112 Sir Frederick Abel [April 22, 



lents of the long series of costly dye materials for whicli sbe lias 

 hitherto remained the tributary of foreign climes. Instead of dis- 

 bursing her annual millions for these substances, England will, 

 beyond question, at no distant day become herself the greatest colour- 

 producing country in the world ; nay, by the strangest of revolutions, 

 she may ere long send her coal-derived blues to indigo-growing India, 

 her tar-distilled crimson to cocbineal-produciug Mexico, and her fossil 

 substitutes for quercitron and safflower to China, Japan, and the other 

 countries whence these articles are now derived. 



" Coal and iron, it has been said, are kings of the earth, and 

 our latest chemical victories seem destined to add another vast 

 province to the dominion of coal, and a fresh element of commercial 

 predominance to its already powerful possessors." 



So far as concerns the displacement of madder, cochineal, quer- 

 citron, safflower, and other natural dye materials from their positions 

 of command in the markets of England and the world, Hofmann's 

 predictions have been amply fulfilled, and it appeared, in the earlier 

 days of the coal-tar colour industry, as though he would be an equally 

 true prophet in regard to England becoming herself the greatest colour- 

 producing country in the world. But, although Germany did little in 

 the days of infancy of this industry, beyond producing a few of the 

 known colours in a somewhat impure condition, many years did not 

 elapse ere she not only was our equal in regard to the quality of the 

 dyes produced, but, moreover, had outstripped us in the quantities 

 manufactured and in the additions made to the varieties of valuable 

 dyes sent into the market. The following is the estimated total 

 value of coal-tar colours manufactured in the several producing 

 countries as far back as 1878 : — Germany, 2,000,000/. ; England, 

 480,000Z. ; France, 350,000Z. ; Switzerland, 350,000Z. These figures 

 show that the value of the make of colours in England was less than 

 one-fourth that of Germany, and that even Switzerland, which, in 

 competing with other countries industrially is at great natural dis- 

 advantages, was not far behind us, ranking equal to France as 

 producers. The superior j^osition of Germany in reference to this 

 industry may be in a measure ascribable to some defects in the 

 operation of our Patent Laws and to questions of wages and con- 

 ditions of labour ; but the chief cause is to be found in the thorough 

 realisation, by the German manufacturer, of his dependence for 

 success and continual progress upon the active prosecution of 

 scientific research, in the high training received by the chemists 

 attached to the manufactories, and in the intimate association, in every 

 direction, of systematic scientific investigation with technical work. 



The young chemists which the German manufacturer attracts to 

 his works rank much higher than ours in the general scientific 

 training which is essential to the successful cultivation of the habit 

 of theoretical and experimental research, and in the consequent 

 appreciation of, and power of pursuing, original investigations of a 

 high order. Moreover, the research laboratory constitutes an integral 



