242 



NATURE 



[November 29, 191 7 



mental shorthand, invented to increase man's con- 

 trol of his environment and his power to survive 

 in the strug-gle for existence. We can never pre- 

 tend that they represent ultimate reality, if such a 

 thing is indeed thinkable. Or does Dr. Haldane 

 believe that there is some great formula which will 

 embrace the worlds of soul and body, and will re- 

 place, because including, the concepts which we 

 employ in dealing with the objective world? If 

 this were possible, we should indeed be as gods, 

 and there would seem to remain little place for the 

 last few pages of these lectures, in which the 

 author, in accordance with the wishes of the 

 founders, refers to "the presence of God in the 

 natural and moral world." It is the teaching of 

 biology, as of every religion or State code of 

 ethics, that "we are not mere individuals, but one 

 with a higher reality." No system of education is 

 complete which does not inculcate this as its funda- 

 mental doctrine, but it is not given to everyone 

 to make the further inferences drawn by the author 

 of these lectures. E. H. S. 



THE PERENNIAL PROBLEM OF DYES. 



Artificial Dye-stuffs : Their Nature, Manufacture, 

 and Uses. By A. J. Ramsay and H. Claude 

 Weston. Pp. ix + 2i2. (London: George 

 Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 191 7.) Price 36-. 6d. 

 net. 



A FTER a concise historical introduction, the 

 -'*• authors deal with the distillation of coal and 

 the manufacture of direct coal-tar products. In 

 referring to the very small yield from coal of the 

 principal colour-producing hydrocarbons, the pos- 

 sibility of a new source of these products from 

 petroleum is mentioned. A more general con- 

 version of coal into coke before consuming it as 

 fuel would also lead to a further supply of these 

 valuable hydrocarbons. 



It is an unfortunate feature of this text-book 

 that the chemical foundations are unsound. This 

 detracts considerably from its utility as an intro- 

 ductory manual to the study of the artificial dye 

 industry. The only other raison d'etre for the 

 work, namely, that of an exhaustive treatise, is 

 disclaimed by the authors. 



The azo-group present in the largest class 

 of artificial dyes is defined incorrectly as " a 

 radical consisting of two atoms of nitrogen 

 which can be substituted in a suitable substance 

 for one atom of hydrogen." The consequences of 

 this fundamental error are to be seen in the' absurd 

 formula for Bismarck brown on p. 63. The 

 chemical mechanism of the diazo-reaction defined 

 long ago with precision by Griess, the discoverer 

 of the process, is apparently not understood clearly 

 by the authors, who on p. 41 give the formula 

 CrH^.NqHCI to diazobenzene hydrochloride (sic). 

 This confusion is continued on p. 42 in the forma- 

 tion of aminoazobenzene. It is only fair to direct 

 attention to these elementary details, because the 

 authors attach importance to them, stating (p. 44) 

 that "if the reader has thoroughly mastered the 

 explanation in the foregoinjr pages ... he will 

 NO. 2509, VOL. 100] 



be in a position to understand the nature and 

 manufacture of almost any of the series of azo- 

 dyes. " 



Pyrogallol or " -y-trihydroxybenzene " is fur- 

 nished with the structural formula of its isomeride, 

 phloroglucinol. Salicylic acid is stated to be 

 manufactured from anthranilic acid, but this can 

 scarcely be the prevailing method. Confusion 

 rules in regard to "1:8: 4-dioxynaphthalenesul- 

 phonic acid/' this dihydroxy-derivative of naphtha- 

 lene being endowed with two atoms of univalent 

 oxygen. Direct or "substantive " dyes are said to 

 be formed within the fibres themselves. Phthalic 

 anhydride is formulated as C6H4(C02).0, but the 

 e/rant carbon atom returns to the molecule at 

 phthalimide. On p. iii the words "left" and 

 "right" should replace "top" and "bottom" in 

 the description of the quinonoid hexagon. If this 

 formulation is accepted, it is incorrect to add that 

 the hexagon is linked to chlorine as well as to an 

 amino-group. The formula for m-tolylenediamine 

 on p. 133 is incompatible with the constitutions 

 assigned to tolylene red and blue on the same 

 page. 



These and other similar chemical errors mar 

 the utility of a text-book which is much more 

 satisfactory in its outline of manufacturing pro- 

 cesses, and contains a series of informing 

 diagrams. G. T. M. 



THE NEW REGIONALISM. 

 Can We Set the World in Order? The Need for 



a Constructive World-culture. By C. R. Knock. 



Pp. 198. (London: Grant Richards, Ltd., 



1916.) Price 35, 6d. net. 

 T^HE man of fact and the brooding thinker are 

 -■- rarely united in one to form a great leader. 

 Here we have pre-eminently the man of fact. 

 Few pages of this work but evidence the travelled 

 observer richly harvesting facts with admirable 

 zeal for social reconstruction ; we therefore warmly 

 recommend his labours to all who would amelio- 

 rate the gross and widespread inequali-ties of 

 human lot. 



The author pleads for a " science of human duty 

 in rnoulding the earth that it may be the home of 

 a high and universal civilisation " (p. 34) : truly 

 a lofty ideal. He advocates a co-operative world- 

 survey of economic possibilities, and thereafter 

 the development of a world-order, based upon 

 federated units of industry so organised that every 

 region shall become, so far as geographically 

 possible, an "organism" (p, 41), "self-supplying 

 and self-contained," within "its natural radius of 

 action " (p. 40), A sense of "place-possibiiity," 

 or "the culture of the locality," should teach us 

 " to regard a place as an organism, capable of 

 being brought to a flourishing and permanent 

 state of life, just as we bring an individual to 

 such a state " (p. 56). To this end, useful " Town- 

 planning " should grow into " Industry-planning " 

 Acts, together culminating in " country-planning," 

 or "the economic consideration and control not 

 only of urban but of rural areas, for . . . in the 



