Atigust 1 6, 1877] 



NATURE 



315 



organic chemistry of the highest value, as establishing, illus- 

 trating, or extending important chemical theories, but, at the 

 time, and for long afterwards, of value purely from a scientific 

 point of view. These researches, undertaken and pursued by 

 ardent and philo<;ophical investigators under more or less 

 formidable difficulties, and solely in the interests of science, 

 resulted in the discovery of certain organic bodies which were 

 produced originally only on a very small scale and at great cost, 

 but which, after the lapse of years, have been readily manu- 

 factured from abundant sources, and have constituted important 

 elements in the development of the industry of artificial colouring 

 matters. In fact, this industry, \\hich owes its origin to the 

 discovery of mauve by Mr. Perkin about twenty years ago, 

 and which is second to no branch of chemical industry in regard 

 to the rapidity of its development, and its influence upon other 

 important branches of manufacture, affords more copious illus- 

 trations than any other of the immediate influence of pure 

 science upon industrial progress. It therefore affords a topic 

 which the chemist may well be excused for continually recurring 

 to, with an interest bordering on enthusiasm, when illustrating 

 the material advantages which accrue to communities from the 

 promotion of scientific training and the encouragement of 

 chemical research. 



The iron and steel industry presents a great contrast to that of 

 the artificial colours in regard to the extent of influence which 

 the labours of purely scientific investigators have exerted upon 

 its development. The efforts of scientific men to unravel such 

 problems as, for instance, the true chemical constitution of steel, 

 or the precise differences between the various combinations 

 known as cast iron, and the conditions which determine their 

 individual production or conversion from one to another, have 

 hitherto been attended by results not at all proportionate to the 

 patient experimental investigation of which from time to time 

 they have been made the subject. Thus, the protracted experi- 

 ments and discussion carried on by Fremy and Caron some years 

 back, with reference to the dependence of the characteristics of 

 steel upon the existence in it of nitrogen, cannot be said to have 

 led to results of a more conclusive or even definite nature, re- 

 garding the conditions which regulate the production, com- 

 position, and properties of steel, than those arrived at by previous 

 distinguished experimenters ; — and the same must be said, with 

 respect to cast iron, of such experiments as those carried on for 

 several years by Matthiessen (in which I also took some part) 

 under the auspices of the Association, with the view to eliminate 

 many existing points of doubt regarding the chemical constitution 

 of cast iron, by preparing chemically pure iron, and studying 

 its combination with carbon and other elements occurring in 

 cast iron. 



The prosecution of purely scientific investigation may, there- 

 fore, of itself fail to bear dirtct fruit in regard to the development 

 of new metal lurgic achievements, or even to the elucidation of 

 the comparatively complicated and numerous reactions which 

 occur in furnaces, either simultaneously or in rapid and difficultly 

 controllable succession, between materials composed of a variety 

 of constituents in variable proportions. There can, however, be 

 no question regarding the important benefits which have accrued 

 from the application of chemical knowledge to the study and the 

 perfection of furnace-0]ierations by those who happily combine 

 that knowledge with practical experience, and with the power of 

 putting to the test of actual practice, the results of reasoning 

 upon an intelligent observation of the phenomena exhibited in 

 such operations, and upon the data which chemical analysis has 

 furnished. In the hands of such men, the scientific results 

 arrived at by Karsten, Berthius, Bunsen, Scheerer, Percy, and 

 other eminent investigators, acquire new value, and by them the 

 fruits of the labours of the patient toiler at analytical processes 

 meets with that appreciation which their solid and permanently 

 valuable work does not always command at the hands of their 

 numerous brother-workers in chemical science, who follow the 

 far more attractive paths of organic research. 



Naturally, the brilliant results achieved from time to time by 

 investigators in organic chemistry, the rapidity with which, by 

 those results, theories are established or extended, types founded, 

 their offspring multiplied, and their connection with other 

 families traced and developed, impart to organic research a charm 

 peculiarly its o\\-n. This, and the general ease with which new 

 results are obtained by the pursuit of methods of research com- 

 paratively simple in their nature and few in kind, have for many 

 years not only secured to organic chemistry an overwhelming 

 majority of workers, they also appear to have had a tendency 

 to lead the yoimger labourers in the field of organic research to 



under-estimate the value and importance, in reference to the ad- 

 vancement of science, of the labours of the plodding investigator 

 of analysis. Vet no higher example can be furnished of the 

 patient pursuit of scientific work purely for its own sake than 

 that of the deviser or improver of analytical processes, who, 

 undeterred by failure upon failure, indefatigably pursues his 

 laborious work, probing to its foundation each possible source of 

 error, carefully comparing the results he obtains with those fur- 

 nislied by other methods of analysis, and patiently accumulating 

 experimental data, till they suffice fully to establish the value and 

 trustworthiness of the process which he then publishes for the 

 benefit of his fellow-workers in science. Truly, the results of 

 such labours do not stand in unfavourable contrast, from whatever 

 light they may be viewed, to those of the investigator of organic 

 cliemistry. It is not to be denied that the labourer at organic 

 research may, so far as the analytical work which should fall to 

 his share in the course of his investigations is concerned, be 

 tempted to reduce this, the least attractive portion of his work, 

 to within the smallest possible limits ; and having, for example, 

 by a boiling point determination, or a single analytical operation 

 of the simplest kind, such as the examination of a platinum-salt, 

 obtained a numerical result approximative to that which his 

 theory demands, may hasten on to the further development of 

 his airy structure, possibly not without risk to its stabili'y. 

 Unquestionably there are instances of frequent occurrence, in 

 the pursuit of a particular line of organic research, in which more 

 is not required than the identification of a particular product by 

 some such simple means as above indicated. It is certain more- 

 over that the labours of the organic investigator also not unfre- 

 quently afford bright examples of indomitable perseverance under 

 formidable difficulties, and this alone should constitute a strong 

 bond of union between the worker in organic research and his 

 brother worker in analytical chemistry, if one did not already 

 exist in the active interest which each, if a true lover of science, 

 must take in the work of the other. 



It has been remarked by one of the most distinguished investi- 

 gators and, at the same time, one of the most brilliant lecturers 

 and successful teachers of our time, that the contrivance of a new 

 and good lecture-experiment may rank in importance with the 

 preparation of a new organic compound ; and it may certainly 

 be said with equal truth that the elaboration of a new and good 

 method of analysis may rank in importance with a good research 

 in organic chemistry, in reference both to the part it plays in the 

 advancement of science, and to its influence upon industrial 

 progress. 



An excellent illustration of this is afforded by reference to the 

 Proceedings of the British Association when it met in this town 

 thirty-six years ago. In a letter to Dr. Playfair, Liebig, who 

 took a very active part in the proceedings of the Association in 

 the earlier years of its existence, reports that Doctors Will and 

 ^'arrentrapp have devised an excellent method for determining 

 the amount of nitrogen in organic bodies, " very exact and easily 

 performed." He then described in a few lines the process so 

 well known to chemists, which not only has been, and continues 

 to be, invaluable to those engaged in organic research, but 

 wliich, as may be testified by such researches as those of Lawes 

 and Gilbert, has borne a most important and indispensable part 

 in the advancement of agricultural chemistry. It is, I believe, 

 but an expression of the unanimous conviction of chemists to say 

 that the achievements in analytical chemistry of such men as 

 Berzelius, Heinrich, Rose, and Fresenius, take equal rank with 

 the brilliant researches and theoretical expositions of such 

 chemists as Liebig, Laurent, Gerhardt, and Berthelot ; and that 

 of all the important contributions to the development of organic 

 chemistry which we owe to Liebig, there is none which has 

 exerted so great an influence on the progress of this branch of 

 chemical science as his beautifully simple method of organic 

 elementary analysis. 



Reverting to the industry of iron and steel, which, in regard 

 to some of the most important branches, cannot fail to be a sub- 

 ject of special interest in Plymouth and Devonport, it is not 

 difhcult to demonstrate that the labours of the analytical chemist 

 have exercised, and continue to exert, an important influence on 

 the very considerable advance which has in recent years been 

 made, and still proceeds towards securing complete control over 

 the quality and character of the products obtained. The epoch 

 is well within the recollection of chemists of my generation, when 

 the British iron-master first awoke to the benefits which might 

 accrue to him from an application of the labours of the analytical 

 chemist in connection with iron-smelting. 



When the last great stride was made in the manufacture of 



