490 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



director of the new chemical laboratories in which many famous chemists 

 studied — such as Emil Fischer, C. Graebe, and C. Liebermann (the discoverers of 

 synthetic madder or alizarine, which effectually destroyed the French madder 

 industry), Victor Meyer, and many another. Baeyer stayed only a short time in 

 Strassburg, being called to Munich in 1875 as successor to Baron von Liebig ; 

 here he built the new Chemisches Institut, where two generations of organic 

 chemists of all nationalities have received their training, and under his guidance 

 the chemical school at Munich became world-famous. 



It was in Munich chiefly that Baeyer carried through those researches in 

 organic chemistry which have become classical. Of special interest to every one 

 at the present moment were his researches upon the constitution of indigo, begun 

 in 1865 and carried on for more than two decades, which have borne such 

 remarkable scientific and industrial fruit. It would serve no purpose to describe 

 the methods he adopted or the results obtained, except to point out that by 

 brilliantly skilful and painstaking work he was able to establish the constitution 

 of the indigo molecule and, as a result he was able in 1870 to show the synthesis 

 in the laboratory of indigo, and later devised a second synthesis starting from 

 toluene— now in such demand for T.N.T. — which had a certain slight technical 

 success, some tons appearing to have been made by this process. His patents 

 were acquired in 1880 by the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik and the Hoechst 

 Farbwerke, who carried out conjoint research for eighteen years, expending nearly 

 ;£ 1,000,000 on the problem, until at last two satisfactory processes were developed 

 for the manufacture of indigo from coal-tar products, the one method starting 

 from naphthalene and the other from benzene via aniline. Space forbids the 

 discussion of the further development of this remarkable achievement of synthetic 

 chemistry and its enormous economic significance, since it succeeded — aided by 

 the ignorance and unscientific methods of the planters — in almost ruining the once 

 flourishing Indian indigo trade, the price for the pure synthetic product being less 

 than half that for the often very impure natural product. Baeyer and indigo are 

 names for ever associated together in the minds of chemists, and the whole story 

 serves well at the present moment as a superb object lesson to emphasise the 

 results of close co-operation between pure scientific research and technical progress. 



To enumerate all Prof, von Baeyer's discoveries would take us too far afield, 

 but there is no gainsaying the fact that he occupied an almost unique and 

 patriarchal position in the chemical world. His one-time students now occupy 

 professorial chairs the world over. We have, to give only a few names, 

 Prof. Noyes of Illinois, U.S.A., Prof. W. H. Perkin of Oxford; and of German 

 professors, Emil Fischer (discoverer of veronal), Willstatter, Goldschmidt, Knorr 

 (discoverer of antipyrin), may be mentioned. 



Von Baeyer was a well-built man, slightly bald, but bearded, and of a dignified 

 and venerable appearance, which earned for him the nick-name of "St. Peter" 

 among his students. Right up to his eightieth birthday he delivered his course 

 of lectures on five mornings a week at 8 a.m. in summer and 9 a.m. in winter, 

 and was daily in his laboratory, wearing an old " squash " hat and smoking the 

 inevitable cigar. There is reason to believe he viewed with disfavour and appre- 

 hension the rise of the Prussian military party to power, and it is improbable that 

 he approved in any way of the aims or methods of Prussianism. 



Industrial Research (From a Correspondent) 



The pregnant sentence in the monograph by Mr. A. P. M. Fleming on this 

 subject, which has recently been published by the Department of Scientific and 



