November 6, 19 19] 



NATURE 



219 



the twenty years of his residence amongst us. 

 That he should have been allowed to depart was 

 nothing short of a national calamity. 



As regards British contributions to chemistry 

 during this and the succeeding decade, the most 

 noteworthy may be said to have emanated from 

 the Oxford Street institution. Williamson, how- 

 ever, was still active at University College, and \ 

 to this period belongs Frankland's recognition, : 

 in 1 85 1, of the principle of valency. The syn- 

 thetic colour industry originated in 1856 from 

 Perkin's discovery of mauve, and Hofmann him- 

 self, with other of his pupils, contributed greatly 

 to its development. As regards other workers, i 

 notable contributions to chemical theory at about j 

 this time were Clausius's work on electrolysis, \ 

 Deville's studies on dissociation, Couper's con- | 

 ception of atomic linkage, and the resuscitation I 

 by Cannizzaro of Avogadro's hypothesis and his 

 demonstration of its sufficiency at the memorable 

 Congress of Karlsruhe in i860. The introduction 

 of spectrum analysis bv Bunsen and Kirchhoff 

 belongs also to this epoch. 



Nature was founded at a time of extraordinary 

 development in chemistry. Kekule had made 

 known his fruitful conception of the constitution 

 of benzene, and a host of workers, more particu- 

 larly in Germany, were exploiting with feverish 

 activity the chemistry of the so-called aromatic \ 

 compounds. The synthetic colour industry re- j 

 ceived a remarkable impetus by the synthesis of ' 

 alizarin. Newlands had already adumbrated 

 Mendeleeff' s great generalisation, of which the 

 validity seemed to be established by the dramatic 

 discovery, in quick succession, of the new 

 elements it had predicted. 



During the fifty years of its subsequent exist- 

 ence this journal has recorded and made intelli- 

 gible to the general public everv notable advance 

 in chemistry. It has witnessed great and funda- 

 mental changes in the science. New conceptions 

 have arisen and time-honoured doctrines have 

 been modified or altogether supplanted. Chemical 

 knowledge has been augmented by the inclusion 

 of the theories of stereo-isomerism, desmotropy, 

 the gaseous theory of solutions and free ions, 

 and the Walden inversion. It has had to note and 

 describe the methods of liquefaction of all the so- ! 

 called permanent gases, and it has seen the '• 



universal recognition of the principles, first indi- 

 cated by Andrews, on vi'hich the change of 

 physical state depends. It has chronicled the 

 discovery of argon by Rayleigh, and that of 

 terrestrial helium, krypton, neon, and xenon by 

 Ramsay. It has seen the rise and progress of 

 radio-activity, the isolation of radium and its 

 associates, and the discovery of isotopic elements. 

 Lastly, it has seen a profound change in our con- 

 ception of the Daltonian atom as an indivisible 

 entity, and a strengthening of our belief in 

 the intimate connection between matter and 

 energy. 



Throughout the whole of its existence Nature 

 has been true to the ideals which it established 

 at its birth, and has been cpnsistently faithful 

 to the traditions it created. It has insisted from 

 the outset that national progress must be based 

 upon new ideas, and that the main source of new 

 ideas is original research. It has shown that the 

 greatest practical realities of our time have 

 originated from the search for truth ; that inven- 

 tion waits upon discovery — the most powerful of 

 all agents of civilisation ; and that new knowledge 

 means new power. Hence it has with a uniform 

 insistence pointed out that it is the duty of the 

 State, in its own interest, to encourage and foster 

 research and to remove the hindrances which beset 

 the pursuit of science and impede its progress. 

 Nor has its advocacy been based solely on the 

 lower ground of material advantage, or on the 

 fact that original research has proved to be the 

 source of new industries and of wealth — that it 

 creates employment and alleviates labour. It has 

 striven to show that mental and moral progress 

 have a scientific basis — that our knowledge of 

 Nature and the universe, our modes of thought, 

 our criteria of truth, our detection and avoidance 

 of fallacies, are dependent upon that habit of 

 mind we call " scientific "^ — a habit which can be 

 cultivated and strengthened only by the study and 

 pursuit of science. 



It has a record of which it may justly be proud. 

 By the manner in which it has discharged its 

 functions and fulfilled its obligations, it has earned 

 the gratitude of all men of science, and it now 

 celebrates its jubilee with the knowledge that it 

 has merited, and will receive, the unstinted appre- 

 ciation of all true lovers of science. 



CHEMISTRY IN THE MAKING. 



By Prof. Henry E. Armstrong, F.R.S. 



1"* HE period covered by Nature happens to be 

 that which just comes within my ken. In 

 chemistry, both pure and applied, it has been one 

 of astounding progress and fulfilment. Frank- 

 land and I published our new method of water 

 analysis — involving combustion in vacuo with the 

 aid of the Sprengel pump — in the year of its 

 birth : people then ran their sewage into a cess- 

 pit and drank the water from an adjoining well. 

 Typhoid fever was rife throughout the land. 

 NO. 2610, VOL. 104] 



Bacteriology was an unknown science. Frank- 

 land's work on the Rivers Commission gave the 

 nation a pure-water supply and contributed 

 greatly to a complete sanitary system, in this 

 respect placing us ahead of the world. The 

 systematic use of the Sprengel pump dates from 

 our inquiry; Crookes afterwards used it in con- 

 structing his radiometers. 



It is noteworthy that sulphuric anhydride was 

 a laboratory curiosity at that time : when I 



