382 



NATURE 



[May 27, 1920 



It is, what South Kensington is not, an easily 

 accessible place, and yet is not too noisy for the 

 purpose, and it will have the additional advan- 

 tage of the near presence of our greatest library 

 and museum. It is safe to say that there is at 

 present no site in London comparable with it, and 

 none so suitable is likely to be available for many 

 years. 



The only objection possessing any validity to 

 the acceptance of the Government's offer is the 

 financial one. This is, we admit, a serious ques- 

 tion, and it would be foolish to minimise its 

 importance. Hitherto both the University head- 

 quarters and King's College have been housed 

 free by the Government. This arrangement will 

 now come to an end, and it is obvious that the 

 cost of covering the site with buildings that shall 

 be worthy of London's University will be con- 

 siderable. Mr. Fisher feels that in this the Uni- 

 versity can look with confidence to the generosity 

 and public spirit which have always marked the 

 citizens of London. We think he is right. We 

 are convinced that, if proper efforts are made, 

 enough and more than enough money will be 

 forthcoming for the purpose. The results of the 

 present Vice-Chancellor's appeal to the City in 

 connection with the degrees of commerce of the 

 L'niversity afford an index of the support that 

 would be forthcoming from the City Companies 

 and the great commercial houses if the sym- 

 pathies and the co-operation of the commercial 

 community were enlisted in the greater cause of 

 the L'niversity as a whole. Private benefactors 

 would be attracted to a bold and well-conceived 

 plan of creating a great university quarter, and 

 Londoners, if there were some outward and visible 

 sign of the greatness of their University, would 

 not be found wanting either in the civic pride or 

 in the willingness to pay which is found in the 

 provinces or in Continental cities. 



We hope the LTniversity authorities will take 

 their courage in both hands and go forward 

 boldly. The reasons which forbid the Government 

 from giving further assistance in these days may 

 be regrettable, but they are easily intelligible. 

 We are sure that if the University rises to the 

 occasion neither this nor any future Government 

 will be allowed to leave it to struggle unaided. 

 ^^'e are equally sure that if counsels of timidity 

 are allowed to prevail and this opportunity is lost 

 the LTniversity will have forfeited irrevocably any 

 claim on the public or the Government for support 

 in the future, 



NO. 2639, VOL. 105] 



Manuals on Applied Chemistry. 



(i) Practical Leather Chemistry: A Handbook of 

 Laboratory Notes and Methods for the Use of 

 Students and Works Chemists. By Arthur 

 Harvey. Pp. viii + 207. (London : Crosby 

 Lockwood and Son, 1920,) Price 155. net. 



(2) Chemistry for Textile Students: A Manual 

 Suitable' for Technical Students in the Textile 

 and Dyeing Industries. By Barker North, as- 

 sisted by Norman Bland. (Cambridge Technical 

 Series.) Pp. viii -1-379. (Cambridge: At the 

 University Press, 1920.) Price 305. net. 



(3) The Chemistry of Coal. By John Braithwaite 

 Robertson. (Chemical Monographs.) Pp. viii-t- 

 96. (London : Gurney and Jackson, 1919.) Price 

 35. 6d. net. 



(i) IV /I R- HARVEY'S handbook is intended 

 IVl for the use of the works chemist in 

 charge of the analytical and testing department 

 of a tannery. It is an eminently practical work, 

 well and clearly written with due regard to 

 modern methods, and evidently based upon con- 

 siderable personal experience. It presupposes that 

 the user of the book has had not only a pre- 

 liminary course of instruction in theoretical 

 chemistry, but also the opportunity of a labora- 

 tory training in manipulation in qualitative and 

 quantitative analysis. In these circumstances the 

 book can be thoroughly recommended as an ex- 

 cellent vade mecum to the work of the chemical 

 laboratory of a tannery, or to the student who 

 intends ultimately to specialise on leather 

 chemistry. It will be found to cover practically 

 every problem that the works chemist of a 

 tannery may have to face. The analytical methods 

 described have been thoroughly tested, and are 

 well adapted to practical conditions. 



(2) The manual by Mr. Barker North and Mr. 

 Norman Bland is a work of a very different class. 

 It is essentially a text-book of the elementary 

 chemistry of certain of the non-metallic elements 

 and their compounds, together with a somewhat 

 bald account of the chemistry of a few carbon 

 derivatives. The section devoted to technical 

 chemistry as applied to the textile industries oc- 

 cupies only some twenty -eight of the 379 

 pages of which the book consists. The authors 

 are lecturers in chemistry to the evening classes of 

 the Technical Colleges of Bradford and Hudders- 

 field respectively, both important centres of the 

 textile and dyeing industries,. and their object, no 

 doubt, is to attract students who are, or 

 may be, engaged in these industries. In their 

 preface they point out that whilst the cotton and 

 woollen industries occupy most important positions 



