NATURE 



?6i 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY i6, iS 



TECHNICAL CHEMISTS AS 

 GERMANY." 



'MADE IN 



Chciiiische Technologic an den Unh'ersitiiten und iech- 

 nisckcn Hochschulen Deiitschlands. By Dr. Ferdinand 

 Fischer, Professor in the University of Gottingen. 

 (Braunschweig : Vieweg and Sohn, 1898.) 



THIS is only a pamphlet of 54 pages, but it deals 

 with matters of the utmost importance in the 

 industrial struggle of this country with Germany. At 

 intervals during the last twenty years the note of alarm 

 has been sounded in this country with respect to the 

 state of our chemical industries as compared with the 

 development in this direction going on abroad, and 

 especially in Germany.' The newspaper press has from 

 time to time called attention to this matter ; the modern 

 revival in technical education has been largely influenced 

 by such representations and, as a sign of the times, a 

 special sub-committee was appointed by the Technical 

 Education Board of the London County Council for 

 the purpose of inquiring into the teaching of chemistry 

 in London, the report of this committee having been 

 published early last year. It is perhaps unnecessary 

 to point out that, in spite of our recent efforts to 

 recover lost ground, and to bring our chemical 

 industries up to that position of supremacy which 

 they held before the war of 1870-71, our educa- 

 tional machinery is still so far behind that of our 

 Teutonic colleagues and competitors, that the German 

 universities are now largely recruited by English and 

 American students who are preparing for careers as 

 chemical manufacturers. In stating that this condition 

 of affairs is discreditable to our country, we are only 

 paying our German friends that homage due to a 

 nation which has all along recognised the supreme 

 importance of the bearing of science upon industry. 

 While we have been expending large sums in promoting 

 " Polytechnics " of our own type, the Germans have 

 been e.xtending and improving their educational insti- 

 tutions so as to provide the highest and most specialised 

 kind of instruction by the best experts that their country 

 could supply. In brief, we have been " playing to the 

 gallery " while the Germans have been addressing them- 

 selves to the private boxes and stalls ; and if any doubt 

 exists as to which kind of performance is producing the 

 greatest efifect upon the development of the chemical 

 industries of the respective countries, we need only refer 

 to our Patent Office records and the Board of Trade 

 returns. 



Under the title " Das Studium der technischen 

 Chemie an den Universitaten und technischen Hoch- 

 schulen Deutschlands," Dr. Fischer published a small 

 work in 1897, from which it appears that for many years 

 the question of introducing a general State examination 

 for chemists has been undergoing discussion in German 

 chemical circles. The subject has been further con- 

 sidered since 1897 by an Imperial Commission of inquiry 

 {En<iuetecommission\ composed of ministers and repre- 

 sentatives of science and industry, and also by a union 



' See a paper by the writer of this notice in Nature, vol. xxxiv. p. 324. 



NO. 1529, VOL. 59] 



of German chemists, composed of professors and manu- 

 facturers, at several congresses. The results of these 

 deliberations and the views of the various authorities 

 have all been brought together in the present pamphlet 

 by Dr. Fischer, and we recommend our chemical manu- 

 facturers to pay very serious attention to its contents. 



Ir plain English, Germany has taken alarm at the 

 symptoms of revival in industrial activity and in technical 

 education going on here and elsewhere. It is not for the 

 writer to say whether this alarm is well-grounded or not. 

 But the Germans are justly proud of their supremacy in 

 this branch of industry, and they are determined to keep 

 well to the front. In a speech made in the Prussian 

 Parliament, on March 8 of last year, Dr. Bottinger, 

 referring to the subject of a State examination, said : — 



" Wenn auch die Fragen noch nicht definitiv erledigt 

 sind und noch vielfach schweben, so ist doch nicht zu 

 iibersehen, und wir konnen die Hoffnung aussprechen, 

 dass wir hierin etwas Positives erreichen werden, was 

 zur Hebung Deutschlands auf diesem Gebiete beitragen 

 wird, so dass Deutschland bleiben wird, was es bisher 

 war : di^x primus otiiniiiin auf dem Gebiete der Chemie." 



We prefer to give this and the following extracts from 

 the same speech in the speaker's own words, as much of 

 their force would be lost by translation : — 



" Ich mochte vor Allem an den Herrn Cultusminister 

 die Bitte richten, diese Frage, betreffend die Weiterbil- 

 dung unserer Chemiker, als eine dringliche zu betrachten, 

 und die Geldfrage nicht zu sehr in den Vordergrund 

 treten zu lassen. Meine Herren, wir miissen vermeiden, 

 dass wir Chemiker zweiten Ranges erziehen ; wirmussen 

 erstreben, dass auch unsere deutschen Chemiker Chem- 

 iker erster Qualitat sind, dass auch fiir sie das Wort 

 ' made in Germany,' wenn ich so sagen darf, eine weitere 

 Auszeichnung ist, wie liberhaupt auch die Professoren 

 und Lehrer an unseren Hochschulen das /rz'wwj w«??/«;« 

 sind und bleiben" (p. 14). 



" Meine Herren, ich mochte doch betonen, dass Eile 

 Noth thut, und diese Frage nicht auf die lange Bank 

 geschoben werden darf Denn die im gewissen Grade 

 souverane Stellung Deutschlands auf dem Gebiete der 

 Chemie wird eifersiichtigst verfolgt, vor Allem noch von 

 Frankreich, England und Nordamerika, wo man mit 

 aller Energie gegen uns vorzugehen sucht" (p. 17). 



" Ich will nicht alles das wiederholen, auf was ich im 

 letzten Jahre hier verwiesen, und will nur betonen, es 

 waren nicht leere Worte, nicht leerer Schall, sondern es 

 waren ernste Wahrheiten, die auf personlicher Beobach- 

 tung der Verhaltnisse basirt waren. Auch im vergan- 

 genen Jahre hatte ich weitere Gelegenheit, mich zu 

 uberzeugen, wie ernstlich wir aufpassen miissen. Ja, ich 

 mochte sagen, unsere deutschen Chemiker miissen alles 

 aufbieten, damit es heisst : Sauve-toi" (p. 17). 



The outcome of these discussions, as Dr. Fischer tells 

 us in the preface to his pamphlet, is a very decided ex- 

 pression of opinion, both by the Imperial Commission 

 and by the German Chemical Union, that the subject of 

 technical chemistry or chemical technology is one of essen- 

 tial importance to their welfare as a manufacturing nation, 

 and that it should be more taken up by the Universities 

 than has hitherto been the case. It is pointed out that 

 about 95 per cent, of all chemical students become tech- 

 nologists, and that with the exception of Berlin and 

 Gottingen, which possess chairs of Applied Chemistry, 

 very few of the Universities give special recognition to 

 this subject. 



