432 



NATURE 



[Sept. 14, 1876 



SECTION B. 



CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 



Opening Address by William Henry Perkin, F.R.S., 



President. 



There can be no doubt that chemistry and the allied sciences 

 are now being recognised to a much greater extent in this country 

 than in former years ; and not only so, the workers at research, 

 though still small in number, are more numerous than they 

 were. 



In 1868, Dr. Frankland, in his address to this section at the 

 meeting at Norwich, commented upon the small amount of 

 original research then being carried on in the United Kingdom ; 

 but, judging from the statistics of the Chemical Society, this 

 state of things became even worse; for in 1868 there were forty- 

 eight papers read before the Society, but in 1872 only twenty- 

 two. Since then, however, there has been a considerable increase 

 in the number ; and at the Anniversary Meeting in March last it 

 was shown that the number of communications for the session 

 had risen to sixty-six, or three times as many as in 1872, 



Of course these figures only refer to the Chemical Society ; 

 but I think they may be taken as a very safe criterion of the 

 improved state of things, though it would be very gratifying to 

 see much greater activity. 



It is also very pleasing to find that the aids to, and opportuni- 

 ties for, research are increasing, because it must be remembered 

 that, in a pecuniary sense, science is far from being its own 

 rewarder at the time its truths are being studied, although the 

 results very often become eventually of the greatest practical 

 value ; hence the wisdom of a country encouraging scientific 

 research. 



But little, however, has been done in this direction in past 

 years. The grants made for general science by this association 

 and that of the Government of 1,000/. annually to the Royal 

 Society being the most important. 



The Chemical Society has also been in the habit of giving small 

 grants for the purpose of assisting those engaged in chemical re- 

 search. In the luture, however, it will be able to do much more than 

 hitherto. One of the original members of the society, Dr. Long- 

 staff, offered in the early part of the year to give 1,000/. provided 

 a similar sum could be raised, the united amount to be invested, 

 and the interest applied for the encouragement of research. I 

 am happy to state that rather more than the required sum has 

 been raised, and it is hoped that it may be still further supple- 

 mented. 



In addition to the Royal Society grant, the Government have 

 given this year a further annual sum of 4,000/. Of course this is 

 for science generally. 



Mr. T. J, Phillips Jodrell has also placed at the disposal of 

 the Royal Society the munificent sum of 6, coo/, to be applied in 

 any manner that they may consider for the time being most con- 

 ducive to the encouragement of research in physical sciences. 



When we consider how much of our science is of a physical 

 nature, we must be grateful for this bequest ; and it is to be 

 hoped that these helps will more and more stimulate research in 

 the United Kingdom ; and if we have any hope of keeping pace 

 with the large amount of work being now carried on in other 

 countries we must indeed be energetic. 



The employment of well trained chemists in chemical works is 

 now becoming much more general than heretofore, especially on 

 the Continent, where in some cases a considerable staff is em- 

 ployed and provided with suitable appliances, &c. , for the purpose 

 not only of attending to and perfecting the ordinary operations 

 which are in use, but to make investigations in relation to the 

 class of manufacture they are engaged in. A conviction of the 

 necessity of this is gaining strength in this country, though not 

 so quickly as might be desired ; nevertheless these things are 

 encouraging. 



With reference to the progress of chemistry and what have 

 been the fruits of research of late years, it will be impossible for 

 me to give even a general outline, the amount of work being so 

 large ; in fact, to recount the list of investigations made during 

 the past year would take up most of the time at my disposal. 



Amongst the most interesting, perhaps, are those relating to 

 isomerism, especially in the aromatic series of organic bodies; 

 and It is probable that a more intimate knowledge of this sub- 

 ject will be found of really practical value. 



As I am unable to give an account of the work done during the 

 pa't year on account of its extent and diversity, I propose to refer 

 to sonae of the practical results which have already accrued from 

 organic chemistry, as a plea for the encouragement of research ; 



and those I intend to speak of are of special interest also on 

 account of their close connection with the textile manufactures of 

 Great Britain. I need scarcely say I refer to the colouring 

 matters which have been obtained from the products found in 

 tar. 



It was in 1856, now twenty years since, that this industry was 

 commenced by the discovery of the "mauve" or "aniline 

 purple," and it may be of interest to state that it was in Scotland 

 in the autumn of the same year that the first experiments upon 

 the application of this dye to the arts of dyeing and calico-printing 

 were made at Perth and Maryhill. 



I need scarcely remind you of the wonderful development of 

 this industry since then, seeing we now have from the same 

 source colouring matters capable of producing not only all the 

 colours of the rainbow, but their combinations. I wish now, 

 however, briefly to refer to the date and origin of the products 

 which have served to build up this great industry. 



It was in 1825 that Faraday published in the Philosophical 

 Transactions his research on the oily products separated in com- 

 pressing oil-gas, and described a substance he obtained from it — 

 a volatile colourless oil — which he called bicarburetted hydrogen. 

 Mitscherlich some years afterwards, obtained the same substance 

 from benzoic acid, and gave it the name it bears, viz. "Benzol." 

 This same chemist further obtained from benzol nitrobenzol, by 

 acting upon it with nitric acid. Zinin afterwards studied the 

 action of reducing agents upon nitrobenzol, and obtained 

 "aniline," which he at that time called benzidam. 



Again, Pelletier and Walter discovered the hydrocarbon toluol 

 in 1837. Deville produced its nitro-compound in 1841, and 

 Hofmann and Muspratt obtained from this "toluidine," by the 

 process used by Zinin to reduce nitrobenzol. 



I might mention other names in connection with these sub- 

 stances, such as Rungc, Unverdorben, &c., but I would now 

 ask, did any of these chemists work at these subjects for the 

 hope of gain ? was it not rather from the love of research, and that 

 alone ? and now these products, which were then practically use- 

 less, are the basis of the aniline colours. But to go further : 

 Doebereiner a long while ago obtained from alcohol a substance 

 which he called "light oxygen ether," now known as aldehyd. 

 Gay-Lussac produced iodide of ethyl in 1815. Dumas and 

 Peligot discovered the corresponding substance iodide of methyl 

 in 1835 ; but, as in the cases I have previously referred to, these 

 bodies had no practical value, and were never prepared but in 

 the laboratory. Hofmann, in his researches on the molecular 

 constitution of the volatile organic bases, in 1850, discovered 

 the replacement compounds of aniline containing alcohol radicals. 



All these compounds have now been manufactured on the 

 large scale, and used in the further development of the industry 

 of these aniline colouring-matters. 



Other substances might be mentioned, but I think these are 

 sufficient to show how the products of research which, when first 

 discovered and for a long period afterwards, were of only scien- 

 tific interest, at last became of great practical value ; and it is 

 evident that had not the investigations and discoveries I have 

 referred to been made as they were solely from a love of science, 

 no aniline colours would now be known. 



The colouring-matters I have hitherto spoken of are nitro- 

 genous, and derived from benzol and its homologues ; there are 

 a few others, however, of the same origin which contain no 

 nitrogen, but they are of secondary importance. 



I now pass on to another class of colouring-matter which is 

 obtained from anthracene, a coal-tar product differing from ben- 

 zol and toluol in physical characters, inasmuch as it is a magnifi- 

 cent crystalline solid. 



The first colouring-matter derived from anthracene which I 

 wish to draw your attention to is alizarin, the principal dyeing 

 agent found in the madder-root. This substance was for a long 

 time supposed to be related to naphthaline, inasmuch as phtlialic 

 acid can be produced from both of them ; and many were the 

 experiments made by chemists in this direction ; it was not, 

 however, until 1868 that this was proved to be a mistake, and 

 its relationship to anthracene was discovered by Graebe and 

 Liebermann, who succeeded in producing this coal-tar product 

 from the natural alizarin itself. 



Having obtained this important result, they turned their at- 

 tention further to the subject, hoping to find some process by 

 which alizarin could be produced from anthracene ; in this they 

 were soon successful. 



The discovery of the artificial formation of alizarin was of 

 great interest, inasmuch as it was another of those instances 

 which have of late years become so numerous, namely, the 



