business combination, comprising three 
 firms (the chemical factories of Elberfeld, Ludwigs- 
 hafen, and Treptow), which employs over seven 
 hundred qualified chemists. 
 
 And yet, in spite of the unique facilities already 
 afforded by Germany for the prosecution of pure 
 science, further aid has been demanded and granted. 
 The German government has for many years en- 
 dowed the universities and technical schools which 
 indeed are under the direct control of the State 
 with annual sums vastly greater than those applied 
 to similar purposes in England. In addition to 
 this indirect method of furthering the progress of 
 science, a Society for the Promotion of Science has 
 recently been constituted. 
 
 The idea of founding such a society is by no 
 means a new one ; for years the most prominent 
 men of science in German university circles had 
 been endeavouring to set on foot such a scheme. 
 They were unable, however, to reach the ear of the 
 wealthy members of the community whose aid was 
 indispensable to the project; and not until the 
 German Emperor, that most eminent of all dilettanti, 
 
8 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 embraced the scheme with his customary impetu- 
 osity, was the attention of the philanthropic rich 
 directed towards this need of science. 
 
 The Kaiser-Wilhelm Society, taking the name 
 of its protector and patron, defines in its first 
 statute its primary object : " To promote the 
 sciences, especially by the foundation and support 
 of scientific institutes of research." The income of 
 the society, subscribed by private individuals or by 
 firms, will be devoted to the establishment of 
 institutes of research in which distinguished inves- 
 tigators in the various branches of science will be 
 afforded facilities and means for the prosecution of 
 their chosen problems. They may also, if they so 
 desire, call in the collaboration of younger men, 
 students who are intending to graduate in one 
 of the State universities. By this means much of 
 the drudgery involved in all research may be 
 transferred from the shoulders of the master- 
 thinker to those of his disciples, who thereby 
 acquire not only knowledge of the methods of 
 experimentation, but, what is even more important, 
 the spirit underlying all scientific investigation. 
 
 " Such l a position was held, as member of the 
 Berlin Academy, by Prof, van't Hoff, whose 
 recent removal by death the whole scientific world 
 deplores. He had a free hand, was not obliged to 
 give any formal lectures or to take part in the 
 
 1 Sir William Ramsay, Nature, March j6, 1911, 
 
INTRODUCTORY 9 
 
 active management of the University, but was 
 allowed, with the help of students, to work out his 
 own problems in his own way, and his work on the 
 Stassfurth salts has been of great technical value. 
 His words to the writer were, many years ago, 
 that he thought it right to help his adopted country 
 to solve its commercial problems, and that he had 
 attempted to do so. But it must be understood 
 that no such expectation is necessarily entertained 
 of the incumbents of chairs at the proposed 
 institutes ; the progress of science, not necessarily 
 of its industrial application, is contemplated. Our 
 neighbours have learned the lesson that science, 
 like virtue, brings its own reward. 
 
 " It is wonderful how deeply the spirit of trust in 
 science has penetrated the whole German nation. 
 When Prof. Ostwald, many years ago, ap- 
 pealed to the Saxon Government for money to 
 build his physico-chemical laboratory, the 
 Socialists in the Saxon Parliament voted for the 
 grant to a man, believing that greater expenditure 
 on pure science would contribute to greater in- 
 dustrial opportunities. This spirit, which perme- 
 ates the German people, from the Emperor on his 
 throne to the representative of the peasants, causes 
 admiration ; would that it could inspire imitation ! 
 
 " One is led to speculate on the cause of this. 
 Why is it that the people of Germany have such 
 sympathy for scientific endeavour? The reasons 
 are many. 
 
10 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 " First, and above all, is the discipline that the 
 German people have undergone by their military 
 training ; more are thus prepared for practical life 
 in a measure which cannot be otherwise attained. 
 It has its disadvantages ; on the whole, the people 
 are not so self-reliant, but they become more trust- 
 worthy machines. Second, there is a deeper under- 
 standing of scientific achievements and their bearing 
 on industry. This manifests itself in many ways ; 
 the German Government is not above asking for, 
 and acting on, scientific advice. The social 
 position of the savants, scientific and literary, is 
 therefore assured, and the incomes of the higher 
 posts compare favourably with those earned by 
 professional men and manufacturers. This higher 
 social standing secures attention to those who 
 tender advice. Third, there is a constant exchange 
 between academic and industrial posts ; many men 
 leave chairs to become managers of factories ; 
 many men enter the teaching and investigation pro- 
 fession from factories. Chemical and physical 
 factories, too, there form a training school for the 
 younger scientific experts ; where many are em- 
 ployed, the more advanced communicate their 
 knowledge and the results of their experience to 
 the junior members of the scientific staff; in fact, 
 they have apprenticeship at its best. Here, in 
 prosperous times, the manufacturer thinks that he 
 has no need of scientific assistance; in times of bad 
 trade he believes that he cannot afford it. And, 
 
INTRODUCTORY II 
 
 lastly, the process of training the people has gone 
 on in Germany for nearly a hundred years. Re- 
 wards have been given, not to successful examinees, 
 and not in the form of scholarships ; but have been 
 earned in the battle of life, for which ample pre- 
 paration had been given. 
 
 " This spirit of trust in science has permeated to 
 the highest in the land ; that it has been fertile in 
 practical results is amply proved by the inception 
 of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Society for the Furtherance 
 of Science." 
 
 Thus, " Germany, and at its head, the Emperor, 
 have again shown the world their gratitude for the 
 achievements of science ; if desired, the word 
 ' gratitude ' may be interpreted in the sense of 
 ' favours to come.' ... It is instructive to note 
 the difference between their methods and ours. 
 Both countries possess what is called ' technical 
 education ' ; but while we have founded schools in 
 considerable number, destined to capture the work- 
 men (who seldom attend) and the prospective 
 foremen, they have aimed at the education of the 
 manufacturers and the works managers. Instead 
 of numerous institutions giving elementary science 
 instruction, they have a few imparting the most 
 advanced. Instead of a system of small scholar- 
 ships, intended to bribe the clever children of the 
 lower middle class, they leave it to the parents to 
 find out that their children, suitably trained, are 
 equipped for their life work, and will, if they are 
 
12 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 diligent, be certain of reasonable incomes and 
 respectable positions." 
 
 An idea of the commercial supremacy of 
 Germany, due to its scientific activity, may be 
 formed from the following figures, taken from the 
 last available census (1907). In that year the 
 chemical industries of Germany produced goods 
 amounting in value to over 750,000,000, placing 
 this industry inferior only to those of metals and 
 textile goods both of them industries largely 
 owing their present prosperity to science. Chemi- 
 cal manufacture in Germany gives employment to 
 no less than two hundred thousand persons ; an 
 exceptionally large proportion of whom, as com- 
 pared with other industries, earn the higher 
 wages of skilled labour. It is interesting to note 
 that no less than one-sixth of the individuals em- 
 ployed in chemical industry are females. 
 
 The story of the rise of chemical industry in 
 Germany to its present paramount position is an 
 instructive one ; clearly showing that although 
 the Germans, as already remarked, may not be 
 gifted with that inventiveness and power of 
 origination which is apparently a prerogative of 
 those peoples who stand foremost in the struggle 
 for individual liberty they have been able to win 
 the foremost place in this branch of international 
 commercial competition through the attention which 
 they have devoted to scientific research and the 
 systematic application of its results. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 13 
 
 An instructive example of the methods by which 
 they have fostered their industries is to be found in 
 the manufacture of alkalies. Germany is, as is well 
 known, exceptionally rich in deposits of mineral 
 salts that at Stassfurth being the most remarkable 
 and in order to utilise the large quantities of 
 sodium chloride available, the Leblanc process, 
 devised in France and first worked in England, 
 was adopted for the production of soda. Prior to 
 1840, Britain had supplied the bulk of the alkali 
 imported into Germany, but before long Germany 
 was in a position to export this commodity her- 
 self. In the Leblanc process, hydrochloric acid is 
 formed as a by-product, and as this cannot advan- 
 tageously be transported for any considerable 
 distance, bleaching powder and other products of 
 chlorine resulted, and for these a commercial 
 application had to be found in order to enable the 
 process to be carried on economically. 
 
 The balance of consumption thus established 
 was, however, rudely disturbed by the perfection, 
 in Belgium in 1861, of Solvay's ammonio-soda 
 process, by which sodium carbonate could be 
 manufactured at far less cost. The Leblanc 
 process therefore rapidly lost its footing throughout 
 Europe, and would soon have been entirely super- 
 seded, had not systematic attempts, effected by the 
 constant endeavours of research, been made to find 
 an advantageous application for its by-products. 
 Such a field was found in the manufacture of coal- 
 
14 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 tar colours, established in England by Perkin in 
 1856; and to such an extent was this industry 
 developed by the Germans, that by the year 1897 
 Germany was annually exporting coal-tar colours 
 to a value of .4,500,000, a figure which was doubled 
 ten years thereafter. 
 
 The raw materials for these colours are obtain- 
 able equally readily in England and in Germany. 
 We thus see the result of the carefully planned 
 interdependence, rendered possible by chemical 
 research, of the decaying with the rising industries. 
 It would have been too much to expect England 
 to be able to retain the supply of practically 
 the whole world with alkalies, as the resources of 
 the British saline deposits are far inferior to those 
 of Germany. But it was needless and a humili- 
 ation to British enterprise and perspicacity that ? 
 for the lack of ample chemical research, the 
 supremacy in the coal-tar colour manufacture 
 should have been lost. 
 
 At the inauguration of the Kaiser- Wilhelm 
 Society in Berlin a lecture was delivered before 
 the Emperor and a gathering of the most distin- 
 guished men of science in Germany by Prof. 
 Emil Fischer, the world-renowned investigator 
 in organic chemistry. In this address Prof. 
 Fischer traced the relations between scientific 
 chemistry and chemical industry in Germany, 
 pointing the moral that by affording facilities for 
 the prosecution of pure scientific research, technical 
 
INTRODUCTORY 15 
 
 industry and with it the welfare of mankind 
 generally gains in a corresponding degree; the 
 bread cast upon the waters of science being re- 
 turned after many days in benefits to humanity. 
 Extensive quotation from this lecture will be made 
 in the subsequent pages. 
 
 The foundation of this first national Institute 
 for the Promotion of Science provides us with 
 the occasion for making the present plea on be- 
 half of Chemical Research. It is earnestly to 
 be hoped that the example given by this estab- 
 lishment may soon lead to the provision of like 
 opportunities for conducting scientific investi- 
 gations in Britain and other countries. The 
 appeal for the encouragement of that research 
 which has led to such brilliant results in Germany 
 is not new to English ears. Prof. Huxley, in 
 his address on Technical Education, delivered as 
 long ago as 1877, remarked with characteristic 
 vigour : " I would make accessible the highest and 
 most complete training the country could afford. 
 Whatever that might cost, depend upon it the 
 investment would be a good one. I weigh my 
 words when I say that if the nation could purchase 
 a potential Watt, or Davy, or Faraday, at the cost 
 of a hundred thousand pounds down, he would be 
 dirt-cheap at the money. It is a mere common- 
 place and everyday piece of knowledge, that what 
 these three men did has produced untold millions of 
 wealth, in the narrowest economical sense of the 
 
*6 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 word." What might not have been accomplished, 
 for the interests of Great Britain and the benefit of 
 humanity at large, if these words had led, a full 
 generation ago, to the establishment of a British 
 Institute for the Promotion of Research ; a prede- 
 cessor of that which has now arisen in Berlin. 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 
 
 PROFESSOR FISCHER, in the opening remarks of 
 his lecture to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Society, pointed 
 out that in many branches of science, and in physics 
 and chemistry in particular, many of the funda- 
 mental laws'upon which these sciences were built up 
 have, in the fierce light of modern research, proved 
 untenable or insufficient : " At the present time," he 
 says, " more than at any other period, we are inclined 
 critically to examine the fundamental principles of 
 all branches of knowledge, and, when necessary, to 
 introduce far-reaching alterations in our original 
 conclusions. This state of mind applies particularly 
 to the natural sciences. During the last decades 
 our actual knowledge has been extended to an 
 extraordinary degree owing to new methods of re- 
 search, and in view of the most recent observations 
 the older theories have proved in many cases to be 
 far too narrow. Even the fundamental principles 
 of our knowledge appear, to a certain extent, to 
 demand revision. 
 
 " Thus the progress in physical science forces us 
 
 to adopt views which are incompatible with the 
 
 older principles of mechanics, in spite of the fact 
 
 that these were regarded as unassailable by thinkers 
 
 B 17 
 
l8 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 such as Hermann von Helmholtz, Heinrich Hertz, 
 and Lord Kelvin. 
 
 "The same state of affairs obtains to even a greater 
 degree in the biological sciences. In comparative 
 anatomy, animal and vegetable physiology, theory 
 of evolution, microbiology, and almost all branches 
 of medical science, the rapid advance of experi- 
 mental knowledge is accompanied by an equally 
 rapid change in established theories. Even the 
 semi-historical sciences, such as geology, palaeonto- 
 logy, anthropology, and the venerable science of 
 astronomy, are taking active part in the general 
 progress." 
 
 It must not be imagined, however, that these 
 original principles, although ultimately rejected, 
 were misleading or of no value to the science. By 
 means of such theories alone are we able to ad- 
 vance our knowledge to the point at which they 
 may be cast aside ; without some such guiding prin- 
 ciples we can only grope in the dark. As it is with 
 these far-reaching laws, so it is with the lesser 
 theories, which may be in vogue for only a few 
 seasons. These, too, in inviting research which 
 may tend either to their confirmation or their 
 refutation, lead the investigator along paths by the 
 side of which he is able to observe new facts. 
 
 Of recent years physicists have been forced to the 
 conclusion that mass, that function of matter which 
 has hitherto been regarded as absolutely unalterable, 
 is capable of appreciable variations under different 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS IQ 
 
 conditions. According to the now generally 
 accepted " Principle of Relativity," a constant force 
 does not, as has hitherto been assumed, produce a 
 constant acceleration in a moving body ; as the 
 velocity of the body increases, the acceleration 
 diminishes. In other words, in order to produce in 
 a moving body a constant acceleration, a continually 
 increasing force must be applied. In addition to 
 this, the physical conception of time has been 
 modified in the same way with respect to bodies in 
 motion. 
 
 "We stand in the same position with regard to 
 the elements in chemistry. k Owing to the dis- 
 covery of radium and similar bodies, we have been 
 forced to the conclusion that chemical elements are 
 not unalterable and that their atoms are hence not 
 indivisible. 
 
 " Thus in these times of general scientific activity 
 is founded the Kaiser- Wilhelm Society for the 
 Promotion of the Sciences, the primary object of 
 which is the erection and maintenance of institutes 
 of research, 
 
 , " It need scarcely be said that we scientific 
 investigators welcome this new and highly special- 
 ised creation with intense satisfaction. 
 
 " No one will be able to assert that experimental 
 research in Germany has been neglected ; exactly 
 the opposite conclusion must be drawn on contem- 
 plating the history of science during the nineteenth 
 century. This displays a long series of brilliant 
 B 2 
 
20 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 scientific discoveries. The industries closely con- 
 nected with science, such as the chemical and 
 electrotechnical industries, fine mechanical engi- 
 neering, metallurgy, industries connected with 
 fermentation, and last, but not least, agriculture, 
 have also undergone in our hands a development 
 envied on all sides. 
 
 " Should a criterion of the results of experimental 
 research be desired, this may perhaps be found in 
 the distribution of the Nobel prizes, which are 
 awarded by absolutely independent corporations in 
 Sweden. Only a month ago (1910) the Nobel prize 
 for chemistry came for the sixth time to Germany ; 
 this constitutes sixty per cent, of all the Nobel 
 prizes hitherto awarded for chemistry. During the 
 same period of time two-and-a-half prizes were 
 awarded to Germans for physics and three-and- 
 a-half for medicine. Dr. Alfred Nobel, unfortu- 
 nately, did not provide for the remaining natural 
 sciences. 
 
 " The majority of the investigations distinguished 
 by the award of these prizes, however, belong to 
 the nineteenth century. Since that time matters 
 are to some extent altered. It is well known that 
 the greater number of scientific investigators are 
 teachers at universities or polytechnics. During 
 the last ten years a scheme of practical education 
 of the masses has developed which affords to all 
 students the possibility of acquiring a thorough 
 training in experimental science, and which pro- 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 21 
 
 vldes our industries with an army of scientifically 
 educated workers. But this very education of the 
 masses tends mentally to exhaust the teacher to a 
 great extent, certainly to a higher degree than is 
 desirable or indeed compatible with the creative 
 power of the investigator. 
 
 " There prevails in modern educational laborator- 
 ies a condition of overstrained activity comparable 
 with that existing in all but the smallest factories 
 and commercial offices, and in the harassing cares 
 of the day the teacher too readily loses that peace 
 of mind and broad view of scientific matters neces- 
 sary for tackling the larger problems of research. 
 This danger has been most keenly appreciated by 
 teachers of chemistry. It is therefore no mere 
 accident that in our circles of recent years the cry 
 for new laboratories should be at its loudest ; an 
 appeal for laboratories which should permit of re- 
 search in absolute tranquillity, unencumbered by 
 the duties of teaching. 
 
 " But all our efforts were fruitless, in spite of the 
 active support of an industry ready to make any 
 sacrifice, and we were about to abandon, with 
 reluctance and with sadness, our cherished plan, 
 when the action of your Majesty in directing the 
 attention of all munificent ladies and gentlemen 
 in Germany to the need of supporting scientific 
 research came to us like a heaven-sent aid. 
 
 " In place of the one State-supported chemical 
 institute which we had planned, chemists may now 
 
22 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 anticipate the immediate possession of two such 
 institutes in which gifted men may conduct their 
 original researches with ample means in freedom 
 from any other duties. It is anticipated that the 
 younger generation of chemists will thereby derive 
 especial benefit. By the younger generation I 
 mean in particular those men who are at present 
 acting as assistants or lecturers in University 
 laboratories, and who can carry on research in 
 addition to the servile labour of teaching only by 
 possession of an extraordinary capacity for work. 
 
 " That which applies to chemistry may, mutatis 
 mutandis, be applied to the other sciences, and is 
 especially applicable to new branches of knowledge, 
 for the prosecution of which the laborious organisa- 
 tion of educational laboratories leaves no possibility. 
 The handicap under which we work, in comparison 
 with other nations, in particular the United States 
 of America, in which similar institutes have recently 
 been founded, can thus be removed. If the hopes 
 which we all place in the new institutes are fulfilled, 
 Germany will in the future not lack recipients of 
 the Nobel prizes, and we may then hope to main- 
 tain the honourable position which we hitherto 
 have held in the domain of science. 
 
 " That this is not only a matter of sentiment 
 and honour, but of palpable advantage in material 
 respects, is at once evident from the close relation 
 between modern scientific progress and national 
 well-being. I am not here to demonstrate this 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 23 
 
 relation by means of statistics or political-economi- 
 cal considerations. On the contrary, I would invite 
 your attention to a cursory review of my own 
 science. I shall thus, in considering the most 
 recent achievements in this field, be able to point 
 out to you the diversity of the problems and their 
 fertility with regard to the most varying branches 
 of technical industry." 
 
 The general properties of radium are now so well 
 known to the public that a detailed description is 
 unnecessary. Its discovery in 1902 by Madame 
 Curie in Paris is one of the most remarkable achieve- 
 ments of chemical research, and, as has been 
 pointed out, has revolutionised the fundamental 
 theories upon which science is based. 
 
 The study of radio-activity itself had preceded 
 the isolation of radium salts. Its investigation 
 originated about the year 1880, when Sir William 
 Crookes began his systematic observation of the 
 phenomena of electric discharge through a high 
 vacuum. He explained the fluorescence of the 
 glass constituting the vacuum tubes which bear 
 his name as being due to the bombardment of the 
 walls of the vessel by extremely minute particles, 
 which were subsequently shown to be the products 
 pf the gas originally contained therein, and demon- 
 strated that identical phenomena were produced, 
 whatever the nature of the gas originally present. 
 Sir J. J. Thomson has calculated that the mass of 
 these particles is no greater than one seven- 
 
24 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 hundredth of that of an atom of hydrogen, and that 
 they travel with the inconceivable velocity of twenty 
 thousand miles in a second, that is to say, with a 
 velocity of about one ninth of that of light. 
 
 Now when the stream of these particles, or, as 
 they are now termed, " electrons," is suddenly 
 obstructed, as it is by the glass walls of the Crookes 
 tube, the electrons are deflected and the glass 
 vibrates in sympathy with the high frequency of 
 the impacts, giving rise to fluorescent light. At 
 the same time the sudden interruption of the flight 
 of the particles sets up a stream of non-periodic 
 pulsations in the ether, these taking the form of 
 rays, termed " cathode rays " from the fact that 
 they proceed in straight lines from the cathode, 
 or negative pole. 
 
 A further contribution to our knowledge of this 
 class of phenomena was Rontgen'p discovery that 
 cathode rays were able to pass through such sub- 
 stances as wood or thin aluminium foil. Rontgen 
 came upon this fact by the accidental fogging of a 
 number of photographic plates enclosed in dark 
 slides which were exposed to the effect of a Crookes 
 tube. Though these rays are thus seen to be 
 endowed with actinic power, and to be capable of 
 passing through substances opaque to ordinary 
 light, they are invisible to the human eye. It was, 
 however, soon discovered that, in addition to glass, 
 certain other chemical compounds, such as zinc 
 sulphide or barium platlnocyanide, possessed the 
 property of emitting a fluorescent light when placed 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 25 
 
 in the path of these rays. By this means direct 
 X-ray examination of the living body has been 
 rendered possible. 
 
 We cannot here enumerate the manifold humani- 
 tarian uses to which these cathode rays have been 
 adapted, but chief among these are their application 
 to diagnostic surgery and to the cure of skin 
 diseases such as lupus. Nevertheless, while they 
 are instrumental in effecting marvellous cures of 
 such pathological conditions, prolonged exposure 
 of healthy limbs to their influence unfortunately 
 has the result of causing incurable ulcers which 
 may lead to the total loss of the part affected. 
 Thus some medical men who have made a specialty 
 of this work have so injured their hands and arms 
 as to necessitate the amputation of these members. 
 It may here be noted that the ^-rays emitted by 
 radium (see below) have recently been stated to 
 cure the evil effects of Rontgen rays ; an interesting 
 example of the subtle nature of the action of such 
 radiations upon living cells. 
 
 In 1896 the French physicist Becquerel investi- 
 gated the nature of a similar radio-active pheno- 
 menon. For some months he had been carrying 
 in his waistcoat pocket a lump of an ore termed 
 " pitch-blende," and had suffered from an ulcer of 
 increasing virulence which appeared in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the lump of pitch-blende shortly after 
 he had exposed his body to its continued action. 
 Coupling this with the fact that salts of uranium, 
 of which pitch-blende is the chief ore, were known 
 
26 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 to emit a faint light, he was led to an investigation 
 of the nature of the phosphorescence of uranium 
 salts. The conclusion that he reached was that 
 the rays evolved by this mineral bear a marked 
 similarity to the Rontgen rays. 
 
 The chief point of difference between the 
 phosphorescence of uranium and that of other 
 phosphorescent minerals, such as calcium sulphide, 
 is that these latter substances glow in the dark 
 only after exposure to sunlight, the intensity 
 gradually diminishing, while the phosphorescence 
 of radio-active bodies persists undiminished in the 
 absence of light. 
 
 Becquerel found that the radio-activity of crude 
 uranium, which was low, could be concentrated by 
 mixing a solution of an uranium salt with barium 
 chloride, and then adding sulphuric acid. The 
 precipitate of insoluble barium sulphate was found 
 to have carried down with it the source of the radio- 
 activity, leaving behind an inactive solution of 
 uranium. The inactive uranium, on standing for 
 some months, was however found to regain its 
 original activity. Crookes followed this up by 
 isolating from uranium salts, by means of fractional 
 crystallisation, a highly radio-active constituent 
 which he termed " Uranium X." 
 
 But besides uranium, pitch-blende contains a 
 variety of other elements. From the residues of 
 this mineral, after the extraction of the uranium, 
 Madame Curie, in collaboration with her husband, 
 finally succeeded in isolating in a pure state the 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 27 
 
 chloride of the now famous metal radium. Some 
 idea of the laborious nature of the task may be 
 gathered from the fact that from one ton of pitch- 
 blende she obtained no more than one-tenth of a 
 gram (about one and one-half grains) of radium 
 chloride. Subsequent work has shown that some- 
 what larger yields can be obtained by fractional 
 crystallisation of the bromides. 
 
 Radium salts, in common with the salts of the 
 other radio-active elements, such as uranium X 
 (from uranium), polonium (from bismuth), actinium, 
 thorium X, and mesothorium (from thorium), evolve 
 rays which can be subdivided into three classes, 
 designated a, ft and y, these being in the order 
 of their penetrative powers. The ft rays have 
 been shown to be similar to the cathode rays 
 of the Crookes tube. In addition to the emis- 
 sion of these rays, radium slowly breaks down 
 into a gaseous element, at first termed " radium 
 emanation," but after its isolation and examination 
 by Dr. Whytlaw-Gray and Sir William Ramsay 
 recognised as a chemical element and termed 
 " Niton." These investigators have found that it 
 forms a phosphorescent liquid at low temperatures 
 under high pressure, exhibiting all the phenomena 
 of a radio-active element. They have also been 
 able to assign to it a position in the periodic table 
 in the same group as the inert gases helium, neon, 
 argon, krypton, and xenon. 
 
 We thus see that radium gradually disintegrates 
 with formation of a second element, the rate at 
 
28 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 which the radium breaks down being such that 
 after a lapse of about thirteen centuries it will have 
 dwindled to one-half its original amount. Further- 
 more, the emanation niton, being a radio-active 
 element, itself breaks down spontaneously into 
 helium, the half-life-period being in this case 
 about three and three-quarter days. It is therefore 
 evident that radio-active elements, by their very 
 nature, break down into other elements of lower 
 atomic weight. 
 
 Like the Rontgen rays, the rays evolved by 
 radio-active bodies possess definite and powerful 
 physiological action, and their value in medicine is 
 daily becoming more widely appreciated. The great 
 disadvantage of radium is, however, its intense 
 activity. Just as the Rontgen rays give rise to 
 malignant ulcers, so does radium, and in a far 
 higher degree. It is therefore necessary for the 
 operator to encase his external members in an 
 armour of lead, a metal almost impermeable to the 
 destructive ft rays. 
 
 *' As has already been remarked, our conception 
 of the nature of chemical elements has to some 
 extent altered owing to the discovery of radium. 
 We are now acquainted with more than twenty- 
 four such substances the so-called radio-active 
 elements and we recognise that they disintegrate 
 spontaneously, and that elementary transmutations 
 are hence possible. 
 
 " Germany took at the outset only a small part 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 29 
 
 in the notable researches connected with the dis- 
 covery of these elements, although the first stimulus 
 leading to the discovery of radio-activity was 
 given by the Rontgen rays. The reason for this 
 is that Germany possesses none of the raw materials 
 necessary for the production of radium, and that the 
 majority of German investigators have not the 
 means for the purchase of this costly element. This 
 lack of means was especially keenly felt when 
 radium first found profitable application in the field 
 of medicine. 
 
 " We are therefore all the more delighted to 
 record such an event as the recent discovery, due 
 to Professor Otto Hahn of the chemical laboratory 
 of the University of Berlin. He has for several 
 years been investigating the disintegration products 
 of thorium, which is employed in large quantities in 
 the manufacture of incandescent mantles, and has 
 in the course of his work discovered several radio- 
 active elements, the most important of which he 
 has designated mesothorium. He has, moreover, 
 succeeded in devising a process for the isolation of 
 this substance from the valueless waste products 
 occurring in the manufacture of thorium. I am 
 therefore able to show you a specimen of Hahn's 
 preparation. This is the bromide of mesothorium, 
 a white salt, which evolves the same highly pene- 
 trating rays as the corresponding salt of radium. 
 A quantity of this substance, equivalent in radio- 
 active power to 100 milligrams of pure radium 
 
30 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 bromide, costs only one-third as much. Neverthe- 
 less, it is not cheap, since for this small quantity of 
 material 550 was paid. Thanks to an endowment 
 from Dr. von Bottinger, of Elberfeld, the Berlin 
 Academy of Sciences will in a few months be in 
 possession of 250 milligrams of this substance, and 
 will be able to lend this amount to German in- 
 vestigators. It would be possible yearly to produce 
 in Germany from the hitherto valueless residues 
 after the extraction of the thorium, a quantity of 
 this preparation of Dr. Harm's equivalent to more 
 than 10 grams of pure radium bromide. This is 
 approximately equivalent to the world's stock of 
 radium. By this discovery the radium famine 
 hitherto prevalent in Germany may be said to be 
 relieved." 
 
 It may here be pointed out that Dr. Hahn, 
 though a German, made the first observations 
 leading to the discovery of mesothorium in the 
 chemical laboratory of University College, London* 
 while working, under the guidance of Sir William 
 Ramsay, upon some thorianite residues given to 
 him by that brilliant investigator. 
 
 In the above excerpt Professor Fischer mentions 
 the manufacture of thorium. Here we see the 
 foundation and growth of a huge industry, based 
 originally upon the most abstract and purely 
 scientific research : the industry of incandescent 
 mantles. In 1885 the German chemist von Wels- 
 bach, in the course of an investigation of the rare 
 metals of the thorium group, found that the oxides 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 3! 
 
 of these metals, and in particular that of thorium 
 itself, evolved an intense light when heated in the 
 Bunsen flame. This observation led him to soak a 
 filament of cotton in a solution of thorium nitrate 
 and to try the effect of heating this in the non- 
 luminous flame. Instant success crowned his 
 experiment ; the cotton burned away, leaving a 
 coherent residue of thorium oxide which glowed 
 with brilliant whiteness on heating. From this it 
 was but a short step to the preparation of mantles 
 as we at present know them, by dipping a " stock- 
 ing " of cotton or ramie in the solution, thus 
 obtaining the maximum surface of luminescence. 
 Experiment showed him that in order to produce 
 the most efficient light an admixture of one per 
 cent, of cerium oxide to the thorium oxide was 
 necessary, and this mixture has never been im- 
 proved upon. It was not long before he was 
 manufacturing mantles on a commercial scale, and 
 some idea of the present magnitude of the industry 
 may be gathered from the fact that in Germany 
 alone no less than 150,000,000 of such mantles 
 are yearly turned out. They are, of course, 
 manufactured on a like scale in other civilised 
 countries. 
 
 " The field of chemical experimentation has in 
 the last decade been widened to an extraordinary 
 degree by the ease with which it is possible to 
 obtain very high and very low temperatures. High 
 temperatures can now be obtained by means of 
 electric furnaces, with which temperatures up to 
 
32 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 3000 are easily produced, Low temperatures may 
 be obtained by means of liquid air. This commod- 
 ity can now be purchased in Berlin at the price of 
 a wine of medium quality, that is to say, at is. gd. 
 per litre. For this we are indebted to your 
 Majesty, who invited Professor von Linde, of 
 Munich, to erect here one of his large machines for 
 the liquefaction of air. You will understand how 
 indispensable this liquid has become when I tell 
 you that in the laboratories of the University of 
 Berlin several litres are daily consumed for scientific 
 purposes. 
 
 " Far more effective is liquid hydrogen, which 
 affords a temperature lying 60 below that of liquid 
 air. The boiling point is as low as 252*6 C., 
 only 20*4 above the absolute zero. It cannot, 
 however, yet be purchased in Berlin ; in fact, it 
 cannot be obtained here at all. I am nevertheless 
 able to show it to you. This preparation comes 
 from the physical laboratory of the University of 
 Leipzig, where it was prepared this morning and 
 transported here with great care. I will now 
 transfer a small quantity from the oddly shaped 
 container into a transparent glass vessel, and 
 demonstrate the lowness of its temperature by 
 immersing in it a glass tube sealed at the bottom. 
 On removing the tube it is seen to be filled with a 
 white solid resembling snow ; this is solid air ; you 
 will see that, when once removed from the cooling 
 liquid, this solid melts after a few moments. 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 33 
 
 " When the Kaiser- Wilhelm Institutes for 
 Chemistry are once in full swing, we shall, I hope, 
 no longer be obliged to travel to Leipzig every 
 time we want some liquid hydrogen. 
 
 " Liquid hydrogen was prepared for the first 
 time about twelve years ago by Professor Dewar 
 in the famous laboratory at the Royal Institution 
 in London. But the costly experiments necessary 
 for its production were rendered possible only by 
 the liberal means which Dr. Ludwig Mond, the 
 great benefactor of chemistry, placed at his dis- 
 posal. Dr. Mond, moreover, has not forgotten his 
 German Fatherland and German Science. He 
 bequeathed to the University of Heidelberg, where 
 he had studied, the sum of .50,000 for chemical 
 and physical research, and several years ago he 
 endowed the State-supported chemical institute 
 which we had planned with the sum of 10,000." 
 
 Apart from such scientific purposes, liquid air is 
 gradually acquiring great industrial importance. 
 In the modern processes for the manufacture of 
 oxygen which is employed in many of the arts 
 for various purposes, but particularly for oxy- 
 hydrogen and oxy-coal-gas flames the atmo- 
 spheric air is liquefied, and the resultant liquid 
 fractionally distilled. By this procedure the 
 nitrogen first boils off, being for the most part 
 rejected, while the oxygen, which boils at a slightly 
 higher temperature, can be separately collected in 
 a pure state. The residue from which the oxygen 
 c 
 
34 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 and nitrogen have been distilled is a mixture of the 
 inert gases of the atmosphere, consisting princi- 
 pally of argon. The " Societe Air Liquide" of 
 Paris is thus enabled to place large quantities of 
 these residues at the disposal of scientific investi- 
 gators in this way repaying Science in kind for 
 the benefits it has conferred. 
 
 The intense cold of liquid air boiling as it does 
 at a temperature some 200 C. below that of the 
 atmosphere renders it destructive to living flesh 
 when brought into contact therewith. The pain- 
 ful effects usually attributed to hot bodies are all 
 reproduced by the intense cold of liquid air, for it 
 matters not whether the rapid transmission of heat 
 through the tissues takes place in an inward or in 
 an outward direction. Liquid air has for this 
 reason found successful application as a cauterising 
 agent, and a case is recorded of the excision of a 
 cancer by its means. 
 
 Liquid air, consisting of oxygen in a highly con- 
 centrated form, permits of the rapid combustion of 
 substances brought into contact with it. A strip 
 of steel, the end of which is heated and plunged 
 into this concentrated oxygen, burns with intense 
 brilliancy. In the same way, a mixture of liquid 
 air with finely divided carbon, in the form of cotton 
 wool or coal dust, explodes with extraordinary 
 violence when ignited. Advantage has been taken 
 of this fact by utilising such a mixture as an ex- 
 plosive in coal mines. The method is an improve- 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 35 
 
 ment on the use of dynamite, in that after the 
 lapse of a few minutes the liquid air has completely 
 evaporated, leaving an innocuous non-explosive 
 residue, so that the accidental explosions of unfired 
 charges, so lamentably frequent in the employment 
 of dynamite, are thereby avoided. 
 
 But the atmosphere has been forced to render 
 even more valuable products. For many years 
 attempts have been made to prepare " fixed " 
 nitrogen from the air nitrogen in some form 
 which can be applied directly to industrial and 
 agricultural purposes either in the oxidised form 
 (nitric acid, nitrates, nitrites) or in the reduced 
 form (ammonia and ammonia-yielding substances). 
 The actual fixation of nitrogen dates from the time 
 of Cavendish, who submitted air to the action of 
 the electric spark in the presence of alkali, thus 
 obtaining nitrates and nitrites, but only recently has 
 it become possible on a commercial scale. The 
 oxidation of nitrogen was first carried out on a 
 moderately large scale in 1897, by Lord Rayleigh, 
 who obtained considerable quantities of nitric acid 
 from air by means of the electric discharge. Since 
 that time the development of the subject has 
 progressed by leaps and bounds. 
 
 The importance to humanity of some method 
 of utilising the nitrogen of the atmosphere cannot 
 be estimated too highly. Until recently, practically 
 all the nitric acid and nitrates employed in the arts 
 and in agriculture were derived from the nitrate-beds 
 c 2 
 
36 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 of Chile, and it is not to be assumed that these de- 
 posits are inexhaustible. In 1825 one shipload of 
 the sodium nitrate was exported with the intention 
 of employing it for the manufacture of gunpowder ; 
 but it was found to be too deliquescent for this 
 purpose, and was therefore thrown into the sea. 
 In 1840 Liebig put forward the principle of arti- 
 ficial replacement of substances removed from the 
 soil by the crops, recommending the use of nitre as 
 a chemical manure. At that time a few thousand 
 tons were yearly removed from the nitrate-beds ; but 
 the practice has undergone so rapid a development 
 that at the present time over two millions of tons 
 are each year exported from South America. At 
 this rate the beds will be exhausted in less than 
 thirty years. 
 
 The world has therefore looked, and not looked 
 in vain, to the chemist to solve this problem. For 
 as three-quarters of the nitrate dug up from the 
 deposits in Chile is employed as chemical manure, 
 without it the supply of food would be hopelessly 
 inadequate to meet the needs of the inhabitants of 
 our globe. The present generation would indeed 
 be betraying its trust were it to consume the total 
 store, acquired in millions of years, without provid- 
 ing for the nourishment of posterity. But there 
 need be no fear of such a calamity, as the following 
 words of Professor Fischer indicate : 
 
 " The direct production of nitric acid from air by 
 means of a powerful electric discharge has reached 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 37 
 
 the stage of large-scale manufacture. In Norway 
 at the present moment gigantic works, by the side 
 of a mighty waterfall, are in course of erection by 
 German factories in conjunction with Norwegian 
 engineers, and supported by German and French 
 capital. 
 
 " Synthetical saltpetre is already on the market, 
 and German dye factories derive a considerable 
 portion of the nitrites necessary for their work from 
 the same source. 
 
 "The strikingly original process devised by 
 Professor A. Frank and Dr. N. Caro in Charlotten- 
 burgfor the preparation of calcium cyanamide from 
 calcium carbide and atmospheric nitrogen came 
 somewhat earlier into practice. 
 
 " And now a third process, based upon the 
 direct combination of atmospheric nitrogen and 
 hydrogen to form ammonia, has been announced. 
 Professor Haber, of Karlsruhe, by an ingenious 
 application of the laws of physical chemistry, has 
 succeeded in obviating the difficulties which hither- 
 to have rendered this synthesis impracticable. 
 The well-known Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik 
 at Ludwigshafen-am-Rhein has taken over his 
 patents and technically perfected the process to 
 such a degree that synthetical ammonia will in, 
 all probability shortly be placed on the market. 
 
 " The greater the number of such processes and 
 the keener the competition which they excite, the 
 greater is the benefit to the consumer. In the case 
 
38 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 I have just mentioned this has an especial signifi- 
 cance, as the bulk of technical nitrogenous sub- 
 stances are employed in agriculture for artificial 
 manures. 
 
 " In the opinion of high authorities, German 
 agriculture could easily consume twice, nay thrice, 
 the amount of nitrogenous material at present 
 employed for this purpose, were only the price to 
 fall to a corresponding degree. In such a case it 
 is possible that the crops would increase to such 
 an extent that Germany could be independent of 
 foreign countries with respect to agricultural pro- 
 duce. A task of great national importance has 
 thus been set to chemical industry. 
 
 " This last process, the synthesis of ammonia, 
 possesses the advantage that no electricity, merely 
 heat, is involved. In other words, all that is 
 necessary is fuel, a commodity of which Germany 
 has ample store. Furthermore, it is to be noted 
 that the cost of production depends only on the 
 price of hydrogen, which, together with the 
 inexpensive atmospheric nitrogen, serves as raw 
 material. The problem of producing hydrogen at 
 moderate cost has already been solved by chemical 
 industry, owing to the great interest recently 
 taken in airships. In this way, the truth of the 
 old saying is established that all industries affect 
 one another, and that improvements in one field 
 may occasion fertile results in totally remote 
 spheres of activity." 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 39 
 
 Much could be written concerning the series of 
 successes following upon Liebig's suggestion of 
 employing artificial manures, whereby the nitrogen 
 removed from the soil in the form of crops is 
 replaced by chemical means. It need merely be 
 said that these have almost universally become a 
 necessity to the progressive farmer, and that 
 artificial manures to a value of over five millions 
 sterling are annually produced in Germany alone. 
 A striking instance of the achievement by science 
 of a double purpose is afforded by the employment 
 of sewage in agriculture. As sewage disposal is 
 rapidly becoming a matter of national importance 
 it may warrant a slight digression. 
 
 A great advance in the sanitary conditions of 
 towns was effected during the nineteenth century 
 by the introduction of drainage systems. But we 
 are now faced with the serious problem of sewage 
 disposal. It is well known that the organic life 
 present in rivers is capable of destroying the 
 impurities introduced into the waters by the drain- 
 age of towns, provided that a clear run of sufficient 
 length is afforded. But the increase in the 
 quantities of sewage discharged into the rivers 
 passing through great cities such as London has 
 shown that when the pollution has reached a 
 definite state of concentration, the bacteria de- 
 structive to such impurities are themselves destroyed, 
 the natural cleansing of the stream being then 
 unable to proceed. 
 
40 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 We stand at present upon the threshold of the 
 solution of the problem. In cases where the towns 
 are built upon a sandy soil, the sewage, instead of 
 being a source of loss to the community, can be 
 converted into a valuable asset by the installation 
 of sewage farms. Sewage farms have long been 
 worked in England and other countries with greater 
 or less success, though with pronounced profit only 
 when an extremely porous soil is present. Thus in 
 Berlin the drainage of the entire city is pumped up 
 to such farms, established on the permeable soil of 
 the Mark, where crops far heavier and more fre- 
 quent than at ordinary farms are produced. The 
 water, after passing through the sandy ground, 
 appears as a clear effluent of such purity that it is 
 possible to drink of it with perfect safety. All the 
 poisonous matter originally present has been 
 absorbed by this gigantic filter, and furnishes the 
 nutriment for the flourishing crops. This method 
 of sewage disposal is of course impracticable on clay 
 soils, and in such cases some direct method of 
 destruction must be applied. Among these are 
 comprised various chemical and electrochemical pro- 
 cesses, as well as the recently-discovered and promis- 
 ing method based on the action of a " denitrifying " 
 bacterium, which destroys organic matter of animal 
 origin with evolution of elementary nitrogen. A 
 Royal Commission has been engaged for some 
 years upon the question, and it is anticipated that 
 a. satisfactory solution will before long be reached. 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS /j.1 
 
 Much interest attaches to the process of Frank 
 and Caro for the production of calcium cyanamide, 
 which is now manufactured in large quantities 
 for use as a chemical manure. It is prepared by 
 heating calcium carbide to a very high tempera- 
 ture in presence of atmospheric nitrogen. 
 
 Calcium carbide, employed as a starting material, 
 has an instructive history. It was discovered in 
 1862 by Wohler the same chemist who was the 
 first to synthesise a purely animal product, urea, 
 by treating metallic calcium with carbon at a high 
 temperature. The substance was in those days 
 regarded merely as a chemical curiosity, owing to 
 the great expense of its preparation, and its dis- 
 covery was soon forgotten by the scientific world. 
 
 In 1892 calcium carbide was rediscovered by an 
 American chemist named Willson, and by the 
 celebrated French investigator Moissan, working 
 independently. Willson, in the course of some 
 experiments with the electric furnace, had heated a 
 mixture of coke and lime, in the hope of producing 
 metallic calcium. On opening the furnace he 
 obtained a grey fusible mass, which obviously con- 
 tained no metallic calcium and was of no apparent 
 value. As luck would have it, this despised block 
 of matter, after being removed from the furnace, 
 fell into a bucket of water. Torrents of an evil- 
 smelling gas were at once evolved. This gas, on 
 examination, was found to burn with a brilliant 
 flame and was before long proved to be almost 
 
42 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 pure acetylene. We have only to consider the 
 number of uses to which acetylene is now put 
 such as automobile lamps, oxy-acetylene welding, 
 and the illumination of private houses to realise 
 the extent of the industry based upon this acciden- 
 tal outcome of scientific experiment. 
 
 The electric furnace has likewise produced for 
 us substitutes for the hardest materials of nature- 
 carborundum and artificial diamonds. Carborun- 
 dum, which is now extensively employed as a 
 substitute for emery in whetstones and grinding 
 wheels, is prepared by heating a mixture of silicon 
 and carbon to the temperature of the electric arc, 
 and appears as a dark crystalline body, the surface 
 of which exhibits a multitude of iridescent colours. 
 Artificial diamonds, although of less technical im- 
 portance, are of considerable scientific interest. 
 They were prepared by Moissan by heating soft 
 charcoal enclosed in an iron cylinder in a carbon 
 crucible heated by an electric arc. The white-hot 
 molten iron, in which the charcoal had dissolved, 
 was then plunged into water, so that the outside 
 was the first to cool. In solidifying, the shell 
 thus formed subjected the interior molten core to 
 an enormous pressure. This, on cooling, deposited 
 the excess ol carbon in the form of minute crystals, 
 which, though black in colour and valueless as 
 gems, possessed all the chemical and physical 
 attributes of diamonds. Such diamonds may find 
 useful application in rock drills, where the small 
 size and black hue are no disadvantage. 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 43 
 
 High temperatures are now obtainable not only 
 from electricity. By the " Thermit " process, 
 recently introduced, temperatures at which iron 
 runs like water can readily be reached without any 
 cumbrous plant whatsoever. By igniting a simple 
 mixture of aluminium powder and iron oxide a 
 reaction sets in which evolves so much heat that 
 the mixture soon glows with intense brilliancy. 
 Liquid iron is produced, together with a slag of 
 alumina. Welding can thus be effected with great 
 ease and a minimum of appliances. An interesting 
 feature of this process is the high purity of the 
 resultant iron ; and by modifications in which 
 oxides of other metals are employed, such metals 
 as chromium, tungsten, manganese, vanadium and 
 tantalum can be prepared in a state of purity never 
 before attained. 
 
 An elegant process, by which the metals nickel 
 and cobalt are separated and prepared *n a state of 
 chemical purity on a commercial scale, is that now 
 employed by the Mond Nickel Company. On 
 passing producer gas over heated ores containing 
 these metals, the nickel and cobalt combine with 
 the carbon monoxide present in the gas, with 
 production of volatile liquids termed nickel carbonyl 
 and cobalt carbonyl. These liquids are collected 
 by condensation, separated by fractional distillation, 
 and decomposed again by heat, with regeneration 
 of the pure metal and carbon monoxide. This 
 process has supplanted all others owing to its 
 extreme simplicity and cheapness. 
 
44 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 Iron has recently been produced in a condition 
 of purity even higher than that afforded by the 
 Thermit process. This is the " electrolytic iron " 
 obtained by a novel application of electrolysis 
 devised by Professor Franz Fischer in Berlin. It is 
 prepared in the form of tough shining plates, of any 
 desired shape, according to the conformation of the 
 electrode upon which it is deposited from the 
 solution. In consequence of its extraordinary 
 purity its magnetic susceptibility is greatly in 
 excess of that of any other kind of iron hitherto 
 known. An electric motor of any design develops 
 more than twice the original horse-power when the 
 ordinary armature and magnets are replaced by 
 those constructed of electrolytic iron. This inven- 
 tion therefore bids fair to create a revolution in 
 electrical industries. 
 
 " Our present-day material civilisation," Prof. 
 Fischer goes on to say " is to a great extent founded 
 on the rapid utilisation of the fossilised combustibles 
 anthracite and brown coal. But posterity will 
 not fail to reproach us with having grievously 
 squandered this valuable material ; for in the con- 
 version of the heat of combustion of coal into 
 energy in the ordinary way by means of steam 
 engines, more than eighty-five per cent, of the 
 work potentially contained in the coal is lost. 
 This loss may, however, be appreciably lessened by 
 suitable chemical treatment of the coal. If the 
 coal be first converted into combustible gas so- 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 45 
 
 called power gas and this then consumed in a 
 gas engine, the output of useful power is treble 
 that developed in a steam engine. Valuable by- 
 products ammonia and tar can, moreover, be 
 recovered, and, indeed, the methods hitherto em- 
 ployed for the production of power gas are in many 
 respects capable of improvement. I therefore 
 deem it possible that special institutes will at some 
 future time be founded in the centres of the coal 
 districts, where these important problems can be 
 investigated with the aid of all the methods known 
 to science. 
 
 " Fossilised combustibles, which owe their origin 
 to the vegetable kingdom, form a connecting link 
 between mineral and organic substances. Organic 
 chemistry vastly surpasses inorganic chemistry in 
 variety of methods and products. Small wonder, 
 for it embraces all those complicated chemical 
 bodies which occur in animal and vegetable life. The 
 number of organic substances accurately investi- 
 gated may to-day be estimated at the huge figure 
 of 150,000, and every year eight or nine thousand 
 more are added to the list. We may therefore 
 reckon that at the close of this century organic 
 chemistry will comprise the entire gamut of 
 substances found in the animal and vegetable 
 kingdoms. 
 
 " This rapid increase is wholly due to organic 
 synthesis. From the few elements occurring in 
 organic chemistry, of which carbon predominates, 
 
46 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 all these compounds arc built up, much as an 
 architect produces the most diverse edifices from 
 the same form of brick. 
 
 "Synthesis in organic chemistry had its origin 
 eighty-two years ago, at Berlin, in the synthetical 
 production of urea by Friedrich Wohler, and it has 
 found its greatest field of activity in Germany. It 
 stands no longer in fear and trembling of the com- 
 plicated constituents of the living organism. I 
 shall demonstrate this fact by discussing the three 
 classes of substance predominating in organic life : 
 the fats, the carbohydrates, and the proteins. The 
 synthesis of fats was effected two generations ago 
 by M. Berthelot in Paris. The first synthetical 
 carbohydrates grape sugar, fruit sugar, etc. saw 
 the light twenty years 'ago in Wiirzberg ; and the 
 methods for the synthetical building up of albumin- 
 ous substances have been worked out during the 
 last ten years in the laboratory of the University 
 of this city. I am therefore able to show you one 
 of these products. It is the most complicated 
 substance ever evolved by synthesis, and has so 
 long a name 1 that I do not venture to pronounce 
 it here. The amount is certainly small, and, as 
 you will perceive later, the beakers and flasks of 
 the scientific investigator are minute when com- 
 pared with the vats employed by the chemical 
 manufacturer. This relative difference in size may 
 
 1 Laevoleucyltriglycyllaevoleucyltriglycyllaevoleucylocta 
 glycylglycine. 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 47 
 
 be remarked also, in the comparative wealth of 
 these two classes of men. This synthetical protein, 
 like the mesothorium of Dr. Hahn, is anything but 
 cheap. The starting materials for its synthesis 
 cost about 50, and the labour involved in its 
 preparation must be put at an even higher figure. 
 It has therefore not as yet made its appearance on 
 the dining-table. It is, in fact, nothing but a 
 chemical curiosity. But you must bear in mind 
 that what is to-day merely a curiosity may to- 
 morrow be of the greatest value. Chemistry 
 affords numberless illustrations of this. 
 
 " Through such things as these proteins, carbo- 
 hydrates, and fats, organic chemistry is brought 
 into close touch with the biological sciences ; for 
 the entire metabolism in the living organism is 
 merely a sequence of chemical transformations 
 which these substances undergo. Chemistry is 
 thus called upon to partake in the solution of the 
 great riddles of life ; nourishment, growth, repro- 
 duction, heredity, age, and the manifold patho- 
 logical disturbances of the normal state. It is not 
 surprising that the keenest activity exists in these 
 interesting fields of work, and we may safely hope 
 that provision will be made for biological research 
 in the new Kaiser-Wilhelm institutes. 
 
 " The example given by the magnificent institute 
 here in Berlin for the study of the problems of the 
 industries connected with fermentation, in which 
 the results of scientific research meet the practical 
 
48 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 requirements of brewers and distillers, serves to 
 show how fruitful can be the collaboration of 
 biologists and chemists. This institute has con- 
 tributed its share to the small exhibition here this 
 evening by a series of beautiful mould cultures and 
 yeast preparations. 
 
 " Moreover, chemical and many other industries 
 have derived great benefit from organic chemistry. 
 A few examples from recent times will illustrate 
 this fact. 
 
 " The most widely distributed of all the carbo- 
 hydrates is cellulose, of which cotton and linen are 
 entirely composed, and which is the chief constitu- 
 ent of wood and plant fibres. And what a variety 
 of articles is nowadays manufactured from cellu- 
 lose! Paper, collodion, celluloid, photographic 
 films, smokeless powder, artificial silk, artificial 
 hair, artificial leather. 
 
 "Paper, in this Paper Age, is not a substance 
 which requires exhibition here ; the same may be 
 said of celluloid and collodion. I have not brought 
 here samples of smokeless powder and the other 
 high explosives derived from cellulose, as the 
 Ministry of Education seems a place far too peace- 
 ful for their exhibition. But you see before you 
 artificial silk, horsehair and films, in diverse and 
 magnificent array. These come from the works 
 of Furst Guido von Donnersmarck ; and not to 
 omit mention of his competitors, I here show you 
 some photographic films manufactured by the 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 49 
 
 Berlin Anilinfabrik, which, unlike the ordinary 
 variety, burn only with the greatest difficulty. All 
 these products have been prepared by ingenious 
 combinations of chemical and mechanical pro- 
 cesses." 
 
 The history of artificial silk is an interesting 
 one. It is a step in that line of artificiality which 
 constitutes the progress of man. A change which 
 has completely transformed human industries, and 
 to which the principal features which distinguish 
 civilisation from savagery are traceable, is the 
 substitution of an artificial for a natural product. 
 
 After the discovery of nitrocellulose (pyroxylin, 
 gun-cotton) by Schonbein and Bottger in 1846, 
 repeated attempts were made to produce artificial 
 silk from this material, but without success until 
 Count Chardonnet of Besancon devised about the 
 year 1885 his process of drawing fine threads of 
 collodion through water, obtaining by this means 
 fibres sufficiently tough to weave. Owing to the 
 highly inflammable nature of nitrocellulose the 
 danger of fire rendered the resulting fabric unsafe 
 to wear. To remedy this drawback, Chardonnet 
 adopted a process of "denitration," by which the 
 material was relieved of this dangerous tendency. 
 In addition to this outstanding advantage over the 
 celluloid product not thus denitrated, the new 
 material possesses the property of being readily 
 dyed. It bears every physical resemblance with 
 the one exception that it burns rather more freely 
 
50 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 to natural silk, and many people buy large quan- 
 tities of it under the impression that it is the 
 genuine article of animal origin. 
 
 The chemist has long recognised that it is 
 impracticable to filter a solution of copper hydrox- 
 ide in aqueous ammonia by the usual methods, 
 owing to the ready solubility of the filter paper 
 in this mixture. This fact has been utilised in 
 the manufacture of the well-known commodities 
 termed " Willesden Paper/' " Willesden Cloth," 
 and " Willesden Canvas." In these materials the 
 surface of the texture has been dissolved in ammo- 
 niacal copper hydroxide, and the solution allowed 
 to set, thus rendering the paper or canvas imper- 
 vious to water and free from any tendency to rot. 
 Of late years a process has been developed where- 
 by such a cellulose solution is forced through glass 
 capillary openings, and the resulting stream coagu- 
 lated to a tough thread by passage through a 
 weak acid. After further washing and subsequent 
 drying, these threads can be spun and woven into 
 textures which are distinguishable from real silk 
 only by chemical tests. Enormous quantities of 
 this material are now manufactured in Germany 
 and France. 
 
 Another substitute for silk which is now ex- 
 tensively employed has developed from the old 
 process of " mercerisation." It has long been 
 known that on treating cotton with an alkaline 
 solution a shiny and resistant surface is imparted 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 51 
 
 to the fibre. Such mercerised cotton, in its superior 
 qualities, is largely employed as a substitute for 
 silk under the name of " spun silk." If the process 
 of mercerisation be carried further, the celluloid 
 swells up into a gelatinous mass, which remains, 
 however, insoluble in water. In 1892 Cross, Bevan 
 and Beadle made the striking discovery that if to 
 such a mixture a small proportion of carbon bi- 
 sulphide be added, the cellulose enters completely 
 into solution, yielding a viscous liquid. For this 
 new substance, which they termed " Viscose," they 
 obtained a patent. For a variety of unexpected 
 reasons the invention failed to find immediate and 
 permanent application, and in 1906 it was accorded 
 the rare distinction of an extension of the patent 
 for a further period of five years. During this last 
 lustrum, however, it has been found possible to 
 produce from it fibres from which textures closely 
 resembling silk can be woven, and the cheapness 
 of the process gives it so great an advantage that 
 it may confidently be expected to replace entirely, 
 not only the natural silk, but also the less inexpen- 
 sive silk substitutes at present manufactured. 
 
 Lastly, a comparative failure must be recorded. 
 Cellulose acetate, which at first sight appeared to 
 contain the germ of a promising artificial silk in- 
 dustry, has met with but little success in this field, 
 owing to the expense of its production and the 
 brittle nature of its fibres. 
 
 It need scarcely be stated that all the substitutes 
 
 D 2 
 
52 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 for silk above enumerated bear not the faintest 
 resemblance to the natural product in chemical 
 composition. Cellulose, the parent substance of 
 all these, is a carbohydrate, a member of the class 
 to which belong starch and the sugars, while true 
 silk is to be grouped among the proteids, of which 
 multitudinous family albumen and gelatine are 
 typical members. The resemblance between silk 
 and its substitutes is therefore to be found ex- 
 clusively among the purely physical characteristics. 
 
 The subject of photographic films is intimately 
 connected with that of artificial silk. Until the 
 year 1887 photography was only for professional 
 photographers and those amateurs who had 
 sufficient enthusiasm to carry with them on their 
 expeditions some pounds of glass plates. The 
 advent of nitrocellulose opened up the fascinating 
 field of 'photography to all. It is certainly true 
 that before the introduction of celluloid films 
 nitrocellulose was employed in the form of wet 
 collodion plates, but these, as photographers of 
 long standing will recollect with a shudder, were 
 an abomination, from which we were mercifully 
 relieved by the introduction of gelatine dry plates. 
 With the invention of the photographic film the 
 art of " snapshotting " first began to assume 
 the position which it at present holds among 
 the resources of the observant traveller, 
 
 Celluloid films, first introduced by Eastman in 
 the year 1887, are manufactured by preparing a 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 53 
 
 viscous solution of nitrocellulose in some such 
 solvent as acetone or amyl acetate, together with 
 a softening agent usually camphor and pouring 
 this evenly on to a smooth surface. The solvent 
 volatilises, leaving a lustrous film, which is there- 
 upon stripped from the supporting surface. The 
 film is then coated on one side in a non-actinic 
 light with sensitised gelatine containing silver 
 bromide in emulsion and cut up into suitable 
 strips. Owing to the strain exerted by the shrink- 
 age of the sensitive emulsion, the films so prepared 
 tend to curl up into tight rolls after development 
 and drying. This defect has been remedied of 
 recent years by coating the reverse side of the 
 film with a layer of non-sensitised gelatine. The 
 stress is thus equalised on the two sides, and flat 
 films result. 
 
 An important branch of the photographic in- 
 dustry, assuming enormous proportions at the 
 present time, is that due to the perfecting of the 
 cinematograph. In the reproducing apparatus a 
 narrow film, of which the standard length is no 
 less than 400 feet, and covered with a multitudi- 
 nous sequence of small individual photographs, is 
 passed by rapid jerks between an electric arc light 
 and an enlarging lens. Owing to the intense heat 
 of the arc and the highly inflammable nature of 
 the celluloid film, it is absolutely essential that the 
 film should not remain stationary for more than a 
 minute fraction of a second at a time, and hence 
 
54 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 any breakdown of the mechanism may lead to 
 disastrous fires. This danger was exemplified by 
 the deplorable catastrophe in Paris in May 1897, 
 in which no less than 132 persons lost their lives. 
 The need for non-inflammable films has therefore 
 been urgent. Such films were soon invented, the 
 base __ employed being acetate of cellulose, dis- 
 covered in 1879 by Franchimont in the course of 
 a scientific investigation on derivatives of cellulose, 
 and shown by Cross and Bevan in 1894 to be 
 suitable for the manufacture of films and filaments. 
 Owing, however, to the increased cost of manu- 
 facture and the diminished durability of these 
 films as compared with the celluloid product, acetyl 
 cellulose films have met with only transitory 
 success in this field, but other derivatives of cellu- 
 lose, of different chemical nature, are rapidly coming 
 into employment for this purpose. It is thus seen 
 that at every turn scientific research responds to the 
 appeals of industry. 
 
 A further development of the photographic art 
 is colour photography, which has recently entered 
 the domain of the amateur. The three-colour 
 process has long been known, but owing to the 
 fact that its component images require superposi- 
 tion in exact register, it has proved to be adaptable 
 only to the production of chromolithographic 
 prints. 
 
 In 1906 the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere 
 patented their process for single-plate colour 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 55 
 
 photography, the first to prove a practical success. 
 In this the plates are prepared by staining grains 
 of potato starch with the three primary colours 
 red, yellowish-green and blue scattering these 
 evenly on a glass plate coated with an adhesive 
 varnish and pressing them flat in order to ensure 
 as close a contact between them as possible. The 
 interstices are then filled with a black pigment. 
 After varnishing this microscopic mosaic of colours, 
 the surface is coated with a panchromatic sensitised 
 emulsion. It may be noted that the panchromati- 
 sation of emulsions is in itself a complicated 
 process, involving the fruits of much chemical 
 experimentation. 
 
 After exposing the plate from the back, through 
 the screen, and developing in the ordinary way, 
 the free silver forming the negative image is dis- 
 solved out by an acid solution of permanganate 
 and the residual unchanged silver bromide fogged 
 by light and again developed. By this procedure 
 a positive image is obtained, in which the true 
 colours of the original appear on the plate. 
 
 One of the disadvantages of this process is the 
 necessity of degrading the entire effect of the 
 image by the admixture of the black pigment. 
 Plates and films are now manufactured in which 
 the coloured starch grains are replaced by a " raster " 
 of closely-ruled hatched lines of the primary 
 colours. It is interesting to note that MM. 
 Lumiere, after overcoming the manifold difficulties 
 
56 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 of their colour plate, have placed the manufacture 
 in other hands, and again turned to pure scientific 
 research. 
 
 The colouring matters involved in the preparation 
 of colour-plates are themselves the products of one 
 of the most important chemical industries. Here, 
 again, we see the foundation of a vast field of 
 manufacture based entirely on abstract chemical 
 experimentation. 
 
 The most important branch of the dyestuff 
 industry finds its raw materials in the products of 
 the distillation of coal. In 1856 the late Sir 
 William Perkin, while examining the impure 
 aniline available at that date, was led to try the 
 effect of oxidising agents upon it. He was instantly 
 rewarded with an uninviting purple precipitate, 
 which most of the chemists of his day would have 
 at once thrown into the sink. Yet such was his 
 perseverance that from this unpromising product 
 he was able to prepare the first of the protean 
 series of coal-tar dyes : " Mauvine." It was not 
 long before he was preparing several such colouring 
 matters on the manufacturing scale. Mauvine it- 
 self, though the first, found no very wide application, 
 and on the withdrawal of the penny stamps of 
 that colour, some ten years ago, its employment 
 practically ceased. 
 
 It stands to the lasting discredit of England that 
 shortly after Perkin had retired from the manu- 
 facture of these dyestuffs, and had re-entered the 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 57 
 
 field of purely scientific activity, the industry was 
 transferred in its entirety to Germany. The factory 
 at Greenford in which the first coal-tar colours 
 were manufactured remains to this day deserted. 
 Were adequate interest taken in the welfare of 
 research in this country there should be no reason 
 why such industries should migrate to the other 
 side of the North Sea so soon after their initiation. 
 Artificial preventatives, such as the new Patent 
 Act, do more harm than good to inventors and to 
 industry. Furtherance of scientific research, not 
 industrial palliatives, is required. The smokeless 
 stacks of the Greenford ruin may thus stand as a 
 monumental reminder of the neglected claims of 
 science. 
 
 Hofmann, one of the greatest of organic chemists, 
 in his report on the Exhibition of 1862, made the 
 following prediction : 
 
 "England will, beyond question, at no 
 distant day, become herself the greatest 
 colour-producing country in the world, nay, 
 by the strangest of revolutions, she may, ere 
 long, send her coal-derived blues to indigo- 
 growing India, her tar-distilled crimsons to 
 cochineal-producing Mexico, and fter fossil 
 substitutes for quercitron and safHower to 
 China, Japan, and the other countries whence 
 these articles are now derived." 
 Hofmann's prediction was certainly correct from 
 a scientific point of view ; but England has not 
 
58 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 justified her promise, and it is Germany which 
 sends the synthetical dyestuffs to those countries 
 whence the corresponding products of nature were 
 formerly exported. 
 
 Hundreds of synthetic dyes are at present on 
 the market, and the value of the dyestuffs yearly 
 produced in Germany approximates to fifteen 
 millions of pounds sterling. The manufacture has 
 attained such importance that complete courses of 
 lectures on the subject are delivered to chemical 
 students in the German universities. 
 
 In addition to the production of entirely new 
 dyes, synthetical organic chemistry has been able 
 to reproduce many of the natural colouring matters 
 long in use, and this, moreover, at less cost The 
 first important natural dyestuff to be thus obtained 
 was indigo, its synthesis being effected by von 
 Baeyer in 1882. "This synthetical product," Pro- 
 fessor Fischer continued, " is not only much purer 
 in composition and colour than the natural dyestuff, 
 but also considerably less expensive. On this 
 account the cultivation of the indigo plant in India 
 has diminished to one-sixth of the original extent, 
 and will in all probability soon disappear altogether. 
 Woollen and cotton goods are now dyed with 
 German indigo even in Asia, to which continent 
 a quantity of indigo worth no less than 1,900,000 
 was exported in the year 1909." 
 
 It is but right, however, to point out that the 
 recent work of Bloxam and his collaborators has 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 59 
 
 demonstrated the possibility of recovering from the 
 leaf a yield of indigo increased to such a degree 
 that the cost of production is, if anything, less than 
 that of the synthetical product. Moreover, natural 
 indigo is stated by some authorities to possess 
 certain benign impurities which render it more suit- 
 able for dyeing purposes. It may therefore come 
 to pass that the great indigo plantations in India 
 once again blossom forth under scientific guidance. 
 
 Another synthetic dyestuff which has almost 
 entirely replaced the natural product is alizarine. 
 First synthesised in 1869 by Graebe and Lieber- 
 mann, by a happy combination of insight and good 
 fortune, it rapidly came into use in place of the 
 madder formerly so extensively grown. At that 
 period the value of the madder annually produced 
 in France amounted to ; 1,700,000. After the intro- 
 duction of alizarine the price of the root fell to one- 
 fifth its former amount, resulting in an immediate 
 increase in the activity of the dyeing industries. 
 The plantations in France which formerly produced 
 the madder root are now devoted to more lucrative 
 crops. Madder is at present cultivated only in the 
 Caucasus and in India, in which countries, owing 
 to some peculiarity of the soil, the root provides 
 more alizarine than in France. 
 
 "While on this subject, I may refer to the two 
 most important colouring matters of animal and 
 vegetable life, chlorophyll and haemoglobin. The 
 former plays an important part in the chemical 
 
60 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 process upon which all life depends I refer to the 
 conversion of the atmospheric carbon dioxide into 
 sugar, which takes place in green leaves under the 
 influence of sunlight. The red pigment in the 
 blood fulfils in our own bodies the important 
 function of transporting the oxygen from our lungs 
 to the tissues, thus rendering possible that process 
 of combustion which forms the basis of our bodily 
 and mental strength. 
 
 " I here show to you," Prof. Fischer proceeded, 
 " two specimens of pure chlorophyll, one of which is 
 crystalline. I owe these rare preparations to Pro- 
 fessor R. Willstatter, of Zurich, who of recent years 
 has been studying this colouring matter with 
 remarkably successful results. Haemoglobin also 
 has lately been thoroughly investigated in Stuttgart 
 and in Munich, and the remarkable conclusion has 
 been drawn from these investigations that chloro- 
 phylll and haemoglobin are closely related. This 
 fact thus denotes a species of consanguinity between 
 the animal and vegetable kingdoms. This must, 
 however, be of great antiquity that is to say, to 
 date from remote times when the animal and 
 vegetable kingdoms were as yet not distinct." 
 
 We have just seen how two great natural in- 
 dustriesthe cultivation of the indigo and the 
 madder plants have been forced to the wall by 
 the synthetical manufacture of the requisite com- 
 ponents of their produce. Temporary disturbance 
 is no doubt occasioned to capitalists, merchants 
 and operatives, by these reorganisations of trade, 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 6l 
 
 but to imagine such changes harmful would be as 
 unreasoning as was the action of the Blackburn 
 mob of cotton spinners who broke in pieces Har- 
 greaves 5 spinning jenny. 
 
 At the present day we are witnessing the pro- 
 gress of a revolution destined to destroy one of the 
 greatest industries in existence : the cultivation 
 of indiarubber, which is yearly consumed to the 
 value of thirty-five millions sterling. The seed of 
 this industrial revolution was sown so long ago as 
 the year 1837, on the discovery of a volatile liquid 
 at that time to all appearances merely a chemical 
 curiosity and of no technical importance termed 
 "isoprene" by its discoverer, Bouchardat, who 
 indeed found that it would be partially converted 
 into a rubber-like product. But as the general 
 principles of organic chemistry were at that time 
 but little known, for years no particular attention 
 was given to this substance, until it was found that 
 on merely allowing it to stand by itself it underwent 
 a spontaneous chemical change (polymerisation), 
 with formation of dipentene, a member of the 
 turpentine family and closely connected with oil of 
 lemon. Further study was therefore accorded to 
 this peculiar property of isoprene, and in 1892 Sir 
 William Tilden showed conclusively that under 
 certain circumstances it could be induced to yield 
 indiarubber. As, however, the preparation of 
 isoprene involved either the destructive distillation 
 of indiarubber itself or a synthetic process even 
 more costly, this discovery was little more than an 
 
62 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 indication of the possibility of synthesising this 
 valuable product. 
 
 Matters remained in this condition until the 
 year 1909, when, after long experimentation, two 
 chemists of the Elberfelder Farbwerke, Drs. Hof- 
 mann and Coutelle, devised a process by which 
 isoprene could be manufactured on a cheap com- 
 mercial scale. The problem then consisted merely 
 in ascertaining the most satisfactory method of 
 converting the isoprene into indiarubber. Final 
 solution of this problem has as yet not been at- 
 tained ; nevertheless, indiarubber has been pro- 
 duced in considerable quantities merely by heating 
 the liquid in sealed vessels. It is extremely pro- 
 bable that this method will form the basis of the 
 final process ; research is at present being directed 
 towards the question of best conditions. " That 
 the product," Prof. Fischer went on to say, " is really 
 indiarubber has been definitely established by the 
 scientific investigations of Professor Harries in Kiel, 
 a high authority on this subject, who has since 
 independently devised another process for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 " When synthetic chemistry has once entered 
 such a field, it is not confined to the particular 
 product occurring in nature, but is able to bring 
 forth a whole series of similar substances. It is 
 therefore not surprising that other rubber-like 
 substances should have been prepared, not from 
 isoprene, but from similar liquids; such as dimethyl- 
 butadiene. Such products are termed homologues. 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 63 
 
 They possess properties closely resembling those of 
 indiarubber, but differ slightly in chemical constitu- 
 tion. It is, as yet, not decided which of these 
 synthetical substances forms the most suitable sub- 
 stitute for indiarubber. The same applies to the 
 far more important question of cost of production. 
 But when one considers the fate of natural indigo, 
 of madder, and of other natural products, one may 
 hope to see synthetical indiarubber gradually enter 
 into successful competition with the naturally- 
 occurring commodity." 
 
 Artificial substitutes for a similar product, resin, 
 and for amber, a petrified resin, are also now manu- 
 factured commercially. Artificial amber was first 
 prepared from a mixture of formalin and carbolic 
 acid, by Story in England in the year 1905. Since 
 that time an American chemist, Baekeland, has 
 developed this process in its technical aspect ; and 
 the product, termed " Bakelite," manufactured by 
 his company, is employed for the production of 
 such articles as combs, necklaces, and cigar- 
 holders. 
 
 Camphor is now being synthesised on a large 
 scale from turpentine and similar products. This 
 synthesis is not of a particularly striking nature, as 
 the chemical constitution of camphor is closely 
 related to that of the chief constituent of the oil of 
 turpentine. Nevertheless, the utilisation of a cheap 
 material for the production of one more valuable is 
 instructive, especially so in this case, as many un- 
 successful attempts to effect this transformation 
 
64 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 had been made before a process which was even a 
 laboratory success was hit upon. Camphor, more- 
 over, had been synthesised on a small scale from 
 simpler substances before its production from 
 turpentine was shown to be possible. With the 
 advent of the technical synthesis of camphor, and 
 the consequent fall in price, the monopoly of this 
 commodity, held by the Japanese after the annexa- 
 tion of Formosa, was broken down. 
 
 In addition to camphor, which indeed is by no 
 means employed exclusively as a medicament, a host 
 of other drugs is now prepared synthetically on a 
 commercial scale. A few naturally-occurring drugs, 
 such as caffein, have been reproduced synthetically, 
 but by far- the majority of these are new compounds, 
 not met with in nature, which have been discovered 
 by chemical research, and whose valuable medicinal 
 properties have been established by physiological 
 research. 
 
 " In this bottle," Prof. Fischer proceeded, " you 
 see a white powder veronal which is a hypnotic 
 largely employed at the present day. It is in no 
 way connected with the older vegetable narcotics 
 opium, etc. but is entirely a synthetical product. 
 One-tenth of this quantity would suffice to send 
 this entire gathering into a peaceful slumber. But 
 should the mere demonstration of this soporific 
 acting in conjunction with this lecture of mine take 
 effect on any susceptible persons present, there is 
 no better remedy than the cup of tea which we are 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 65 
 
 to enjoy later, for tea contains a chemical substance 
 which stimulates the heart and nervous system. 
 This is also present in coffee, in which it was dis- 
 covered ninety years ago by Runge in this country. 
 The humorously inclined discoverer termed it 
 * Kaffebasee/ l which name, however, was afterwards 
 changed to the more distinguished * caffein.' 
 
 " Caffein was first synthesised in the laboratory 
 of the University of Berlin exactly fifteen years 
 ago, this synthesis leading to its manufacture on a 
 large scale. It is prepared in large quantities from 
 uric acid, a constituent of guano, but has undergone 
 such a complete chemical transformation and puri- 
 fication that it no longer possesses the unpleasant 
 characteristics of the raw material from which it is 
 manufactured. The chemist may therefore apply 
 to such substances the remark made by the Em- 
 peror Vespasian concerning the tax-money which 
 came to him from an unclean source : non olet (it 
 has no smell). 
 
 " Caffein is the active principle of tea, coffee, 
 kola and Paraguay tea (mate), so that, after alcohol, 
 it is certainly the most widely employed stimulant. 
 When organic chemistry succeeds in the task, an 
 entirely possible one, of synthetically reproducing 
 the aroma of tea and coffee, there will be nothing 
 to hinder the artificial preparation of these bever- 
 ages ; and when the Minister of Education invites 
 
 i The word has the double meaning of " coffee base " and 
 " gossip." 
 
66 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 a gathering to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 
 the Kaiser-Wilhelm Society, the repast, I hope, 
 will comprise synthetical tea. 
 
 " Organic synthesis is not limited to vegetable 
 products only, but embraces with equal fearless- 
 ness substances of animal origin. An instructive 
 example of this may be found in a remarkable 
 compound, adrenalin, which is formed in our own 
 bodies in the suprarenal glands, and which plays 
 an important part in the regulation of the blood 
 pressure. Shortly after its isolation 1 in a pure 
 condition from these glands, Dr. F. Stolz, chemist 
 to the dye factory at Hochst, was able to synthe- 
 sise it from constituents of coal-tar. This syn- 
 thetical product has now been placed on the 
 market by the Hochst firm under the name of 
 * Suprarenin.' A very dilute solution of the sub- 
 stance causes powerful contraction of the blood 
 vessels, and consequent dispersal of blood from the 
 tissues. A skin surface well charged with blood 
 as, for instance, a red nose is instantly rendered 
 quite pale on painting it with such a solution. 
 Unfortunately, the colour is not evenly discharged, 
 owing to the varying permeability of the epidermis, 
 and as the action of the drug soon ceases, with 
 return of the original redness, adrenalin is not 
 suitable as a cosmetic. On the other hand, it finds 
 most useful application in surgery, as by its means 
 certain incisions can be made without loss of blood ; 
 
 1 The work of Takamine, a Japanese chemist, in 1901. 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 67 
 
 this is found particularly convenient for operations 
 on the eye, mouth and nose." 
 
 Other drugs, prepared during the course of chemi- 
 cal research without reference to their possible 
 utilisation, but since shown to possess antipyretic, 
 analgesic, or similar physiological actions, are 
 acetanilide (antifebrin), phenyl salicylate (salol), 
 acetylsalicylic acid (aspirine), phenacetine, anti- 
 pyrine, and many others. Certain of these, as for 
 instance antipyrine, have proved of immense value 
 to mankind, and incidentally to the chemist fortu- 
 nate enough to discover the substance and at the 
 same time to realise its pharmacological import- 
 ance. The majority of alkaloids, such as quinine, 
 cinchonine and nicotine, have already been synthe- 
 sised in the laboratory, although this has not yet 
 proved remunerative on a commercial scale. 
 
 A medicament which has recently formed the 
 subject of much discussion, and which bids fair to 
 contribute a rapid cure for one of the most terrible 
 scourges of mankind, is that originally known as 
 " Ehrlich-Hata," now as " Salvarsan," but most 
 familiarly as "606." The story of the origin of 
 this remedy is instructive, especially as it would 
 appear to be a popular delusion that its discovery 
 was merely fortuitous. The reverse was actually 
 the case, though a long series of compounds was 
 examined before one was found which answered 
 the requirements of the scientific theory. 
 
 Professor Ehrlich, the distinguished physiologist, 
 
 E 2 
 
68 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 discovered some years ago that the parasitical 
 protozoa connected with sleeping sickness, syphilis, 
 and allied diseases, were selectively stained by the 
 action of dyestuffs containing a particular system 
 of groups. These diseases have been shown to be 
 due to the presence of minute living organisms, 
 termed protozoa, in the blood of the patient. The 
 protozoa particularly connected with such maladies 
 are known as " trypanosomes " or " spirochaetes " ; 
 the genus appearing in cases of syphilis being 
 named " spirilla pallida." 
 
 Dyestuffs may be described as being made up of 
 two essential parts : the colour-causing part of the 
 molecule ; and that system of atomic groupings 
 which renders the colouring matter capable of 
 affixing itself upon tissues. Ehrlich confirmed his 
 experiments by testing the effect of other dyes upon 
 the trypanosomes, ascertaining that no matter what 
 grouping constituted the colour-bearing part of the 
 molecule, these protozoa were always selectively 
 dyed by colouring matters which contained this 
 particular grouping of atoms. From this observa- 
 tion he concluded that it might prove of service to 
 replace the colour-bearing group by a toxic group, 
 in the hope that by the selective attachment of the 
 molecule to the protozoon, this parasite would be 
 poisoned without causing a deleterious effect on 
 any other organism or tissue in the body of the 
 host. The Hochster Farbwerke accordingly under- 
 took the preparation of a series of organic com- 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 69 
 
 pounds of arsenic which would satisfy the above 
 structural conditions, and as soon as each of these 
 was prepared, its effect on the spirilla and on the 
 living organism was tested by Ehrlich and his 
 assistants. After no less than six hundred and 
 five of these compounds had been examined and 
 had met with little or no success, one was found 
 which appeared to meet all the conditions of the 
 theory. This was " dihydroxydiaminoarseno- 
 benzene." Ehrlich's assistant in the experiments 
 on this substance was a Japanese investigator, 
 Hata, whose name has been associated with that of 
 Ehrlich in the designation first adopted for the 
 remedy. Medical men are still divided as to the 
 degree of its efficacy, but the consensus of opinion 
 points to the entire justification of its claims, and 
 the fact remains that many extremely rapid and 
 apparently permanent cures have been effected by 
 its means. In the last few days, news has been 
 received from Surinam that it has been found to 
 be of equal efficacy in the cure of the allied disease 
 of yaws, caused by a similar spirochaete. 
 
 A substance which is not a drug in the strict 
 sense of the word, but which deserves mention in 
 this connection, is saccharine. Synthesised in 1879 
 by Remsen and Fahlberg, its extremely sweet taste 
 was discovered by accident. It is stated to be five 
 hundred times sweeter than cane sugar, and as it is 
 manufactured from certain products of coal tar, it 
 has been poetically termed " the honey of pre- 
 
70 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 historic bees." Its chief application is to the diet 
 of diabetics, since it passes through the body un- 
 changed. So dangerous a rival to sugar is it, that 
 in all countries in which the sugar beet is cultivated 
 a prohibitive protective duty is enforced. Here we 
 see a modern and more subtle equivalent of the 
 action of the Blackburn spinners towards the 
 spinning jenny. 
 
 Synthetic chemistry has reproduced not only the 
 sweetness of honey, but the sweet scents of flowers. 
 " The scent industry has received a powerful im- 
 petus from synthesis, and yearly turns out in 
 Germany alone goods of the value of more than 
 two million pounds. I shall here show you a few 
 of its numerous products. This bottle contains 
 ionone, an artificial violet-scent discovered in the 
 laboratory of this University by the late Professor 
 F. Tiemann. The contents of this bottle would be 
 sufficient to envelop not only the Ministry of Educa- 
 tion, but the entire avenue ' Unter den Linden ' in an 
 atmosphere of violet perfume, for the osmophoric 
 value of these subtances is extraordinarily high. 
 
 "In contradistinction to the simple ionone, the 
 majority of the natural odours of flowers are due 
 to complex mixtures of different scents. These, 
 nevertheless, have been successfully reproduced. 
 Among the scents here displayed are lily-of-the- 
 valley, mock-orange, lilac, tuberose, and, finally, 
 the greatest achievement, synthetical attar of roses. 
 Although the natural oil from roses contains 
 some twenty different odorous substances the 
 
MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS 71 
 
 chemists of the chief scent factories at Leipzig have 
 succeeded, after laborious research, in isolating all 
 the components, synthesising them, or preparing 
 them from less costly oils, and then reuniting them 
 in the correct proportions. It now requires a 
 sensitive nose indeed to distinguish the synthetical 
 attar of roses from the natural product." 
 
 The synthesis of scents is directly founded upon 
 the most difficult and complicated processes of 
 chemical research, although odorous constituents 
 of many natural essences, such as the oils of winter- 
 green or of cloves, have long been recognised as 
 simple organic substances. 
 
 Professor Fischer's address concludes with the 
 hopeful words : " These examples show the success 
 which has followed the encroachment of synthetic 
 organic chemistry on nature's realm. What I have 
 already said is sufficient to prove that chemistry 
 offers us the true field of unlimited possibilities. 
 The Kaiser-Wilhelm institutes are henceforth to 
 take part in the expansion of this domain and the 
 appropriation of the treasures hidden therein. 
 
 " It is, of course, not to be expected that they will 
 entirely supplant all the older scientific institutions. 
 We of the older institutions do not feel by any 
 means so weak as willingly to allow such an event 
 to occur. On the contrary, we shall exert our best 
 energies to maintain a keen competition with the 
 younger institutes. This will serve to keep both 
 sides fresh and active. 
 
 " But there can be no doubt that these godchildren 
 
72 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 of the German Emperor will in the healthy air of 
 Grunewald soon develop full strength from the 
 liberal nutrition supplied by their patrons, and 
 grow up into renowned centres of research. 
 
 "We may therefore confidently hope that in 
 later years the foundation to-day of the Kaiser- 
 Wilhelm Society will be regarded as an unmixed 
 blessing to scientific research in Germany." 
 
 From the above brief survey we have seen how 
 scientific research, whether by direct intention or 
 by happy accident, has benefited and continues to 
 benefit the inhabitants of this globe in countless 
 ways. We have also seen how the nation which 
 possesses sufficient insight to devote an adequate 
 measure of its resources to the furtherance of re- 
 search has been that which has acquired a control 
 over the scientific industries unparalleled in any 
 other country. It must be patent to all thinking 
 men that the general welfare of England can 
 ultimately be increased only by following the lead 
 thus set by our German neighbours. That this fact 
 is appreciated from a medical aspect is shown by 
 the recent foundation of the Lister Institute of 
 Preventive Medicine ; but Medicine requires the 
 support of all its fellow sciences, and would, if left 
 unaided, be unable to progress. It must not be 
 imagined that the call for such institutions as the 
 Kaiser- Wilhelm Society is any whit less urgent in 
 England, or indeed in any other civilised country, 
 than it is in Germany. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 SINCE the beginning of the present century 
 chemistry has taken an altogether unexpected, 
 and even astounding, development. We have 
 seen how the advent of radium has heralded the 
 return of the long-discarded ideas as to the trans- 
 formation of the elements, not according to the 
 alchemistical doctrine of the transmutation of the 
 baser metals into gold, but in the sense of the 
 spontaneous conversion of one element into a lower 
 member of the same group in the periodic table. 
 This conversion, termed degradation, consists in 
 the splitting up of heavier atoms into lighter ones. 
 
 Just as the chemists of the time of Wohler stood 
 on the threshold of organic synthesis, which has 
 engendered such marvels as Professor Emil Fischer's 
 synthetical proteid bodies, so do we now stand 
 confronted with elemental transformations. It 
 has been proved beyond cavil that inactive uranium 
 spontaneously yields radio-active uranium-X, and 
 that the active element radium yields its gaseous 
 emanation (niton), which in turn breaks down to 
 the inactive and chemically inert gas helium. But 
 indication's of even more striking and suggestive 
 
 73 
 
74 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 transformations have been obtained, particularly by 
 Sir William Ramsay. 
 
 It is known that niton, by virtue of its radio- 
 active energy, can induce both synthetic and 
 analytic chemical changes. It thus not only 
 causes the partial combination of a mixture of 
 hydrogen and oxygen, but exerts a disruptive 
 effect on water, with formation of these same gases. 
 On treatment of a solution of silver nitrate in like 
 manner, instead of obtaining oxygen and hydrogen, 
 Ramsay found that the hydrogen was almost 
 completely absorbed, metallic silver and oxgyen 
 being produced. He therefore tried the effect of 
 niton upon a solution of copper sulphate, in the 
 expectation that free copper would similarly be 
 precipitated. No such reaction took place. The 
 solution, after prolonged contact with the radio- 
 active emanation, showed, on spectroscopical 
 analysis, the entirely unexpected presence of lithium, 
 a metal closely allied in chemical properties to 
 sodium. As traces of lithium are frequently con- 
 tained in glass and almost invariably in commercial 
 copper sulphate, this experiment was repeated with 
 great care on several occasions, and controlled 
 by blank tests in which one or the other of 
 the interacting substances was omitted. But the 
 result indicated by the original observation was 
 upheld. The presence of lithium was detected in 
 all those cases, and in those only, in which niton 
 was brought into contact with solutions of copper 
 
CONCLUSION 75 
 
 salts. From the results of this exhaustive series of 
 experiments little doubt can remain that an actual 
 transmutation had been effected. Moreover, if the 
 principle of such a transformation be conceded, 
 there is no prima facie reason for doubting the 
 conversion of copper into lithium, for an inspection 
 of the periodic table will reveal the position of 
 copper on one of the sub-branches of the group of 
 which lithium is the first metallic member. 
 
 Nor was this all. Niton, in common with all 
 radio-active elements, is invested with an enormous 
 store of energy, in the expenditure of which 
 elemental degradations are invariably a con- 
 comitant. It has already been stated that niton 
 has been shown to be an element, and that a place 
 for it in the periodic table has been found in the 
 group of inert gases, as is shown by the scheme : 
 
 Element A tornic weight 
 
 Helium .... 4*0 
 
 Neon .... 20*2 
 
 Argon . . . 39-9 
 
 Krypton .... 82*9 
 
 Xenon . . . 130*2 
 
 (Unknown). . . . 
 
 Niton .... 222-5 
 
 It has also been stated that, when allowed to 
 decompose spontaneously, it yields helium. The 
 energy inherent in this element degrades it, 
 therefore, to the lowest member of the group. 
 
76 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 Now when water is decomposed by the agency of 
 niton, a portion of the available energy is absorbed 
 in effecting this reaction ; and Ramsay has shown 
 conclusively that the inert gas formed by the 
 degradation of the radio-active emanation in the 
 presence of water contains only a minute propor- 
 tion of helium, and consists almost entirely of neon. 
 It is therefore evident that, on diverting some of 
 the energy, the degradation does not proceed so far. 
 
 It is easy to imagine that ^ven more energy 
 would be required to disintegrate copper into 
 lithium than to effect the decomposition of water. 
 And this is borne out by the experiments of 
 Ramsay on the interaction of niton with solutions 
 of copper salts ; for among the products of this 
 reaction he detected no trace of either helium or 
 neon, argon being the sole representative of the 
 group of inert gases. Hence what we may assume 
 to be a further diversion of energy from the 
 degradation of the niton has resulted in the arrest 
 of this process at a correspondingly earlier stage. 
 
 Indications, moreover, of similar transforma- 
 tions are not wanting. Ramsay enclosed thorium 
 nitrate in evacuated glass vessels, and found that 
 the gases present in the vessel on opening after the 
 lapse of some months consisted largely of carbon 
 dioxide. In blank experiments, in which mercury 
 nitrate was subjected to exactly the same con- 
 ditions, only the merest trace of carbon dioxide 
 was perceptible. Under the circumstances obtain- 
 
CONCLUSION 77 
 
 ing in these experiments no explanation of the 
 presence of considerable quantities of carbon 
 dioxide can be advanced unless it is assumed 
 that thorium spontaneously breaks down into 
 carbon. 
 
 The results of the experiments above outlined 
 are undoubtedly indicative of the possibility of 
 inducing elemental transmutation, and although 
 this principle has as yet not found favour in the eyes 
 of some of the more sceptical and conservative 
 of scientific authorities, they undoubtedly justify 
 further investigation. 
 
 Prophecy, which has been well defined as the 
 most gratuitous form of error, may perhaps be 
 permitted in view of these observations of Ramsay. 
 We are far from being in a position to realise the 
 sordid dreams of the alchemists ; the production, 
 by means of a chemical transmutation, of gold from 
 baser elements does not fall into line with our 
 present ideas. For not only would an inconceiv- 
 able amount of energy be involved in the prepara- 
 tion, by such a transformation, of a quantity of 
 gold equivalent to even the smallest coin of that 
 metal, but no palpable advantage to humanity 
 would be gained were it actually found possible to 
 produce gold cheaply on a large scale. Gold has 
 but slight technical value, its artificially precious 
 quality being due to its comparative rarity, its 
 durability, and to its employment as a token of 
 exchange. But by the study of the phenomena 
 
78 CHEMICAL RESEARCH 
 
 of degradation we shall not fail to gain an insight 
 into the fundamental nature of elements. 
 
 Theories of elemental evolution have already 
 been developed, the earliest of these being the 
 historic theory, promulgated by Prout in 1815, 
 that all elements were polymers that is to say, 
 complex multiples of hydrogen. Other notable 
 hypotheses, based on the undoubted relationship 
 of many of the elements, have been put forward 
 since that date, yet no satisfactory solution of the 
 problem has been advanced. Nevertheless we may 
 hope to see the question definitely settled before 
 the lapse of many years. 
 
 With regard to the prospects of those tasks 
 which are of more immediate technical importance, 
 we may, in view of the phenomenal development 
 of organic synthesis, safely assert that it will not be 
 long before the great majority of products necessary 
 to the welfare of the race which are at present 
 furnished by nature will have been reproduced by 
 science and provided by scientific industry. The 7 
 problem of our food supply may, with the advent 
 of fixation of atmospheric nitrogen on a large 
 scale, be stated to be satisfactorily solved. Agri- 
 cultural research will teach us how best to apply 
 the synthetical chemical manures produced by 
 these processes in a manner which will bring forth 
 the best crops without damage to the soil. It 
 does not at present appear probable that the 
 starchy foodstuffs will be technically reproduced 
 
CONCLUSION : ' -, ; ;; Jv- : , 79 
 
 in the near future, but the recent work of Emil 
 Fischer has so cleared the ground in the matter of 
 synthesis of proteins that synthetical albumens 
 may in the near future find profitable application 
 as a form of nourishment. 
 
 In conclusion, a word of warning is necessary. 
 We have seen the multitudinous uses of substances 
 derived from coal-tar. Every year we are burning 
 up the accretions of thousands of centuries of 
 plant life, and so eager are we to derive immediate 
 profit from this store of ages that we blindly and 
 recklessly waste incalculable quantities, not only of 
 valuable chemical material, but of potential work, 
 by the combustion of coal in its natural state. It 
 is but just towards posterity that we should exer- 
 cise the most rigid economy in the consumption of 
 this by no means inexhaustible commodity ; for, 
 bright as are the prospects of chemistry, we can at 
 present perceive no other source from which to 
 obtain the protean series of compounds employed 
 in our chemical manufactures. 
 
 The same obvious truth holds good, to a lesser 
 degree, with respect to the other products taken 
 from the earth. If we are to avoid being desig- 
 nated as the " Age of Waste " by future genera- 
 tions, we must devote more study to the principles 
 of recovery. 
 
 But these ugly features of our present civilisation 
 will of necessity be remedied when the principles 
 of science at present regarded by so great a 
 
80 CHEMICAL RESEARCH CONCLUSION 
 
 section of humanity as incomprehensible and all 
 but purposeless, are more widely appreciated. It 
 is the duty of all intelligent men to make them- 
 selves acquainted with these principles. Having 
 grasped the spirit in which research is undertaken, 
 we shall require no further incentive to do whatever 
 lies in our power to favour the progress of experi- 
 mental investigation. 
 
 Richard Clay &> Sons, Limited, London and Bungay. 
 
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