REVIEWS 511 



Prof. Gardner therefore is to be warmly congratulated upon having collected 

 together the present volume by combining a large number of important papers 

 bearing upon the subject of the coal-tar industry from its inception in 1856 to the 

 present day, so that all who are interested in the subject may have the facts 

 ready to hand. 



It is possibly more than a coincidence that the first and last papers in the book 

 bear the honoured name of Perkin ; the former is a lecture delivered by Sir W. 

 H. Perkin in 1868 before the Royal Society of Arts on "The Aniline or Coal-Tar 

 Colours," and gives a most interesting account of the beginnings, both scientific 

 and technical, of the coal-tar industry. 



One line in this paper cannot be too often quoted : " In fact the coal-tar 

 colour industry is entirely the fruit of theoretical chemistry." 



Again in the next paper, on " The History of Alizarin," Perkin remarks : " (the 

 industry) is the fruit of scientific researches in organic chemistry, conducted 

 mostly from a scientific point of view ; and while the industry has made such 

 great progress, it has in its turn acted as the handmaid to chemical science, by 

 placing at the disposal of chemists products which otherwise could not have been 

 obtained." 



The papers which follow, reprinted from the Journals of the Royal Society of 

 Arts, the Chemical Society, the Society iof Dyers and Colourists and elsewhere, 

 are arranged in chronological order, and afford a complete survey of the 

 development of the industry abroad and its neglect at home. 



From Prof. Meldola's paper on p. 133 we learn that as far back as 1885 British 

 dyers were using almost exclusively German-made dyes. Throughout the whole 

 series of papers one can see the same story reiterated again and again : the 

 attention paid to scientific education and research work abroad, and their com- 

 prehensive and thorough-going neglect in Great Britain. 



A very illuminating remark maybe quoted from Prof. Green's paper on p. 201 : 

 ' The English manufacturer has considered that a knowledge of the benzol 

 market was of greater importance than a knowledge of the Benzol theory, and 

 after the early but brilliant days in the infancy of the industry when . . . com- 

 mercial progress and scientific investigation went hand in hand, but little 

 encouragement has been given here to chemical investigators and discoverers. 

 The control of the industry unfortunately soon passed into the hands of men 

 who had no knowledge and absolutely no appreciation of the science upon which 

 their business rested and, concerned only with getting the ultimate amount of 

 present profit, discouraged all scientific investigations as a waste of time and 

 money." 



Other papers deal with the Patent Laws in relation to the industry ; and last 

 we find Prof. W. H. Perkin's Presidential address to the Chemical Society this 

 year on " The Position of the Organic Chemical Industry." Here again the 

 better utilisation of Science in our industries is insisted on, and in addition the 

 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge receive a well-merited reprimand for their 

 neglect of organic chemistry in the past. 



If a word of criticism may be allowed, one might venture to suggest that a few 

 more illustrations, such as that of the Greenford Green factory omitted from Sir 

 W. H. Perkin's address on the history of Alizarin, and perhaps a picture or two 

 of a German and a British dye factory, would considerably enhance the interest of 

 the book, particularly for the non-technical reader. 



One hopes also that it may later be possible to produce a somewhat cheaper 

 edition, within the range of the pocket of a student, for the book is without doubt 



