430 



NA TURE 



[August 29, 1901 



ion to split off, while an increase of the positive radical, 

 such as H, NHo, &c., decreased this tendency. 



The theory of electrolytic dissociation was further 

 extended by Ostwald to explain the colours of solutions ; 

 he found that the absorption spectra of dilute solutions 

 of different salts with similarly coloured ions are iden- 

 tical. In conjunction with Nernst he investigated the 

 absorption spectra of a number of salts of perman}.;anic 

 acid, fluorescein, eosin, &c., and confirmed the corollary 

 of the theory of Arrhenius ; the colour of a dilute solu- 

 tion of a salt was thus shown to depend on the colour of 

 the free ions present in the solution, the absorption of a 

 completely dissociated electrolyte being the sum of the 

 absorptions of the positive and negative components. 



In 1897 he collected and published in four volumes the 

 more important investigations which had been carried on 

 during the previous ten years under his direction ; they 

 included work in nearly every department of physical 

 chemistry ; among them were the famous experiments on 

 the theory of the electrical charges of ions ; Beckmann's 

 original papers on the theory and use of the ebullioscope 

 and crioscope ; Nernst's classical memoir on the osmotic 

 origin of currents, and many other important contribu- 

 tions to our knowledge of electro-chemistry, the theory 

 of cells, polarisation and contact electricity. 



But Ostwald's labours have not been confined purely 

 to research. In addition to his great efforts in the de- 

 velopment and propagation of the new views on solutions 

 and electrolytic dissociation, his name is associated with 

 a number of treatises of varying scope, all stamped 

 with his own originality. In 1885-1887 appeared his 

 famous " Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Cheniie " ; and two 

 years later his "Grtmdriss," which has since passed 

 through three editions and been translated into several 

 languages. In the " Grundlagen der analytischen 

 Chemie" (1S94) he approached the subject from an 

 entirely new standpoint, while his " Grundlinien der 

 anorganischen Chemie" (1900; bids fair to become one 

 of the standard text-books. 



Prof Ostwald has told us how, more than fifteen 

 years ago, he and his friend Arrhenius, walking along the 

 banks of the Malarsee, tried to picture the then nebulous 

 future of physical chemistry. In 18S7 the new science 

 had so far advanced that he was able, with the assistance 

 of van 't Hoff, to found a journal to be devoted entirely 

 to it, the Zcitschrift Jiir physikalisclie Chemie. The pro- 

 gress which it has since made has gone far to justify 

 even the wildest hopes ; and to that progress few have 

 contributed more than the present director of the Leipzig 

 Institute. F. H. N. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHEMICAL 

 RESEARCH > 



T F Justus Liebig had no other claims on the gratitude 

 ^ of posterity, we should still be indebted to him for 

 the part which he played in emphasising the value of 

 chemistry as an educational factor. He it was who first 

 showed the importance of practical work in any scheme 

 of scientific training ; and, as Kolbe has pointed out, it 

 was from the Giessen laboratory that that system 

 emanated by which a student commenced with quali- 

 tative exercises, passed on to quantitative analysis, then 

 to a series of preparations, leading up finally to indepen- 

 dent research. Liebig's success in stimulating pupils to 

 original thought is evident from a brief survey of the 

 classical memoirs that were worked out in his laboratory, 

 and of a few of the more illustrious of his numerous 

 " schiiler," including as they did such names as A. VV. 

 Hofmann, Strecker, Fresenius, Playfair, Williamson, 

 Wurtz and Frankland. 



1 " A Select Bibliography of Chemistry, 1492-1897." By Henry Carrington 

 Bolton. Seclioil viii. Academic Dissertations. Pp. iv-t-534. (Published 

 by the Smithsonian Institution, City of Washington, 1901.) 



NO. 1 66 1, VOL. 64] 



The Giessen methods were at once adopted in the 

 several laboratories which began to arise towards the 

 close of the earlier half of the nineteenth century— at 

 Gottingen in 183O, under the direction of Wohler, and 

 later at Marburg and Leipzig, by Bunsen and Erdmann. 

 They have been accepted by all the great teachers who 

 followed after, from Kolbe, Kekule and Wislicenus to 

 \'ictor Meyer, Hantzsch and Curtius ; and they are 

 in vogue to-day, not only throughout Germany, but in 

 nearly every country where chemistry is taught. Ger- 

 many, however, had a long start ; in France it was not 

 till the end of the late 'sixties that Wurtz succeeded in 

 persuadinj^ the (Government of the necessity for reform in 

 the methods of scientific training ; and in Great Britain, 

 although the College of Chemistry — the present Royal 

 College of Science — was founded as early as 1845, 't 's 

 only comparatively recently that public attention has 

 been aroused to the inevitable result of continued apathy. 



The publication of the eighth section of Mr. Bolton's 

 laborious compilation, "A Select Bibliography of Chem- 

 istry," the first volume of which appeared in 1893, 

 completes the undertaking begun in 18S8 ; the entire 

 work contains rather more than 25,000 entries. In such' 

 a vast undertaking as this, omissions are unavoidable ; 

 the collection of titles for a fourth volume is, however, 

 in progress, and will afford an opportunity for making the 

 list more complete. 



The present volume, as its title indicates, is devoted 

 exclusively to academic dissertations ; it is not intended 

 to serve as an index to the chemical memoirs that liave 

 appeared in periodicals, but only as a list of those that 

 have been printed independently, the Russian titles being 

 contributed by Prof. A. Krupsky, of St. Petersburg. 



An analysis of the contents reveals the fact that during 

 the period covered by the bibliography, namely from 

 1492 till 1897, no less than 4800 theses on chemical sub- 

 jects have been handed in at (lerman universities ; 

 allowing for omissions, the correct number would probably 

 be considerably more than 5000. 



France comes next on the list with a total of, roughly, 

 1500. Switzerland follows with 600, and Russia with 

 120 ; the other countries are all below 100. 



When we remember that Gennany has some 

 twenty-two universities with splendidly equipped labora- 

 tories, maintained either completely or in part by the 

 Government, not to mention the numerotis technical 

 colleges, these figures are not to be wondered at. 



A better idea of the respective outputs as regards 

 research of these different countries may be gathered 

 from the fact that Germany has six periodicals devoted 

 to the publication of pure chemical research ; these aire 

 the Anna/en, the Berichte, the Journal fiir pi'actische 

 Chemie., the Zcitschrift fiir physikalische Chemie^ the 

 ZeitscJirift fur analvtischc Chemie and the Zcitschrift 

 fiir Chemie. France has the Annates de Chimic et de 

 I'hysiqiie and the Bulletin de la Socictc Chimique ; a 

 certain number of chemical memoirs appear also in the 

 Comptcs rendus : the other countries are represerited 

 chiefly by the journals of their respective societies. 



Looking back over her record, Germany may well be 

 proud of those illustrious teachers who did so much to 

 build up her educational system ; the rapid strides of 

 German industries in recent years pay eloquent testi- 

 mony to the success and value of their efforts. At the 

 present time in England the Government is at last waking 

 up to the necessity for action ; the growth of technical 

 schools throughout the country is a move in the right, 

 direction. But much still remains to be done. Research 

 in every department of science must be stimulated at all 

 costs, and British manufacturers must abandon their old 

 empirical methods. A " research chemist '' is worth 

 more than eighty pounds a year, and we must at last 

 realise that the spirit of economy may be carried to fatal 

 excess. The outlook is far from cheerful, and so long as 



