Marcu 18, 1915] 
NATURE 
59 

look on while our million and a half is squandered 
by ‘directors who now confessedly are to be men 
without business knowledge of the industry they 
control.” 
If we would take advantage of the great oppor- 
tunity which this war affords for industrial and 
economic rearrangements, it is imperative that the 
ruling classes in this country should no longer 
continue in their present state of semi-education 
which passes as culture, and which permits them 
to go through life with little or no understanding 
of the vital importance of science to the State. 
If after the war we are to recover some of the 
chemical industries which we have lost, and even 
maintain those which we still possess, it is essen- | 
tial that the individual undertakings should be 
controlled by men who have a real and expert 
knowledge of the business in which they are en- 
gaged, and that our legislators should have had 
sufficient scientific education to enable them to 
understand such problems connected with these 
industries as may be brought before them. The 
experience of the past thirty years points unmis- 
takably to the conclusion that industrial success 
is becoming more and more dependent upon the 
co-ordination of industrial effort, and the embar- 
rassing position in which we find ourselves at the 
present moment, in respect of the supply of a 
number of chemical products, is largely attribut- 
able to the almost entire absence of any such 
organisation. In both France and Germany we 
understand that councils of experts have been 
appointed to inquire into the effects of the war 
on the chemical industries of these countries, and 
to report to their respective Governments as to 
what legislative measures are desirable for pro- 
moting their welfare. As the present crisis is on 
a scale which we trust may never recur in the 
history of the world, so the opportunity for dis- 
carding mischievous traditions, effete ideas, and 
clumsy methods of procedure is of such an alto- 
gether exceptional character that it is to be hoped 
we shall not allow it to pass unutilised through 
ignorance, lethargy, or divided counsels. 

THE CHEMISTRY OF FOOD PRODUCTS. 
Food Products. By Prof. H.C. Sherman. Pp. 
ix+594. (New York: The Maemillan Co.:; 
London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1914.) 
Price 10s. net. 
“A PART from the analytical side, chemistry in 
its application to food products is a 
neglected science in this country in comparison 
with the activity which exists in America. The 
neglect, however, has been, in the main, in official 
NO. 2368, VOL. 95] 

and public circles, as several of the British food 
manufacturers of repute have availed themselves 
of scientific help for some years past, and it may 
be claimed that the high—not to say world-wide 
—repute of the products of some of these firms 
is to some extent due to the resource of, as well 
as the control exercised by, their scientific staff. 
In the United States, legislation has been very 
largely the cause of the awakening of the public 
interest in its food, and in this connection the 
name of Dr. H. W. Wiley will be remembered 
with gratitude by present and future generations. 
Whatever the cause, the development of the in- 
vestigation of the composition and value of food 
products has been exceptionally rapid during the 
past few years: it is manifested by such outward 
signs as the foundation of university chairs in 
food chemistry in America, and the publication of 
informative text-books. 
As the moment is ripe for reform, the wisdom 
of founding such a chair at our own Imperial 
College of Technology may be urged: there is 
much to be done, for example, in educating the 
public as to the food value of many low-priced 
products from our Colonial Empire, which are at 
present neglected, and in showing manfacturers 
how to make better use of the available raw 
material. 
Dr. H. C. Sherman, who occupies the chair of 
food chemistry at Columbia University, has pro- 
duced an exceptionally informative book, in which 
he combines an account of the production and pre- 
paration of the various food products for the 
market, with statistical data, details as to their 
chemistry and physiology, and an outline of the 
latest scientific research and opinions. 
The book also contains a large number of up- 
to-date tables giving the food. values, protein 
content, and mineral constituents of all sorts of 
foods, and is, indeed, replete with information of 
every kind, so that it will be indispensable to 
every food chemist and manufacturer. All the 
principal food products are dealt with in turn, 
each chapter being concluded with a list of 
references to the literature. Though much of the 
information given is outside the ordinary scope 
of the college trained chemist, it corresponds 
exactly with the practical details which the actual 
worker requires, and we do not remember to 
have seen this given so succinctly anywhere else. 
The more advanced scientific sections are equally 
satisfactory, so that current views are expressed 
without undue dogmatism: this is especially the 
case in the more physiological sections. 
A good deal of space is devoted both in an 
appendix and elsewhere to the rules and regula- 
tions for the enforcement of the Foods and Drugs 
