422 



NATURE 



[July 31, 1919 



have characterised the year's work. Such a 

 statement is probably best put together after the 

 detailed account of the year's literature has been 

 compiled, and when, as it were, the material has 

 been brought to focus. The greater number of 

 the contributors, especially those who have been 

 engaged on previous reports, actually make these 

 general surveys, but the practice is not uniform, 

 and the surveys are neither of the same interest 

 nor show the same grasp and critical skill. This 

 perhaps is to be expected. Progress in some de- 

 partments of applied chemistry is very slow, espe- 

 cially in minor industries, and such developments 

 as do occur are often not particularly striking. 



Of the new contributors, Dr. Dunn, of New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne, contributes an admirable resume 

 on " Fuel," in which he deals with a wider range 

 of literature than is noted in the society's journal; 

 Mr. Alwyne Meade, of the Commercial Gas Co., 

 Wapping, treats of "Gas-destructive Distillation- 

 Tar Products " in a well-arranged and succinct 

 digest of some twenty pages ; while Mr. Arnold 

 Philip, the Admiralty chemist at Portsmouth, occu- 

 pies about the same space with an excellent re'^iimd 

 of the present position of the mineral oil industry, 

 with special reference to its applications as fuel. 

 Although the matter is not, strictly- speaking, rele- 

 vant to the title of this particular section, Mr. 

 Philip is naturally led to discuss the question of 

 the possible substitution of alcohol, wholly or in 

 part, for petrol as a motor-fuel — a question which 

 is again being actively ventilated owing in great 

 measure to the present high price of petrol. The 

 author is evidently not very sanguine that alcohol 

 is likely to play any considerable part as a motor- 

 spirit unless some form of co-operation on the 

 part of motor users, or some form of control by 

 the State, as in Germany, checks the destructive 

 competition between the producers of alcohol and 

 of petrol which will inevitably set in. As matters 

 stand at present the great petroleum corporations 

 can at any time afford to undersell alcohol, and 

 can undoubtedly ruin any undertaking engaged in 

 the manufacture of industrial alcohol for motor- 

 fuel. The question has engaged the attention of 

 a Departmental Committee, and a report upon it 

 has recently been issued. The whole matter is 

 beset with adniinistratlve difificulties, and will 

 presumably need legislative action, if any practi- 

 cal effect is to follow from the Committee's report. 



Other new contributors are Capt. Nash, of 

 the Chemical Warfare Department, on " Paints, 

 Pigments, Varnishes, and Resins"; Dr. Twiss, 

 of the Dunlop Rubber Co., on " Indiarubber " ; 

 Mr. F. C. Thompson, of the Leather Indus- 

 tries Department of the University of Leeds, 

 on "Leather and Glue"; Dr. E. J. Russell, 

 of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, on 

 " Agricultural Chemistry "; Mr. I. P. Ogilvie, the 

 technical editor of the International Sugar Jour- 

 nal, on "Sugars, Starches, and Gums"; Dr. 

 Bywaters, lecturer on general metabolism at the 

 Bristol University, on " Foods "; Dr. Ardern, the 

 chief chemist of the Manchester Corporation's 

 NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 



Rivers Department, on " Water Purification and 

 Sanitation "; and Prof. Barger on "Fine Chemi- 

 cals, Medicinal Substances, and Essential Oils." 

 It will be seen that in all cases the editor has been 

 fortunate in securing the co-operation of recog- 

 nised authorities in the particular sections entrusted 

 to them. 



The remaining sections have been undertaken 

 by previous contributors. Prof. Morgan con- 

 tinues his admirable series of reports on " Colour- 

 ing Matters and Dyes"; Mr. Briggs deals with 

 "Fibres, Textiles, Cellulose, and Paper"; Mr. 

 Higgins with " Bleaching, Dyeing, Printing, and 

 Finishing"; Dr. Auden with "Acids, Alkalis, 

 Salts, etc."; Mr. Rees with "Glass and Refrac- 

 tories "; Mr. Bannister with "The Metallurgy of 

 Iron and Steel"; Mr. Patchin with the "Non- 

 ferrous Metals"; Mr. Hale with "Electro- 

 chemistry "; and Messrs. Revis and Bolton with 

 "Fats, Oils, and Waxes." 



There is much in this excellent series of digests 

 of general interest, and had space permitted we 

 should have been tempted to direct attention to 

 many points of novelty and importance. Certain 

 of the sections overlap to a slight extent, and, as- 

 might be anticipated when we are dealing with 

 matters at the very frontiers of progress, authori- 

 ties occasionally differ, as, for example, concern- 

 ing the importance or otherwise of the presence of 

 vitamines in certain articles of food, as In mar- 

 garine. But these reports are, or should be, 

 generally accessible to all who are concerned with 

 the multifarious applications of chemical know- 

 ledge, and the price at which they are issued 

 brings them within the reach of all who are in- 

 terested in the progress of applied chemistry. 



(3) Mr. Carlton Smith's little monograph on the 

 nitrotoluenes is, like its subject, a product of the 

 war. Its author is on the staff of the School of 

 Applied Science of the Pittsburgh Carnegie Insti- 

 tute of Technology. The book Is mainly con- 

 cerned with the history, modes of manufacture, 

 and properties of the trinitrotoluenes, and par- 

 tlcularlv of T.N. T., which, under the various names 

 of trolyl, tolite, trillte, trine 1, tritolo. etc., is now 

 largely used as an explosive In war by practically 

 all nations In substitution for picric acid. During 

 the late war the demand for it was enormous, and 

 large quantities of it were made by American 

 manufacturers on account of the high price it com- 

 manded. Mr. Smith's book is mainly concerned 

 with the methods of production as carried on in 

 the LTnlted States. It Is presumably written for 

 the Information of the manufacturer ; as a scien- 

 tific treatise It has few merits ; the explanation of 

 the theory of nitration is confused and misleading, 

 and the historical account is incomplete. 

 Literary composition is evidently not the author's 

 strong point, and his orthography and punctua- 

 tion are occaslonallv erratic. For Walters (p. 6) 

 read Walter; for Hoffman (p. 7) read Hofmann ; 

 for Rosenstlll (p. 12) read Rosenstiehl ; for Lamp- 

 richt (p. 16) read Limprlcht ; fo"- Nolting and 

 Witte (p. 16) read Noelting and Witt; for Astro- 



