[10 GERMAN SCIENCE 
also in Lancashire. It is a remarkable fact that in the middle 
of the nineteenth century, the idea of applying science to - 
manufacture was more prevalent in certain parts of Britain 
and certain sections of British industry than in any other part __ 
of the world, and it was easier for a German chemist to find 
a place in England than in his own country. This is well 
shown by a fact of great and almost tragic interest—namely 
that there were then in works round about Manchester three 
German chemists who subsequently returned to their own | 
country and became the leading spirits in three of the vast 
concerns in Germany at which we now stand in such amaze- 
ment.! 
The return of these men to Germany and also the trans- 
ference in 1864 of Hofmann from London to Bonn and then 
to Berlin are considered to have exercised a decisive influence 
on the development of the coal-tar industry. The new 
industry, it must be remembered, was new in a very wide 
sense. Not only were new things made, but they were made 
by methods of manufacture which depended much less on 
inventiveness and the kind of practical skill in which the 
Englishman excels, than on an elaborate and thorough compre- 
hension of deep science. In this respect Germany was more 
favourably situated for the development of the industry than 
England. Liebig’s labours, and the labours of others who 
followed his lead, had brought into existence in Germany an 
army of young, enthusiastic, and highly capable chemists who 
were eager for an opportunity of turning their powers to 
practical use. 
The German industry of preparing pure chemicals, one 
requiring knowledge and methods akin to ‘those required for 
1 One of these men informed me in the course of conversation a few years 
ago that he had left England because the firm with which he was engaged 
showed so much reluctance to support the scientific work he deemed 
essential for the impending industrial developments. 
