NA TURE 



121 



THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1917. 



T IVENTIETH-CENTUR Y CHEMIST R Y. 



Chemical Discovery and Invention in the Tiven- 

 tieth Century. By Sir William A. Tilden. Pp. 

 xvi + 487. (London : George Routledge and 

 Sons, Ltd., n.d.) Price 75. 6d. net. 



THIS book is an attempt to make clear to the 

 general reader the nature of the work of the 

 chemist. That ubiquitous person known as the 

 "man in the street " probably considers that he 

 already knows, at least in general terms, what 

 that work is. The business of a chemist, he 

 would probably say, is to vend tooth-brushes, 

 sponges, photographic appliances, perfumes, and 

 other "leading lines," drugs and poisons, and 

 to make up prescriptions. He might add that 

 the chemist is a person who seeks to combine the 

 pretensions of a profession with the instincts of 

 a shopkeeper. 



The object of Sir William Tilden 's book is to 

 show that there are chemists and chemists. What 

 our friend the "man in the street" regards as 

 a chemist is, strictly speaking, an apothecary or 

 a pharmacist, and his business nowadays has 

 little or notliing to do with that of the chemist 

 properly so called. There was a time when the 

 two occupations had much in common. We owe 

 to the labours of old-time apothecaries, especially 

 in Scandinavia, France, and Germany, many 

 notable advances in chemical knowledge, but 

 leaders in chemical science in this country were, 

 until a couple of generations ago, for the most 

 part cultured persons of leisure and position, like 

 Boyle, Hales, and Cavendish, or connected with 

 teaching, like Black, Priestley, and Dalton. If 

 the records of chemical discovery are searched, 

 ir will be found that the apothecaries in this 

 country, unlike their fellows on the Continent, 

 have contributed comparatively little to the 

 common stock of chemical knowledge. 



It is not our present purpose to indicate the 

 reasons for their comparative neglect of a science 

 which constitutes the verj^ basis of the business 

 of pharmacy, or to show why so little advantage 

 is taken by ap>othecaries, as a class, of the oppor- 

 tunity it affords them for chemical inquiry. One 

 reason, perhaps, may be found in the very dif- 

 ferent professional position which the apothecary 

 holds in this country as compared with his Con- 

 tinental brother. But, be this as it may, our 

 immediate point is to insist that our apothecaries 

 have no moral claim to the title of chemist — a 

 title, by the way, never assumed by their Con- 

 tinental brethren, in spite of their superior pro- 

 fessional status. 



But, although this confusion in the public mind 

 as to the true vocation of the chemist is practic- 

 ally widespread, passing events have served some- 

 what to enlighten it. The newspapers have 

 taught it that a chemist is a person concerned 

 also with high explosives, noxious gases, dyes 

 and certain drugs which the soi-disant chemist 



NO. 2476, VOL. 99] 



is unable to prepare. The "man in the street " 

 had begun to recognise, even before the advent 

 of Sir William Tilden 's book, that there are 

 chemists and chemists — chemists whose sole con- 

 cern is, or should be, with pills, p)otions, and 

 plasters ; and chemists who have merely a vicarious 

 interest in these things, and then only as members 

 of a suffering humanity. This growing recogni- 

 tion of the divergent aims of chemists is mean- 

 while somewhat unsettling; it is confusion worse 

 confounded. The simplest way to end it would 

 be to amend the Pharmacy Act of 1868, or take 

 some other steps to induce the druggists and 

 pharmacists to drop their assumption of the title 

 of chemist. 



Pending such a consummation, we commend 

 the book under review to the general attention 

 of the public. A perusal of its interesting 

 pages will serve to dispel any lingering doubts as 

 to the proper function of a chemist. The author, 

 in a short but suggestive introductory chapter, 

 rapidly traces the change in the public atti- 

 tude towards science, and in particular chem- 

 istry, as an instrument of education. In spite of 

 checks and hindrances due to conservatism and 

 the opposition of vested interests, the record as 

 a whole makes cheerful reading. Steady progress 

 has been made during the past three or four 

 decades, and the movement is progressing at an 

 accelerated rate, largely through the impetus 

 given to it by the crisis through which this 

 country is passing. It is this circumstance which 

 renders the publication of Sir William Tilden 's 

 book so opportune. The lesson it seeks to convey 

 is of the highest national importance. The 

 author's greatest difficulty is how best to convey 

 it. The theme is lofty and inspiring, but the 

 material is vast and complicated, and it has re- 

 quired no small degree of skill and judgment to 

 present it in an orderly and systematic manner, 

 not overcharged with technicalities, and yet free 

 from the ambiguities and loose statements of so- 

 called popular writing. In this respect we think 

 the author has been successful. There are, 

 of course, certain sections which the lay 

 reader who has lost the student-habit may have 

 some little difficulty in grappling with. Questions 

 of chemical constitution and representations of 

 structural formulae are, of course, beyond the 

 range of even a well-educated man of to-day. 

 Nevertheless, the author makes no assumption of 

 previous knowledge on the part of his reader, 

 but, with the skill of an experienced expositor, 

 gradually builds up a presentation that with a 

 little patient application becomes perfectly intelli- 

 gible. 



The main body of the work is divided into four 

 parts. Part i. deals with chemical laboratories 

 and the work done in them. The laboratories are 

 classified as laboratories for general teaching and 

 laboratories for special purposes. As types of 

 the first class the author enumerates all the more 

 important laboratories at home and abroad, and 

 selects for special description the chemical labora- 

 tories of the Imp)erial College of Science and 



H 



