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NATURE 



[May 31, 1917 



ment of the committee is well known. At the 

 same time the committee has supported inde- 

 pendent inquiries in other directions, which fall 

 under two main heads. The first g-roup com- 

 prises the studies of the properties of hypochlor- 

 ites and their derivatives. . At Edinburgh Pfofs. 

 Ritchie and Lorrain Smith produced and investi- 

 gated the solution now widely known and used as 

 "Eusol," in which the prefix is not Greek, as 

 might be supposed, but stands for Edinburgh 

 University. Simultaneously, Dr. Dakin, working 

 in collaboration with Prof. Cohen, of the Uni- 

 - versity of Leeds, and Dr. Carrel, in France, 

 brought forward the now well-known "Dakin" 

 hypochlorite solution, used widely for the French 

 Army, for the British Army in France, and in 

 America. Later, Dr. Dakin, working for the 

 committee in its biochemical department, inves- 

 tigated the properties of paratoluene sulphochlor- 

 amide, prepared earlier for him in Prof. Cohen's 

 laboratory by a modification of Chattaway's 

 original process. This antiseptic has already ob- 

 tained wide use in England and France, under Dr. 

 Dakin 's name, " chloramine-T, " and in America 

 under the name " chlorazene. " Being non-toxic 

 and less unpleasant than hypochlorite solutions 

 close to the nose, it has been specially useful in 

 mouth and jaw cases, and from its property of 

 ready adsorption by textiles, it provides anti- 

 septic gauzes of far higher potency than those 

 previously available. 



The second group of inquiries supported by the 

 committee has been concerned with benzene de- 

 rivatives, and chiefly those already known to the 

 synthetic dye industry. At a very early stage in 

 the war, Surgeon-General Cheatle, with Drs. 

 Fildes and Rajchman, investigated for the com- 

 mittee a series of compounds-, of which they 

 brought forward malachite green as having high 

 value in the treatment of infected wounds. More 

 recently. Dr. Carl Browning, working in the 

 Bland-Sutton Institute of the Middlesex Hospital, 

 who had previously worked with brilliant green 

 and other synthetic dyes as weapons in the tech- 

 nique of bacteriological discrimination, has ex- 

 amined for the committee other synthetic dyes. 

 Much interest has been taken in his statement of 

 the antiseptic properties of what he proposes to 

 call "flavine." This is an acridin derivative pre- 

 viously prepared and actually patented in Ger- 

 many, to which Ehrlich gave the name "trypa- 

 fiavin," on account of its trypanocidal properties. 

 Owing to the war, supplies of this substance 

 were unobtainable, but Dr. Barger, in the bio- 

 chemical department of the Medical Research 

 Committee, prepared " trypaflavin " for the pur- 

 poses of Dr. Browning's investigation, with the 

 results already published. This, now called "fla- 

 vine," Dr. Browning found to have, in addition to 

 high bactericidal potency, the very remarkable, 

 and at present wholly unexplained, property of 

 gaining, instead of losing, in potency in the pre- 

 sence of serum, and it has the further valuable 

 property of appearing to leave undamaged the 

 activities of phagocytes in dilutions which still 

 have high bactericidal power. 

 NO. 2483, VOL. 99] 



The committee has arranged for the manufac- 

 ture of " flavine " upon a commercial scale for 

 Government purposes, and as the new supplies 

 become available it is hoped that complete 

 clinical trials may be made of its value in the 

 treatment of wounds. The preliminary reports 

 already received from surgeons, based upon the 

 first results of the laboratory manufacture, are 

 most encouraging. 



HOME-GROWN SUGAR. 



THE announcement in the Times of April 19 

 that the Treasury has sanctioned a grant of 

 i25,oooL by way of loan from the Development 

 Fund towards the purchase of an estate for the 

 purposes, of sugar-beet growing and sugar manu- 

 facture marks an advance of the highest 

 importance towards the establishment in this 

 country of this valuable industry. 



For many years an active propaganda directed 

 towards this end has been carried on, a:nd much 

 valuable preliminary investigation has been com- 

 pleted. Numerous experiments in different parts 

 of the country have shown conclusively that over 

 wide areas sugar-beet crops fully equal in yield 

 and quality to those of the Continent can be 

 grown, and the ground has been effectively 

 cleared for putting the possibilities of the industry 

 to practical test. 



For several reasons, however, previous efforts 

 to establish the industry have met with but scant 

 success. On one hand the uncertainty as to 

 national policy in relation to the once vexed ques- 

 tion of sugar bounties has been a potent inhibiting 

 factor, whilst on the other the necessary establish- 

 ment of sugar-beet growing areas round the 

 factory to give an assured supply of beets has 

 also presented the greatest difficulties. 



Repeated efforts to obtain State assistance 

 have encountered the obstacle that such assist- 

 ance could be given only to enterprises from 

 which the element of private profit was entirely 

 eliminated. At long last, however, the efforts 

 appear to be within sight of fruition, and with 

 the more clearly realised need for the establish- 

 ment of the industry and the closer consideration 

 given to the solution of the difficulties involved, 

 a scheme has been devised which Lord Selborne's 

 committee in its interim report felt able to 

 endorse as well thought out and sound. 



This enterprise for which Treasury support has 

 been obtained is to be carried out by the British 

 Sugar-Beet Growers' Society, Ltd., an organisa- 

 tion not trading for profit, and created specifically 

 for the purposes of the scheme, with Capt. 

 Beville Stanier, M.P. , as chairman, and an 

 influential and representative committee, with 

 expert advisory assistance. Through the vice- 

 chairman, Mr. E. Jardine, M.P. , an estate of 

 5600 acres has been acquired at Kelham, near 

 Newark, where it is proposed to grow a large 

 area of sugar-beet and to erect a factory for its 

 manufacture into sugar. The estate is very 

 favourably situated for both rail and canal 



