49 6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



famous apparatus, laboratories, or of pages from note-books, etc. We can 

 heartily recommend the book as most entertaining and instructive reading from 



cover to cover. 



P. H. 



What Industry owes to Chemical Science. By Richard B. Pilcher, 

 Registrar and Secretary of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, and Frank Butler-Jones, B.A., F.I.C. With an Introduction 

 by Sir George Beilby, LL.D., F.R.S. [Pp. xiv + 150.] (London: 

 Constable & Co., 1918. Price 35-. net.) 



Readers of the Engineer during the early part of 19 17 were provided with an 

 interesting series of articles under the title " What Industry owes to Science," in 

 which the endeavour was made, with no small success, to bring home to them the 

 indebtedness of the practical arts to scientific discovery, more particularly in the 

 realms of chemistry. As the articles were anonymous it was a matter of some 

 interest to guess at the identity of the hand that penned them. The mystery is 

 solved by the publication of the present volume, which consists of a reprint of the 

 original articles with a slightly modified title ; it is now seen to be the joint pro- 

 duction of Mr. Pilcher, Registrar and Secretary of the Institute of Chemistry, and 

 Mr. Butler-Jones, F.I.C, who are naturally in an excellent position to judge of the 

 value of the contributions of chemistry to the applied arts. 



The chemist, as Sir George Beilby points out in his introduction, is always at a 

 disadvantage compared with the engineer so far as publicity is concerned : the 

 Forth Bridge, the ocean greyhound, the motor-car, and the aeroplane are at once 

 recognised as the fruits of the engineer's skill and energy ; but for the most part 

 the work of the chemist is unobvious and little if at all understood. " These 

 records ought to prove stimulating and suggestive to those whose sons and 

 daughters have not yet selected a calling or profession. The place of chemistry 

 in the national life has been far more important than the majority of educated 

 people have imagined, and this place bids fair to become of vastly increased 

 importance in the near future. The special message for parents and teachers is, 

 therefore, that trained chemists will, in the near future, be in increased demand 

 for industrial and official positions." 



There is the usual drawback in this book that occurs in most such publications 

 which attempt to arouse public interest in the importance of chemistry — namely, 

 the complete absence of illustrations ; the lay mind is always impressed by size 

 and by mere bricks and mortar, and even a few photographs or diagrams of plant 

 or well-known factories would greatly enhance the value of the book. 



F. A. Mason. 



Industrial Chemistry. Edited by Samuel Rideal, D.Sc, F.I.C. (London: 

 Bailliere, Tindall & Cox, 1918.) 



(1) Dyeing with Coal Tar Dyestuffs. By C. M. Whittaker, B.Sc. [Pp. xii + 

 214.] (Price ys. 6d. net.) 



Writing nearly a generation ago, Ostwald placed on record his opinion that 

 " the future technologist in England is too practical to study chemical theory if he 

 is going into a dye-house ; he prefers to study dyeing itself . . . the obvious 

 result is that whenever any important change takes place in his line of work the 

 English technologist has to start afresh : the German, however, turns over in his 



