July i8, 191 8] 



NATURE 



389 



tained throughout 1914-15. There was a slight 

 fall during 1915-16, but 191 6-1 7 saw a reversion to 

 the 1914-15 standard, which has continued. There 

 was a corresponding increase in the area under 

 the crop; this, during 1916-17, was three and a 

 half times as great as the average for the pre- 

 ceding five years. There has been a similar rise 

 in the quantity of indigo exported from India ; 

 four times as much was dispatched abroad in 

 1915-16 as had been shipped during 1913-14. But 

 the total area under the crop in 1916-17, which 

 exceeded 756,000 acres, still remained less than 

 half what it had been in 1895, while the total pro- 

 duction in 1916-17, which amounted to 95,500 cwt., 

 was little more than half the output of 1896, 

 which had been 187,000 cwt. 



The view held in circles well qualified to judge is 

 that this marked increase in the production of the 

 natural dye since the war began can be regarded ■ 

 only as temporary, the synthetic dye being now 

 too well established ever to be displaced. There is 

 much .to be said for this view. Since the war 

 began, the actual output of the dye from the vari- 

 dus Indian provinces in which by 1914 the industry 

 had practically become extinct has exceeded that 

 from Bihar. Yet in these provinces the industry 

 had been in the past, and is now being, conducted 

 in a somewhat primitive fashion by methods that 

 result in a relatively poor yield of a product of 

 low quality. The author of the papers before us 

 nevertheless hazards the suggestion that, provided 

 certain improvements in actual practice can be 

 effected, the natural product may " be able to put 

 up an interesting fight with the synthetic dye." 

 It is, however, admitted that the possibility of 

 maintaining that contest must depend upon the 

 retention or the capture of an Eastern market. 



An equally lucid and well-illustrated review of 

 the methods of manufacture which obtain in Bihar 

 is given in the second of the articles under notice. 

 The indigo plants there cultivated are two in 

 number : Indigofera sumatrana , an Asiatic form, 

 which is still the chief source of the dye in Bihar, 

 first introduced to north-eastern India as a crop 

 in the later years of the eighteenth century ; and 

 /. arrecta, an African species, first brought to 

 India from Java so recently as 1899. The latter 

 species as a rule yields more green plant per acre 

 than the former, and always produces far more 

 dye per 100 maunds of plant. The two demand 

 different treatment, for I. arrecta may be sown in 

 October and is ready for a first cutting in late 

 May or early June following, whereas /. suma- 

 irana cannot be profitably sown until February, 

 and as a rule is not cut until mid-July. Another 

 advantage in the case of 7. arrecta is that this 

 species suffers less from flooding and water-log- 

 ging than 1. sumatrana does. One of the most 

 important considerations connected with the future 

 prospects of natural indigo in India therefore is 

 an increase in the cultivation of 7. arrecta in prefer- 

 ence to 7. sumatrana , so as to cheapen the pro- 

 duction of the dye. Unfortunately certain serious 

 diflSculties, chiefly of a botanical nature, are met 

 with in the management of what is still a com- 

 NO. 2542, VOL. lOl] 



paratively new and correspondingly unfamiliar 

 plant in Bihar. 



The most fundamental of these difficulties, which 

 relates to the identity and the original home and 

 habitat of the plant itself, was definitely settled 

 on behalf of the indigo industry by the officers 

 of the Indian Botanical Department in 1902. The 

 remaining difficulties, which are of a physiological 

 and pathological nature, have been the subject of 

 study by the Indian Agricultural Department dur- 

 ing the past ten years. The author of the papers 

 now under notice has promised to deal with these 

 difficulties and to indicate the means by which 

 they may be overcome; also to consider how- far 

 existing methods of manufacture in Bihar are im- 

 perfect and to explain how these may be improved. 

 His further contribution to the general subject will 

 therefore be looked forward to with interest. 



PROF. ALFRED SENIER. 



PROF. ALFRED SENIER, who died on June 

 29 at Galway, was born at Burnley on 

 January 24, 1853. His parents, about two years 

 after his birth, emigrated to Wisconsin, where he 

 received his early education. In due course he 

 attended the Universities of Wisconsin and Michi- 

 gan, and graduated as doctor of medicine of the 

 latter in 1873. But his interest lay principally in 

 the subject of chemistry, and, returning- to Eng- 

 land, he filled, under Prof. Attfield's direction, 

 the posts of assistant and demonstrator in chemis- 

 try to the Pharmaceutical Society in London from 

 1874 to 1882, and, afterwards, for about three 

 years, that of lecturer in chemistry' in St. John's 

 College, Battersea, of which the Rev. Canon 

 Daniel was at that time principal. He then be- 

 came a research student with Prof, yon Hofmann, 

 and after a period of three years received the 

 degree of Ph.D. from the University of Berlin. 

 His inaugural dissertation, " Ueber Cyanursaure, 

 ihre Isomeren und Derivate," on receiving this 

 degree, was published. In 1890 he became locum 

 tenens for Prof. Maxwell Simpson in Cork, and 

 in 1 891 he was appointed professor of chemistry 

 and lecturer in medical jurisprudence in Queen's 

 College, now University College, Galway. 



Prof. Senier's researches in organic chemistry 

 were devoted mainly to the cyanuric acids, to the 

 acridines, and to phototropic and thermotropic 

 phenomena. He proved the non-existence of a- 

 and )3-cyanuric acids, and his discovery of hexa- 

 methylacridine and o-naphthacridine led to the in- 

 vestigation of new acridine derivatives, to ne\v 

 methods of inquiry, and to the discovery of new- 

 types of acridine compounds. In his presidential- 

 address to Section B of the British Association in 

 1912, he dealt with the salient features of his work: 

 on phototropy and thermotropy. 



He was always greatly interested in philosophical 

 subjects, and was familiar with the topics and 

 controversies of philosophy and logic. With Dr. 

 W. R. Dunstan, he was instrumental in founding 

 the Aristotelian Society in 1880. He was hon. 

 secretary and treasurer of this societv from its 



