NATURE 



OCT 19 1918 ^ 



41 



Tiirusnu . 



1NVUSTR1 I/. CHEMISTRY. 

 II. 



(4) Organic Compounds of Arsenic and Antimony, 

 Bj Prof. G. T. Morgan. Pp. 



(" Monographs on Industrial Chemistry.") 

 (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1918.) 

 Price i6j. net. 



(5) I'liint Products and Chemical Fertilisers, By 

 S. Hoare Collins. Pp. xvi 336. ("Industrial 



Chemistry.") (London: Baillierc, Tindall, and 

 Cox, [91 8. I Price fS. 6d. nil . 



Text-book of Ivorganu Chemistry. Edited 



by Dr. J. N. Friend. Vol. v. Carbon and its 

 lilies. By Dr. R. M. Caven. Pp. xxi + 468. 



(London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 



15ft, net. 

 ' 1 "HE breadth of chemical industry is well ex- 

 J- amplified in the works under notice. The 

 three mentioned io the first review (Nature, 

 September u, 1918, p. 21) cover the heavy 

 chemical, the dye, and the edible oil industries, .ill 

 requiring many millions of capital, employing 

 thousands of workpeople, and affording problems 

 enough for the most exacting critic. 



I4) The three volumes now dealt with show 

 equal diversity, and although Prof. Morgan's 

 Ograph deals with a much smaller and more 

 highly specialised section of the chemical industry, 

 it is none the less of considerable importance to 

 Wish it in this country. The synthetic organic 

 irsenical compounds were found to be of great 

 physiological potency at quite an early dale, 

 though real progress dates only from the be- 

 ginning of the present century; this fact has very 

 much stimulated later research in the field. 



The first discovery of an aromatic arsenical 

 drug was made by Bechamp during the years 

 [860 63. His compound began to be tried in 

 therapeutics about the year 1902. It was termed 

 "'atoxyl" on account of its comparatively non- 

 toxic nature, and employed in the treatment of 

 sleeping sickness. 



Ilie sni ( ess attending these pioneering efforts 

 1] Lhrlich in Frankfort and his many student 

 collaborators systematically to investigate the 

 subject, and Ehrlich and Bertheim showed in 11)07 

 that atoxyl is the sodium silt of />-arsani!ic acid. 

 Ehrlich carried out researches in a laboratory and 

 private hospital endowed for him by George 

 er, the Frankfort banker, and in eollabora- 

 011 the industrial side, with the well-known 

 lli.itist , dour works. The Bechamp reaction was 

 • Minded from aniline to other liases, and ever) 

 possible arsenical derivative was tested physio- 

 logically; proof of Ehrlich's zeal is afforded by 

 the story that salvarsan, first obtained in 1909, 

 was the 606th compound to be examined by him. 

 Vtoxyl and its homologies an derived from quin- 

 quevalenf arsenic, but Ehrlich noticed that aro- 

 matic compounds of tervalent arsenic were much 

 XO. 255I. VOL. I02] 



more effective against diseases of protozoie origin. 

 Salvarsan and its sodium methylene sulphinate, 

 known as neosalvarsan, are the substances chiefly 



used to-day in the arsenical treatment of syphilis, 

 mil it is satisfactory that we are no longer de- 

 pendent upon Germany for these druys, which 

 are manufactured here by Messrs. Burroughs Well- 

 come and Co. and by Messrs. May and Baker, 

 and in France by Poulenc Fr£res, and possibly by- 

 others. 



A further discovery made by Ehrlich is the 

 property of arsenobenzene to couple with sal 

 copper, silver, gold, and platinum in such a way 

 that compounds are formed which can be ad- 

 ministered intravenously, when the heavy metal 

 exerts a germicidal action, supplementing that of 

 the aromatic arsenical, whilst at the same time 

 the compound is less toxic to the patient than 

 salvarsan. Such a compound is luargol, prepared 

 by Danysz, and used with considerable success 

 in the French Army. Other valuable organic 

 arsenicals are the primary aromatic arsines dis- 

 covered by two American chemists, Palmer and 

 Dehn. 



The foregoing is only the briefest outline of 

 Prof. Morgan's very fascinating introductory 

 chapter; he rightly points the moral of the need 

 for co-ordinated effort in scientific research which 

 is to have a practical bearing. 



For the pure chemist organic arsenic compounds 

 have even greater sentimental interest on account 

 of the part they have played in the early develop- 

 ment of the theory of radicles. Bunsen's discoverv 

 of cacodyl, as Berzelius named it, and Frank- 

 land's explanation of its constitution, were im- 

 portant stages in establishing the constitution of 

 carbon compounds generally. 



Prof. Morgan has aimed at giving a complete 

 account of the chemistry of these compounds, deal- 

 ing with the literature up to the end of 1917, and 

 the value of the text is enhanced, as is nowadavs 

 the custom, by a comprehensive bibliography. 

 Successive chapters deal with cacodyl, the ali- 

 phatic arsenicals, the aromatic arsenicals, atoxyl, 

 salvarsan, neosalvarsan, the primary arsines, 

 luargol, and the aromatic anfimonials, with finally 

 a 1 liapter on miscellaneous derivatives. Lithium 

 antimonyl tartrate has been used extensively by 

 Plimmer and others in the treatment of sleeping 

 sickness, but so far the true organo-antimonials 

 have not been found to equal the arsenical druses 

 of the salvarsan type. 



(5) Agriculture can scarcely be termed 

 chemical industry, but that side of it which deals 

 with fertilisers is essentially applied chemistry, 

 and justifies its inclusion in this series. Mr. 

 Collins starts from the point of view that the raw 

 materials of agriculture arc often the vvasti 

 ducts of the other industries, whilst the produce 

 nl agriculture again forms the raw material for 

 other industries. His volume covers the cycle 

 from factory to fertiliser, from fertiliser to field, 

 and from field to factory again ; it is another of 

 Dr. Kirleal's monographs on industrial chemistry. 



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