1907.] on ProhJems of Ajoplied Chemistry. 563 



of scientific education, is perfectly clear. Up to that time the German 

 professor, as well as his students, had been frequently held up to 

 ridicule, not merely abroad but at home as well, as idealistic dreamers, 

 unsuited to the wants of real life and to the requirements of trade 

 and manufacture, and in this there was only too much truth, so long as 

 they were not in intimate touch with men of practice. But at last 

 an amalgamation between these two classes of men took place, and 

 was greatly furthered by the World's Exhibitions, chiefly that held in 

 London in 18G2, and, moreoyer, by the yery lessons learned by the 

 German students during their stay in England. "Without laying aside 

 their scientific armour, they profited by what they had seen of the 

 co-operation of chemistry and engineering, and, generally speaking, 

 of the interaction of science and practical life. Within a yery few 

 years there arose those enormous establishments at Ludwigshafen, 

 Hochst, Elberfeld, Berlin, Darmstadt, and elsewhere, which are con- 

 ducted on a scientific basis, but with the most extensiye utilisation of 

 all the attainments of manufacturing experience. Seyeral of these 

 haye now a staff of a couple of hundred chemists and of dozens of 

 fully trained engineers. But although at present Germany certainly 

 holds the foremost position in many branches of chemical industry, 

 it would be unfair to award to her the only palm for progress 

 in this branch of human work. Austria, France, Switzerland, 

 and Belgium haye all made immense strides in that direction ; 

 of America we shall speak anon. And what of Great Britain ? 

 Well, she has certainly not stood still, and she is still one of the 

 greatest homes of industrial chemistry, but one cannot blind oneself 

 to the fact that her progress in this line has not been quite so rapid 

 as that of the other countries just named, to say nothing of the 

 United States, whose chemical industry was hardly in existence at the 

 beginning of that new epoch, but which now is second to none but 

 England and Germany. To some extent the comparative slowness of 

 deyelopment in this country is not absolute, but merely relative . It 

 is clear that those who are already well ahead cannot, within a given 

 time, cover as much ground as those who start late, since there is so 

 much less leeway to make up ; hence the quicker progress made by 

 the late starters does not mean any real superiority, provided always 

 that the former class are not actually outstripped in the race. The 

 question whether this has really come to pass in this or in that field 

 of chemical industry in the struggle for life between the Enghsh 

 chemical manufacturers and their Continental and American rivals, is 

 too wide and too delicate a topic to be touched upon now. But so 

 much you will allow me to say — if we confine ourselves to a com- 

 parison of English and German chemical industries, I have surely laid 

 sufficient emphasis upon the fact that the Germans have immensely 

 profited from the Enghsh in the matter of practical manipulation and 

 in the co-operation between chemists and engineers. Why should 

 not the Enghsh, then, turn the tables on the Germans, and profit, in 



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