GERMAN SCIENCE 109 



said emphatically that we have artificial colouring matters 

 * to produce almost any shade with any desired degree of fast- 

 ness on any kind of material, whether it be wool, cotton, silk, 

 or paper'. The idea that artificial colours are necessarily 

 either gaudy or fleeting is quite fallacious. If evidence is 

 wanted it can be supplied by such facts as these, given by 

 Dr. Duisberg, that in the great Gobelin tapestry factory at 

 Paris, where it takes nearly a year to make a square yard of 

 material, costing about 200, the older dye-stuffs have to 

 a considerable extent been displaced by the artificial ones for 

 the sake of their greater fastness to light. Certain blue dyes 

 discovered in 1901 are authoritatively declared to be the 

 most indestructible colours known. 



Perkin's colour factory near London grew and prospered. 

 In 1868 the abstruse researches of two German chemists gave 

 another great impulse by the discovery of the chemical nature 

 of madder the famous * Turkey red '. This was followed by 

 the discovery of a practicable method of making the colour. 

 In a short time the cultivation of madder root began to die 

 out, in thousands of acres in France madder growing gave 

 place to the cultivation of the sugar beet, and the manufac- 

 ture of alizarine (for so the artificial madder was called) grew 

 apace. At this point the necessity of enlarging his manu- 

 factory to cope with the increased trade led Perkin to retire. 

 He had always vowed that the lure of industry with its golden 

 guineas should never detach him from the joy of scientific 

 investigation, and so in 1873 he sold his works. From that 

 time till his death. in 1907, he continued, happy in his labora- 

 tory, to enrich science with his discoveries. He left behind 

 him an honoured name and happily also distinguished sons 

 who have continued in the footsteps of their illustrious father. 

 One of them, I am happy to say, exercises his talents within 

 our own university. 



In addition to Perkin's factory, others arose in London and 



