62 



NATURE 



[September 17, 1914 



a considerable time, been their chief sources. 

 Other sources of potassium salts, however, exist 

 in the nitre found in India and in the kelp of the 

 ^Vest Highlands, and it seems feasible to sug^gest 

 that the latter industry should be taken up again, 

 as it furnishes not only potassium salts but also 

 iodine (compare in this connection W'. R. Scott, 

 Report to the Board of Agriculture on the kelp 

 industry in the West Highlands, Blue Book, Cd. 



7564)- 



It must not be forgotten that in many cases 

 sodium salts can be used instead of potassium ; 

 thus the bromide, chlorate, dichromate, and per- 

 manganate of sodium might be manufactured in- 

 stead of the potassium salts. In this connection 

 it may be as well to point out that there must 

 be a large amount of potassium salts stored in 

 the various universities and technical schools of 

 this country which might be collected, and, where 

 necessary, w-orked up for the supply of those salts 

 which are needed now for medicinal purposes in 

 hospitals, etc., until a further supply becomes 

 -available. The ordinary employment of potassium 

 salts in the laboratory can easily be avoided by the 

 use of sodium salts in almost every case. 



An important industry is that of the manu- 

 facture of thorium nitrate, which is used so largely 

 for incandescent mantles. Although this com- 

 pound is already made in England, the supply is 

 not equal to the demand, and there ought to be 

 little difficulty in diverting the chief source, viz., 

 monazite sand, from Brazil to this country. 



The manufacture of the large amount of glass 

 chemical apparatus and other articles, such as 

 cylinders for incandescent lamps, hitherto made 

 from the so-called "Jena-glass" — a borosilicate 

 glass containing zinc and barium oxides — ought 

 certainly to be taken up by English glass makers, 

 and the Potteries should seriously consider the 

 question of supplying Berlin porcelain. 



Turning now to the organic side of chemical 

 industry there is a very considerable demand for 

 formic acid and formaldehyde and its derivatives 

 used in medicine, such as hexamethylenetetramine 

 (urotropine), but of all organic medicinal drugs 

 perhaps the greatest shortage is in salicylic acid, 

 which is required also in the preparation of certain 

 dyestuffs. Hitherto the world's supply has been 

 provided by a large German works, and the manu- 

 facture of such an important substance in this 

 country is very necessary. Provided with this the 

 production of such drugs as salol (the phenyl 

 ester) and aspirin (the acetyl derivatives) is ren- 

 dered possible. Other acids, such as benzoic, 

 citric, and tartaric, are also needed. 



Of other well-known drugs the manufacture 

 of acetanilide and phenolphthalein is easy, whilst 

 that of phcnacetin (acetyl-/)-phenetidine), atophan 

 (2-quinoline-4-carboxylic acid), antipyrine (phen- 

 azone), and its various derivatives, sulphonal and 

 its congeners, veronal, the various guaiacol com- 

 pounds, and the organic arsenic derivatives, such 

 as atoxyl and salvarsan, is more difficult. 



Closely allied to many of the above, from the 

 manufacturing point of view, is the large class 

 NO. 2342, VOL. 94] 



of photographic developers, amongst which may- 

 be mentioned pyrogallol, hydroquinone, and metol 

 (methyl-/)-aminophenol sulphate), and synthetic 

 perfumes, such as vanillin, artificial musk, ionone, 

 heliotropine, etc. 



Efforts will no doubt be made to produce .in 

 England the great quantity of organic dyestuffs 

 hitherto imported from Germany. A considerable 

 number has also been provided by Switzerland, 

 and presumably this importation will continue. A 

 large amount of azo-, nitro-, alizarin, and sulphur 

 dyes has been produced for a long time in 

 England, as well as indulines, magenta, aniline 

 blues, methylene blue, etc., and no doubt the 

 manufacture of these is being largely increased, 

 but there is a great field open to the British manu- 

 facturer in the case of vat dyes, such as indan- 

 threne, and its derivatives, of which the raw 

 material is already made here, and synthetic indigo 

 and its derivatives, including thioindigo. 



J. C. Cain. 



HOTES. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death, at 

 sixty-six years of age, of Dr. W. H. Gaskell, F.R.S., 

 University lecturer in physiology, Cambridge. 



The Morning Post announces that the Huxley 

 Memorial Lecture at Charing Cross Hospital on recent 

 advances in science and their bearing on medicine and 

 surgery, by Sir Ronald Ross, originally fixed for Octo- 

 ber I, has been postponed to Monday, November 2. 



The death is announced of Mr. H. M. Freear, 

 chemical assistant at the Woburn Experimental Farm 

 and Pot-culture Station of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, and a leading authority upon the relation of 

 pot-culture experiments to practical agriculture and 

 horticulture. 



Mr. Edward Riley, whose death is announced, at 

 eighty-three years of age, was early associated with 

 the production of Bessemer steel at the Dowlais Iron 

 Works in South Wales, where he was chemist from 

 1853 to 1859. At the May meeting of the Iron and 

 Steel Institute this year, he was awarded the Bessemer 

 gold medal in recognition of his work in analytical 

 chemistry and metallurgy. 



An announcement was made in Nature of June 18 

 (p. 415) to the effect that Mr. Thomas Cawthron, of 

 Nelson, New Zealand, had made a gift of 50,000/. for 

 a beginning for a solar observatory to be erected in 

 New Zealand. Miss Mary Proctor asks us to state 

 that the amount is "30,000/. for a beginning," and 

 that she is responsible for the conflicting statements 

 which have been made, as she was '" under the mis- 

 taken impression that the amount was 50,000/., and 

 made a statement to that effect without being duly 

 authorised." 



The death is announced, on September 8, at seventy- 

 four years of age, of Mr. William Erasmus Darwin, 

 eldest son of Charles Darwin. It was with reference 

 to this son that Darwin wrote in his autobiography : — 

 " My first child was born on December 27, 1839, and 



