Marcu 4, 1897 | 
IA TORE 
All 
and energy of the country that we have managed to hide 
from ourselves the inconvenience we suffer, even in the 
lines where we think ourselves most successful, from our 
want of systematic imstruction and science.” 
True at the time, these words are now doubly true. In 
the interval we have absolutely wasted the opportunity 
that was ours of securing the more important share of 
the coal-tar colour industry, which must be regarded as 
the most far-reaching of all the industries established in 
the Victorian era, as it carries in its train the production 
of synthetic products generally. Ours by right of first 
inception, ours as being by far the largest producers of 
the raw material—it has slipped away from us through 
sheer disregard of elementary first principles of defence, 
and insular narrowness of purview. Had we but appre- 
ciated and properly encouraged Hofmann and _ his 
school, how different the result might—nay, must—have 
been. Instead, however, of providing him with means 
adequate to his talents, we allowed him to languish for 
years in a poor one-storied building in Oxford-street. 
and only when too late began to think of treating him as 
he deserved. No foreign Government would have ever 
permitted such a man to be tempted away from its 
service. Although he returned to his native country only 
on a three years’ visit, with the option of resuming his 
professorship here, on leaving our cold irresponsive 
atmosphere and finding himself in the warm glow of 
scientific enthusiasm of his fatherland, in presence of a 
Court at which science was deeply respected and at 
home, a nature such as his could not but feel the 
difference and elect to remain. Seeing and seizing his 
opportunity, he not only created a great school in Berlin, 
but also organised chemical science throughout Germany 
by the share he took in the establishment, in 1868, of the | 
German Chemical Society, of which he remained the 
active leader until his death in 1892. Had he returned 
to us, we should have had a great chemical school, as the 
present Royal College of Science was built to plans | 
drawn under his advice, and it was intended to devote 
the whole of the building to chemistry ; but competition 
set in over the bones he had left, and they were divided 
without satisfying any one. We can never repair the 
evil wrought in those days. And all this was done under 
Government! Board of Trade statistics take no account 
of these little details, and the figures are in no way 
weighted thereby. 
A grievous mistake was made also by the pioneers of 
the new industry—a mistake which was slavishly copied 
throughout the country, and continues to be down to the 
present time. It was not realised here, when laboratories 
were converted into manufactories, that manufactories 
must be conducted as laboratories if they were to 
remain virile institutions—that researches had to be 
carried on, both in order to improve the processes in use, 
and to discover new products to satisfy an ever-expanding 
public demand ; no proper scientific staff was provided ; 
and that English bugbear, the practical man without a 
vestige of theory in his composition, was allowed to 
become master of the field. Consequently, strangers 
stepped in who were more alive than ourselves to the 
necessity of working scientifically, and new prizes were 
instituted which they carried off: we being left in proud 
NO. 1427, VOL. 55 
possession of a very honourable historical shield, but one 
which had become so battered that it retained little 
decorative value. 
What does it matter—we can get our colours cheaply 
enough from abroad, say many; let the Germans cut 
each others throats, if they are so minded, in the com- 
petition to supply us at prices which, in very many cases, 
cannot be remunerative to them. And after all, it is 
worth but a few millions. But these good people 
forget that the loss of the colour industry implies in- 
ability to conduct any industry requiring the application 
of scientific skill, if it be one which must either develop 
or decay: and in these days there are few close 
boroughs in industry—secret processes are impossible. 
Moreover, where is the argument to stop? We may con- 
gratulate ourselves that although we eat mostly foreign 
bread and butter and cheese, we yet drink English milk ; 
but we must not forget that in the future sterilised milk 
may perhaps be conveyed to us in tank vessels as petro- 
leum is from America. In fact there will be no limit to 
the distance over which perishable articles of diet may 
be carried, unless our public analysts intervene more 
effectively in checking the introduction of preservatives 
such as boric acid and formic aldehyde into food 
materials—a modern fashion whereby, it can scarcely 
be doubted, the foundation is being laid in a most 
insidious manner for universal dyspepsia. 
In short, the application of science to industry has 
orought the whole world into competition, and only those 
who fully understand and can apply all the rules and 
every detail of the game can hope to succeed init. It 
remains to consider why we play the game so badly in 
many respects, and how we may learn to play it properly. 
HENRY E. ARMSTRONG. 
(To be continued.) 
COMPRESSED AIR ILLNESS. 
| Compressed Air Iliness ; or, so-called Caisson Disease. 
By E. Hugh Snell, M.D., B.Sc. (Lond.). 
6 Figs. (London: H. K. Lewis, 1896.) 
R. SNELL, the London County Council medical 
officer to the Blackwall Tunnel, has had ample 
clinical opportunity of observing the results of working 
for various periods of time in compressed air. The book 
before us must be regarded as a literary 7¢éswmé of what is 
known upon this subject, to which is added Dr. Snell’s 
own experience. : 
Chapter i. contains an historic account of ca sson 
disease. The interest of this chapter is not purely 
medical ; it will have to the general reader a distinct 
value as an account of the progress made in the applica- 
tion of compressed air for the purpose of building the 
foundations of bridges, and in subaqueous tunnelling. 
In this connection the references to the reports of the 
engineers, &c., are of special value. Chapters ii, and 
iii. relate exclusively to the Blackwall Tunnel, a short 
description of the engineering works being followed by 
clinical abstracts of fifty out of the two hundred cases 
of compressed air disease which came under the author's 
own observation. In the chapter which treats of zti- 
ology, Dr. Snell discusses the relative potency of the 
Pp. vill+251. 
