222 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



and kreatinine, the two latter being salts of some 

 complexity of constitution, as compared with the 

 usually simple constitution of purely mineral salts. 



The True Advancement of Science.— There 

 is one passage in the interesting address recently 

 delivered by Sir Frederick Bramwell before the 

 British Association, that should be read, marked, 

 learned, and inwardly digested, by some of our 

 modern scientists, or, more properly speaking, 

 pedants. I refer to that class who pretend to despise 

 popular science, and who imitate the vegetarian fox 

 of the fable in their treatment of those who have 

 grasped the great truths of science with sufficient 

 thoroughness to be able to expound them clearly and 

 simply, and thus place them within the reach of all 

 intelligent people. 



Sir Frederick Bramwell reminded the Association 

 that its declared and primary object is the " advance- 

 ment of science," and that such advancement implies 

 its practical application for the benefit of mankind. 

 The class of benefits to which he, as a civil engineer 

 maintaining the dignity of his vocation, especially 

 referred, were those physical blessings which science, 

 in the hands of its best votaries, has so beneficently 

 showered upon us. 



Besides these, there is another class of blessings 

 which the teacher who diffuses science among the 

 millions is justified in extolling, viz. the moral 

 advancement which necessarily follows its general 

 diffusion. The poetry of creation is an epic, com- 

 pared to which all the poetry of the human imagi- 

 nation is but nursery rhyming ; and the highest and 

 purest of all religion is the worship of divine truth, 

 the teaching and the application of which is the 

 whole and sole business of science. 



Mere discovery is but one of these three steps, and, 

 being the first, should be honoured accordingly. 

 Without the other two it is worthless, and may even 

 be mischievous by perverting the religion of pure 

 truth to the vile purpose of creating a pestiferous 

 priesthood of pharisaical pedants ; pretentious prigs, 

 who would appropriate for their own purposes of self- 

 exaltation, that intellectual wealth which is the 

 common property of all mankind. 



The British Association has nobly fulfilled its 

 purpose in the true advancement of science by its 

 missionary work throughout the kingdom. Where- 

 ever it has halted, held its meetings, and made its 

 excursions, a popular awakening and elevation of 

 intellect has followed. Its admission of all to 

 membership prevents the possibility of its partaking 

 in any degree of the character of a mutual admiration 

 club, and constitutes a bold and clear expression of 

 the common rights of all human beings to freely 

 partake of the intellectual banquet which science has 

 prepared. 



Action of Coai.-Tar Dyes.— One of the pecu- 

 liarities of the coal-tar dyes is their partiality to 



animal substances, such as wool and silk. To these 

 they adhere with admirable pertinacity, saving the 

 dyer all the trouble of preliminary or subsequent 

 treatment with mordants to destroy the solubility of 

 the dye, and fix it to the fabric. To apply the coal- 

 tar dyes, he simply immerses the fabric in the hot 

 solution of the colour, retaining it there for a longer 

 or shorter time, usually at a boiling heat. I have 

 frequently made the experiment of immersing a skem 

 of natural silk cleansed from its "silk glue" by 

 alkali, in a solution of the dye, and boiling this until 

 the colour leaves the water and goes over to the 

 silk, the water thus becoming quite colourless, 

 thereby showing a positive appropriation of all the 

 dye by the silk, which is quite different from mere 

 participation of stain. 



E. Knecht has recently investigated this subject, in 

 order to determine whether the taking up of these 

 dyes by the fibre is a chemical or mechanical process. 

 He submitted woollen and silken fibres to the action 

 of hot solutions of the dyes until all the colour 

 was taken up by the fibre, then analysed the 

 decolorised solution, and found it to contain am- 

 monia derived from the fibre, and that, in the case 

 of rosaniline hydrochloride, the hydrochloric acid re- 

 mained in the solution, and the rosaniline had gone 

 over to the fibre. He found that similar changes 

 occurred with other colours, such as diamido- 

 azobenzine-hydrochloride, &c. These results he 

 regards as proving that the adhesion of the dye in 

 such cases is a quantitative chemical change and not 

 a~mechanical process ; or, to express it otherwise, the 

 dyed silk or wool is a chemical compound of the silk 

 or wool itself or some constituent thereof with the 

 colouring matter. 



Improved Wine.— The following from the Journal 

 of the Chemical Society of July, page 737, is a 

 summary of the results of the experiments of Laborde 

 and Magnan on the toxic or poisoning action of 

 alcohols, and of the artificial bouquets that modern 

 chemical science has supplied to the ingenious 

 manufacturers of high-class wines. I copy it to 

 afford some cheerful reading for those who are fond 

 of such beverages, merely explaining that the liqueurs 

 named are some of those usually added to champagnes, 

 &c, or which, skilfully applied to fortified vin 

 ordinaire, converts it into choice vintage with ex- 

 quisite bouquet, and raises its price in this country 

 from one shilling to five, ten, twenty, or thirty 

 shillings per bottle, according to the label or cobwebs. 

 "Salicaldehyde, which is added to vermuth, bitter, 

 and essence de reine des pres, produces strong 

 epileptic convulsions. Methyl salicylate, which is 

 used as a substitute for oil of winter-green in vermuth 

 and bitter, also produces convulsions, although not of 

 an epileptic form. Benzonitrile and benzaldehyde, 

 which are added in small quantities to noyau, 

 produce tetanus and even death." 



