October 31, 19 18] 



NATURE 



167 



almost feverish activity. With the blessed prospect 

 ■ rt peaoe now in sight, it is hopeless to expect that 

 we shall wholly catch up our rivals.. Indeed, it 

 will require skilful handling', both on the part of 

 the Government and ol our manufacturers, to safe- 

 guard the position we have already won. 



Hut whatever the future may have in store, it 

 is quite certain that applied organic chemistry in 

 this country has received a great impetus, and 

 that it i- destined to become .\n increasingly im- 

 portant factor in our chemical industry. In certain 

 subordinate brani Ins, indeed, the ground gained 

 has . dreads been consolidated. German competi- 

 tion in the case of some organic products is no 

 longer in question. Not onlj have we succeeded 

 in manufacturing these substances; we are also 

 turning them out of better quality than hereto- 

 fore -uu\ rapidl) securing a world-wade market 

 lor them. 



In view ot tin- prospect before us the problem 

 of thi supprj "I alcohol for industrial purposes 

 fresh importance. It has been in, the 

 a somewhat thorny question, made needlessly 

 ai utc by misunderstanding and misrepresentation. 

 It has been complicated bv fiscal considerations, 

 and bv the attitude of a Treasury which was more 

 concerned in safeguarding ami securing- revenue 

 from this source than in appreciating the demands 

 of industry. I hr Treasury, although ultimately 

 responsible, may plead that it is not wholly to 

 blame, since in this matter it is dependent upon 

 iis official advisers, who, being for the most part 

 persons attached to revenue departments, could 

 not be assumed to be altogether unbiased. Still, 

 in spite of official inertia and conservatism, the 

 in- authorities have, of late years, become 

 increasingly sympathetic with the needs of manu- 

 facturers, and concessions and relaxations which 

 twenty years ago would not have been contem- 

 plated are now readily obtainable. A stumbling- 

 block is the necessity for denaturing. Wood- 

 naphtha costs more than ordinary spirit, hence 

 methylated spirit is more expensive than duty-free 

 1 ommon alcohol. In some cases the presence of 

 methyl alcohol, or the substances associated with 

 it in the crude commercial article, are positively 

 detrimental. The Kxcise authorities have appre- 

 d these objections b) allowing manufacturers 

 to denature the alcohol by the use of some sub- 

 ■ which is ancillary to the manufacture of 

 the article for which the alcohol is needed, 

 and at the same time renders the spirit im- 

 potable. 



It can scarcely be doubted that industry will 

 need much larger quantities of alcohol than have 

 hitherto been available, and increased attention 

 will need to be paid to possible sources of supplv. 

 It is not only in industrial chemistry and in many 

 other arts that alcohol is required. It is beginning 

 eceive consideration in this country as fuel, 

 and particularly in internal-combustion engines. 

 Up to tin- present time the use of alcohol as motor 

 fuel with us has not been a commercial possibilitv ; 

 it could not be produced at a price that would 

 compete with petrol at pre-war figures. Circum- 

 NO. 2557, VOL. I02] 



stances have, however, changed, and it is unlikely 

 1l1.1t any form ot moto -spirit will sink, at all 

 events for some time to come, to the prices of 

 11114. Nor is it probable that the raw materials 

 which have hitherto served lor the manufacture 

 of alcohol in this country will for years reach their 

 former low values. These substances for the most 

 part have been cereals, or some form of starch- 

 producing, and therefore potential sugar-produc- 

 ing, material. In addition, considerable quantities 

 of spirit have been made from molasses and other 

 saccharine substances capable of fermentation. 

 I'otatoes with us arc too valuable as a food to 

 be employed, as in Germany, for the manufacture 

 of alcohol. 



But there are other modes of obtaining alcohol 

 than from substances which can be used for food, 

 and it is this circumstance that has induced Mr. 

 Long - to appoint the Committee to which we made 

 reference in Nature for October 17. Large 

 quantities of spirit are now obtained from the 

 sulphite liquors in the manufacture of wood-pulp, 

 and factories for the manufacture of alcohol by 

 this process have been established in Sweden, 

 North Germany, America, and elsewhere. To such 

 an extent has the manufacture developed in 

 Sweden that the Government is contemplating a 

 monopoly of the wholesale trade in technical spirit 

 ■ — a measure which has aroused considerable oppo- 

 sition in industrial circles. We learn that a com- 

 pany with a minimum capital of 1,000,000 kronor 

 has been founded in Stockholm to manufacture and 

 sell motors and automobiles run on sulphite spirit. 



The process of treating seaweed, to which Sir 

 Edward Thorpe directed attention in a recent letter 

 to the Times, is a method of saccharifying cellu- 

 lose material very similar in principle to that em- 

 ployed in the wood-pulp industry. Factories to 

 exploit seaweed in Sweden have been or are 

 being erected at Yarberg and in Skane, probablv 

 on lines similar to those worked in Glasgow. 

 Considering the enormous quantities of valuable 

 seaweeds to be met with on our coasts, especially 

 among the Western Isles of Scotland and on the 

 west coast of Ireland, it is to be regretted that 

 no effective steps are taken to turn them to prac- 

 tical account. Although formerly of considerable 

 commercial value, the only use that is now made 

 of them is to a limited extent as manure on land 

 adjacent to the shores on which they are gathered. 

 Only an infinitesimal amount of that readily avail- 

 able is so used, and it seems a pity that material 

 so intrinsically valuable should not be dealt with 

 more efficiently. 



EPIDEMIC CATARRHS \\1> INFLUENZA. 



THE present epidemic of influenza, and the rise 

 in the rate of mortality consequent upon it, 

 are receiving much attention in the public Press, 

 and many irresponsible statements are being made 

 concerning the disease. Among these is the hint 

 that the "so-called influenza " is plague in a thin 

 disguise. These erroneous view s may at once '" 

 discounted. There is no doubt, as Prof. Hewlett 



