6/ 



NATURE 



[July ii, 191 8 



duction of nitric acid by the passage of an electric 

 spark tiirouf,fii air, reproduced on an enormously larger 

 scale, is now furnishint* Central Europe with the nitric 

 acid without which no explosives could be manu- 

 factured. 



The above-mentioned and multitudes of other funda- 

 mental discoveries in physical and chemical science 

 were made almost within a stone's-throw of this room; 

 most of them were made in the Royal Institution, and 

 all of them by an expenditure of money infinitely small 

 as compared with their present-day effects. 



Anyone who is in the habit of reading modern his- 

 torical writers — and they have become quite illuminat- 

 ing since a scientific mode of writing history has been 

 substituted for the older fictional style — knows how 

 political changes, national reforms arising from an 

 effort of the collective conscience, the magnetic influ- 

 ence of some popular demagogue, and the like, are 

 invariably invoked as explanatory of all the vicissitudes 

 of our planet. 



The modern historian is here taking a false point ot 

 view, and since he is, in general, quite unacquainted 

 with physical science, his 'methods are inadequate. The 

 whole history of Europe for the last century has been 

 made within a few hundred yards of Burlington House 

 in our scientific laboratories. One of the most potent 

 incentives to political changes resides in the desire to 

 increase the amenities of life, and research in pure 

 science has had for a hundred years past the greatest 

 influence in facilitating the realisation of that desire. 

 Co-operative effort, one of the most striking aspects of 

 modern life, became possible only when science pro- 

 vided the facilities for municipal power schemes, for 

 telegraphic connection over the whole world, and for 

 the concentration of production in definite centres. 

 Chemical science is still furnishing the means for 

 further revolutionary changes ; during the last few 

 years we have seen great technical developments of 

 purely scientific discoveries — the work of Dewar on the 

 liquefaction of gases, and that of Cross and Bevan on 

 'viscose and artificial silk, both of which have led to 

 the profitable utilisation of vast amounts of capital — 

 and it is as yet impossible to indicate the ameliorations 

 of the conditions of human life which will inevitably 

 result from contemporar}^ chemical investigation. 



In a time of crisis like the present, British custom 

 tends towards the replacement of unreal conventions 

 by what is really vital ; we have been engaged upon 

 this operation for several years. Whilst previously un- 

 heard-of changes have succeeded each other kaleido- 

 scopically in the national constitution, in the political 

 parties in power, in the freedom of the subject, and in 

 hosts of other ways, the nation has recognised that 

 science is the only real maker of history. The whole 

 Empire is now one vast chemical and engineering 

 laboratory, and we even live on a scientific ration of 

 so many calorific units. It is obvious that chemistry, 

 with physics, engineering, preventive medicine, and 

 • others of the natural sciences, which previously had 

 no imperialistic position, because powerless to make or 

 break a Government, have become the pivot on which 

 turn all our hopes of retaining an independent national 

 existence ; it has been suddenly realised that supremacy 

 In these branches of knowledge is vital to our country. 

 The time is approaching when this state of affairs 

 will change ; neglect of the natural sciences will then 

 no longer put us in danger' of sudden extinction, but, 

 as was taking place years ago, will lead to our slow, 

 certain downfall as a nation. The responsibility is 

 placed upon our men of science of taking sujch 

 measures as will ensure that the old order is not re- 

 established, that Science makes her voice heard in our 

 national councils, and that policies of drift are for ever 

 abandoned. 



NO. 2541, VOL. lOl] 



We have in this country three large and long-estab- 

 lished organisations devoted to various phases of chem- 

 ical science : the Chemical Society, the Society of 

 Chemical Industry, and the Institute of Chemistry. Is 

 it too much to ask that these three representative 

 bodies, with perhaps the newly founded Association of 

 British Chemical Manufacturers, and ultimately all 

 the other cognate but more specialised interests, 

 should set up a watchful and alert joint council with 

 directions to consider national questions in which any 

 of the varied interests of chemistry are concerned, and 

 to make such representations to our administrators as 

 would voice the corporate view of the joint body ? 



I am inclined to think that, had such a body been 

 in existence several years ago, much that has been 

 accomplished in the interval by somewhat devious 

 methods would have been better done. One instance 

 will occur to everyone : that of the much-debated 

 question of the re-establishment of the coal-tar colour 

 industry in Great Britain. The scheme adopted by' the 

 Government for resuscitating this industrv in our 

 country, after its past thirty years of profligate pro- 

 ductivity on the Continent, was launched without 

 scientific advice ; the Cabinet mouthpiece, indeed, 

 declared that the directorate of the company was not 

 to include men of scientific knowledge, on the ground 

 that a director who knew something about the busi- 

 ness of the company would have an advantage over 

 his less well-informed colleagues. 



Owing large!}' to the fact that we possess no strong 

 collective council, representing the combined 

 academic, scientific, and industrial aspects of our 

 science and capable of representing them before a 

 representative Government, it may be. argued that we 

 chemists are not altogether blameless for the particu- 

 larly blundering way in which particular errors have 

 been perpetrated by the responsible officials.' Whilst 

 we should be thankful that our blunders have not led 

 to our destruction, we should proceed without further 

 delay so to organise the resources of chemistry as to 

 make it possible to enforce the adoption of scientific 

 methods and modes of thought by authorities to 

 whom these are yet strange. 



The serious character of the British position in 

 connection with the coal-tar colour industry becomes 

 more evident when one considers that this is a key 

 industry ; upon it depend the textile, paper, photo- 

 graphic, and pharmaceutical industries. The total 

 capital employed in the organic dve industry in Great 

 Britain is between four and five million pounds, 

 whilst the capitalisation of ,the German coal-tar 

 colour firms is of the order of fifty million pounds. 

 The need for greater and more intelligent activity in 

 this direction is obvious ; unless national enterprise 

 can be stimulated into providing adequately for the 

 manifold requirements of Great Britain and her 

 Colonies in all those industries which depend op coal- 

 tar colour manufacture, we shall be again in the 

 hands of the foreign prockicer. 



The control of a national dve scheme by business 

 men with no real feeling for the enterprise on which 

 they are engaged renders it fairly certain that the 

 wider aspects of coal-tar colour manufactui-e will be 

 neglected. The interweaving of the colour interests 

 with those of synthetic pharmaceutical, photographic, 

 and other chem^ical industries is essential to success. 

 The utilisation and development of the resources of 

 the Empire in natural colouring matters such as in- 

 digo are necessary frorn a national point of view. The 

 careful studv of our own and other codes of Patent 

 Law in their bearings upon the fine chemical industry 

 is also important. These weighty questions cannot 

 receive adequate consideration from any pui'ely lay 

 bodv. 



