September 8, 1904] 



NA TURE 



455 



mountain stream, it is not hard to see how this epithet 

 came to be associated with, and applied to, the stream 

 itself, which is not regarded apart from its peculiar surround- 

 ings. The steep sides are, in fact, the characteristic feature 

 of the ordinary Highland a\lt. The Reviewer. 



The Striped Hawk-Moth. 



With reference to the paragraph in N.\ture of August 18 

 (p. 3S9) on the striped hawk moth, on May 23 this year I 

 found a specimen alive in a thick bed of lily-of-the-valley ; 

 it had just emerged, and had never flown. Warmwell is 

 two miles from the sea as the crow flies ; possibly the parent 

 was a migrant, but the moth I found had passed through 

 its metamorphosis in this country. The insect lived twelve 

 hours after capture, and is now in the collection of Mr. O. 

 Picard-Cambridge, of Bloxworth. 



Warmwell, Dorchester. Rose Haig Thom.'VS. 



Mountains and Mankind. 



I SHALL be obliged if you will allow me to correct the 

 following errata in my address to Section E of the British 

 Association. For " Watson " and " Tokio " read Weston 

 and Kobi (p. 429, column 2). 



September 5. Douglas W. Freshfield. 



[The errors occur in the copy of the address reprinted in 

 Nature. — Editor.] 



BRITISH CHEMICAL EXHIBIT AT THE 

 ST. LOUIS EXHIBITION.' 



THE Royal Commission appointed to arrange the 

 British e.\hibits for the St. Louis Exhibition 

 have evidently, from the catalogue before us, carried 

 out their difficult tasl-c with great care and in a most 

 successful manner. We would that all catalogues 

 were written in the extremely interesting and vivid 

 style of the one to which we have referred. The 

 products treated of in the catalogue are drawn up in 

 alphabetical order, and at the end of the description 

 of each substance, or group of substances, the names 

 of the exhibitors are placed ; the exhibitors are also 

 arranged in alphabetical order at the end of the book. 



The catalogue is written in the form of a history 

 of the various manufacturing processes described 

 therein. First and foremost we come to a most 

 interesting and detailed account of the alkali industry, 

 from the time of its inception to the present day. The 

 reader is carried historically through the building up 

 of the Le Blanc process — and the tragic fate of 

 Le Blanc, its founder — the ammonia soda process. 

 Chance's sulphur recovery process, and so on. Many 

 details, which are not the common property of text- 

 books, as to the difficulties and failures and final 

 success are included, which makes the narrative of 

 exceptional interest. Before Solvay's time, several 

 patents had been taken out which embodied the prin- 

 ciples of his ammonia soda process, but he, unaware 

 that others had worked upon the subject, experimented 

 and patented the process, and we are shown in his 

 own words what a blow he received on discovering 

 that he was not the first in the field : — 



" What was our astonishment in discovering . . . 

 I was no longer the inventor of the reaction and its 

 industrial use had already tempted other investigators. 

 It was a hard blow to me." 



Here the narrator intervenes with the pertinent 

 words : " Happily Solvay was young," and finally 

 success attended his efforts. In so far as the 

 ammonia soda process affects the British exhibits, we 



1 Catalogue of British Exhibits; International Exhibition St. Loui. 

 1,04. r>''partnient C, Liberal Arts; Chemical and Pharm.iceutical Art; 

 1-sued by the Roya Commission.) 



NO. 18 I 9, VOL. 70] 



have to thank the indefatigable energy of Dr. 

 Mond. 



.\s a natural sequence the manufacture of sulphuric 

 acid is treated of in the same section as that devoted 

 to the alkali industry, and after being informed that 

 sulphuric acid was first made by Ward at Richmond 

 in 1740, we are taken through the gradual develop- 

 ment of the chamber process, and then introduced to 

 the contact process, which mav be said to have been 

 originally founded on an e.xperiment of Humphrey 

 Davy in 1817. 



The section on alum is very interesting, and one 

 notices how greatly manufacturers in this country are 

 indebted to the acumen of Peter Spence, of Man- 

 chester. 



One of the most interesting and suggestive sections 

 is that dealing with the coal-tar products. In his 

 report on the 1862 Exhibition, Hofmann spoke with 

 sanguine eloquence of the bright prospects before the 

 coal-tar colour industry in this, country. The brilliant 

 anticipations which Hofmann made for England have, 

 alas ! not been substantiated, for where we have sown 

 others have reaped. The writer of this section 

 endeavours to trace some of the causes which underlie 

 the loss of the colour industry to England — such as 

 the inadequate patent laws, want of research, which 

 really means want of sufficient capacity for looking 

 ahead. 



To the electrochemical industry are devoted nine 

 pages of the catalogue, which, commencing with an 

 historical survey of the foundation of electrochemistry, 

 passes on to deal with hypochlorites, chlorates, 

 caustic alkali, and sodium. Then follows a 

 description of the copper refining processes, and on 

 p. 87 we are told that other metals, such as gold and 

 silver, have been purified by electrolytic processes. As 

 these have not been done in the United Kingdom, this 

 is evidently in the nature of a hint to British electro- 

 chemists. A passing reference is made to the manu- 

 facture of calcium carbide, which, we regret to say, is 

 at present not manufactured in this country. 



We have only picked out a few of the subjects treated 

 of in the catalogue; there are, of course, many others, 

 such, for example, as explosives, the candle industry, 

 soap, oils and colours, and so on. 



There are also a good many scientific exhibits, 

 among which may be noted Sir James Dewar's low 

 temperature research exhibit, in which the complete 

 plant, as employed at the Royal Institution for the 

 production of liquid and solid hydrogen, is shown. 

 Photographs of spectra by Mr. E. C. C. Baly, exhibits 

 from the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, 

 also a very complete exhibit from the Wellcome Re- 

 search Laboratories, and many others which space 

 forbids us to mention. 



W'e do not know whether the catalogue is on sale 

 in this country, but we recommend all interested in 

 the manufacturing and scientific advancement of the 

 country to endeavour to procure a copv ; because the 

 exhibits demonstrate that, in spite of the keen com- 

 petition of Germany and other nations. Great Britain 

 can still claim to be high up in brilliant achievements 

 in chemical and allied sciences. F. M. P. 



THE LIMNOLOGICAL ST.iTIONS ON THE 

 LAKE OF BOLSENA. 



TWO vears ago the executive committee of the 

 Italian Geographical Society determined to 

 undertake the desirable work of preparing an ex- 

 haustive monograph on one of the lakes of Italy, and 

 they very naturally selected the Lake of Bolsena for 

 the purpose. Its situation within easy reach of Rome. 



