30 



NATURE 



[May 1 1, 1893 



■vormals F. Bayer and Co., of Elberfeld,whoare manufac- 

 •tureis of dye-stuffs and other products derivable from tars. 

 I told the Commissioners that if, at the present time, it were 

 •desired to fit up a research laboratory for chemical pur- 

 poses in London, we could not do better than take these 

 plans and reproduce them in their entirety, and that we 

 should then, I believed, have reason to congratulate our- 

 selves on possessing the best-appointed public research 

 laboratory in the world. 



In addition to the two dozen skilled chemists in the 

 research department at the Elberfeld works, a large 

 number are engaged in other departments, the total 

 number employed being, I believe, over sixty / 



The Elberfeld works do not stand alone : the world- 

 renowned Badische Anilin and Sodafabrik probably has 

 in the aggregate far more laboratory accommodation 

 than is provided even at Elberfeld. I learn from my 



exported aniline-colours of the estimated value of no less 

 than 44,269,000 marks, and alizarin valued at 12,906,000 

 marks — or little short of three millions sterling — a very 

 large proportion of these manufactured colouring matters 

 being sent to the East Indies, where they are fast dis- 

 placing those of natural origin. Dr. Caro in a compre- 

 hensive monograph just published in the Berichte in 

 which the gradual development of the coal-tar colour 

 industry is fully traced out, speaks of it as a German 

 national industry. Manufactured in Germany is 

 certainly now the recognized trade mark for chemicals 

 throughout the world. 



Not many years ago Wurlz wrote, with reference to the 

 origin of the science, " La chimie est une science fran- 

 caise ; " at the present day we may say, without fear of 

 contradiction, that, whatever its origin, it is now a German 

 science ; that it is to this (act that the Germans owe their 



Fig. I. — Laboratory as seen from the street : Works on right, Offices on left. 



friend Dr. Caro, that of the seventy-eight chemists 

 in the employ of this firm fifty-six have the Ph.D. degree. 



At many other works equally ample provision is made 

 — in fact the colour works throughout Germany are simply 

 laboratories on a very large scale. 



As an antithesis, I may add that I told the Gresham 

 Commissioners that I did not think that any English 

 colour works had six skilled chemists in its employ ; 

 at all events six was the maximum niunber. 



Is it then surprising that, notwithstanding that a very 

 large proportion of the coal-tar used is of English origin, 

 and that both the " aniline-colour " and the alizarin 

 industry were first established here, according to a state- 

 ment in the Chicago Exhibition Catalogue of the German 

 Section, about nine-tenths of the total quantity of 

 artificial colouring matters now produced is manufactured 

 in Germany? Whatever the proportion, in 189 1, Germany 



NO. 1228, VOL. 48] 



supremacy ; and that it is to our failure to feel the pulse ot 

 the times, and to educate ourselves up to the proper point 

 that we owe our downfall. It is to be feared, moreover, 

 that unless we realise this without further loss of time, 

 and hasten to fit ourselves to do our fair share of the 

 work, other industries in which chemistry plays an im- 

 portant part, ere another twenty years are past, will also 

 have quitted our shores. To do this we must put aside 

 the idea that University extension and County Council 

 lectures, or even polytechnics and technical schools for the 

 multitude, are to bring about the necessary reform ; and 

 we must rise above the belief that a degree given for text- 

 book knowledge and an acquaintance with the ordinary 

 methods of analysis is evidence of competency. A true 

 conception of what a chemist is — what he is called on 

 to do and to know in this age of progress— must arise in 

 high quarters and especially among our manufacturers. 



