1 26, l')\S 



NATURE 



ing in a consortium representing a capital o up- 

 n .11 ds "I i milliard ol marks. 



In addition to the Haber process, ammoni; is 

 i it- i n i_; produced b) the cyanamide method. I 

 1. 1 1 tories employing this process arc mainly erectt l 

 in the neighbourhood "I lignite deposits, in local 

 ilics furnishing supplies of natural gas, or where 

 hydraulic powei is available. Before the war 

 the principal factories, were the Baverisi lie Stick- 

 stoffwerke al rrostberg, the \..G. for Stickstoff- 

 diinger al Knapsack, and the Mitteldeutsche 

 Stickstoffwerke at Gross-Kayna (Geiscltal). The 

 development of the cyanamide industry is encour- 

 aged h\ the Government. The Bavarian Com- 

 panv received a subside of 40 million marks an,] 

 undertook the erection of two large factories in 

 proximity to deposits of coal and lignite. These 

 were completed towards the end of November, 

 I915. The net profits of the Haverische Stiek- 



stoffwerke in 1914-15 wen 653,185 jmarks; in 



[916-17 they were [,547,261 marks. In 1915 the 

 company at Knapsack raised its capital from 

 ; to <S million marks. In [916 the total pro- 

 duction of cyanamide had increased to 400,000 

 tons, practically a hundred times greater than it 

 was in [913. There is no doubt that it has since 

 been considerably augmented. 



Such are the means by which Germany has 

 meanwhile rendered herselt independent of Chile 

 saltpetre, or, indeed, of anv outside source of 

 nitric acid or ammonia, and has provided herself 

 with one of the essential munitions of war. So 

 absolute!) necessary is the production of nitric 

 acid that, in its absence, no army could hold to- 

 gether for a week under modern conditions. This 

 enormous development of the synthetic produc- 

 tion ol ammonia and nitric acid is of great econo- 

 mic interest, and is bound to have a profound 

 elicit on industry after the war. The economic 

 aspect of the matter, however, does not now con- 

 cern us. We may return to its consideration on 

 another occasion. 



Scarcely less important, in view of the war, is 

 the problem of sulphur anil sulphuric acid, to 

 which we have already directed attention. Our 

 blockade practically suppressed all German im- 

 portation of pv riles, of which in time of peace 

 she received upwards of 10 million quintals, S j 

 millions coming from Spain. Germany was thus 

 restricted to Her own poor deposits in Thuringia, 

 in the l.ahn basin, at TeSsenberg in Havana, and 

 a Meg-gen in Westphalia. The important deposits 

 <il cupreous pvrites of Stvria anil Hungnrv were 

 it once exploited, as were those of sulphur in 

 \n itolia. The roasting of blende at \ icille-Mon- 

 taghe and in Silesia had already furnished con- 

 siderable quantities ol sulphurii aid before the 

 war : by intensive Working the yield was consider- 

 ablv increased. Processes like those ol Schaffner 

 and Helbig and of Chance and ClauS were worked 

 large scale. The Badisch Company utilised 

 tin method of Wafther held, in .hich crude coal- 

 gas is made to yield its ammo and sulphur in 

 the form of ammonium sulphai' I his is effected 

 liv agitating the i_;as with a sol on of ammonium 

 NO. 2552, VOL. I02 



etrathionate, which ib the hydrogen sul- 



phide and ammoni: . nimonium sulphate, 



vposiilphite, and In ;;, boiling the am- 



monium tetrathionate with, the hyposulphite; am- 

 monium sulphate, sulphurous acid, and sulphur are 

 obtained. By making thi ! named sub- 



stances react upon the hyposulphite arising 

 from the purification, the ten., regener- 



ated. The Badische Companj ha tempted 



to prepare sulphuric acid from gyp anhy- 



drite, of which Germany has considi .sits, 



by roasting the gypsum either alone 01 rrt with 



coke, whereby it is transformed into call il- 



phide, which can then be treated by any 

 1 stablishcd sulphur-recovery processes, or 

 verted into lime or sulphurous acid, to be eii 

 utilised in the manufacture of wood-pulp for pap< 

 making or transformed into oil of vitriol. 



So important is sulphuric acid for the purposes 

 of war that its production is controlled by a War 

 Committee, and the Society for the Prodnction of 

 War Chemicals has created a special section 

 known as the Department of the Administration of 

 Sulphur. As in the case of other chemical pro- 

 ducts, the manufacture and sale are regulated, and 

 fixed dVices have been legalised. 



In a subsequent article we propose to show how 

 Germany has dealt with the problems of combus- 

 tibles, metals, alcohol, oils, fats, soap and gly- 

 cerin, textiles, wood and wood-pulp, caoutchouc, 

 turpentine and lubricants, food, fodder and 

 manures — all of which are more or less essential 

 to her, and of which she has been largely deprived 

 by her own action in embarking- upon a war which 

 will prove her ruin. 



MEDICAL EDUCATION IX ENGLAND.* 



THE issue of the modestly named paper before 

 us marks a new stage in the relation of the 

 State to English education. In no merely official 

 Style, but with the breadth and freshness of out- 

 look proper to a prophet of reform, Sir George 

 Newman reviews the "undone vast " in the train- 

 ing- of medical practitioners for national service. 

 He gives due credit to the great achievements of 

 English medicine, as they have been wrought out 

 by private enterprise, for until comparatively late 

 years the schools of medical craftsmanship were 

 in their essence proprietary, and their system was 

 but a modified apprenticeship. In Scotland doctors 

 were trained at the universities and caught 

 something of the university spirit. The last 

 generation has seen a change, in provincial 

 England at least : London is still in the stage of 

 painful emergence. When grants to the medical 

 schools were last made by the Board of Education 

 in [908, tin State necessarily assumed the duty 

 ol watching their application to productivi 

 A universities branch of the Board wa 

 and Sir George Newman became it al 



' S m- Notes on Medical Education in England." V I norariduin 



the President of the Board of Edu George 



K..C IS., Chief Mediral Officer, Princi t .. retary nf 



.1 Education, etc. Presume.! to b th I Parliament by 



ol Hi* Majesty. (Cd. 9124.) IL "itne. 1918. 



1 



