AvuGUST 26, 1915| 
NATURE 
GOT. 

— 
Germany than a huge commercial crash, and the 
iron hand replaced the velvet glove.” ‘Little by 
little the idea of a necessary war—a war almost to 
be wished for—became the desire of the working 
classes; failing it, they might starve, and their 
employers, the capitalists, be ruined.” ‘After the 
great war is over the commercial war will be on us 
again. We must prepare now.” 
To this essay there follow some interesting 
articles by M. Delloye, by M. Ernest Fourneau, 
director of the Laboratory of Therapeutic 
Chemistry at the Pasteur Institute, M. Justin 
Dupont, Prof. Wahl of Nancy, M. Legouéz, and 
M. Ribes-Christophle. Among other observations 
we note one stating that French manufacturers 
usually only keep pace with current demand for 
goods; when a period of prosperity sets in, he 
cannot supply the increased demand, and _ his 
customers are driven to buy German goods; for 
Germans have always reserve plant ready for an 
emergency. For this reason they are able to 
execute orders more quickly; what it takes three 
months to supply in France can be delivered from 
Germany ina fortnight. M. Fourneau gives much 
interesting information on German drug manufac- 
ture; he concludes: ‘You know that fraud and 
slimness pass in Germany for quasi-virtues. 
Germany, after having tried to frighten its ad- 
versary by its terrifying appearance, knows well 
how to appear humble, insignificant, and in- 
visible.” M. Dupont directs attention to the enor- 
mous task before the Allies of overtaking the 
German colour manufacture, which has been 
elaborated during the past forty years. Drugs, 
dyes, and explosives are so interlaced that the by- 
products of one manufacture often serve as the raw 
material of the others. M. Ribes-Christophle 
treats of German commerce in Argentina. False 
labels for goods, and adulteration are common. 
German firms, too, supported by their banks, 1.e., 
by the Central Government, sell at first at a loss, 
until they have killed out competitors. Their 
banks, of which there are branches in Argentina, 
act as company-promoters. 
The impression gained from these articles is that 
German trade is largely fraudulent, sometimes 
honest, always methodical; that it is regarded as 
the duty of the State to support it by all means, 
moral and immoral; and that France must take 
steps to exclude it if she is to retain her position 
as a manufacturing nation. What these steps are 
has not yet been indicated. We shall look for- 
ward with the utmost interest to their decision ; 
but it should be one taken in concert with the 
Allies. WILiiAM Ramsay. 

PROF. PAUL EHRLICH. 
NLY recently we lost Léffler, one of the 
pioneers of modern bacteriology, and now 
Paul Ehrlich has passed away. He died on 
August 20, as all good workers might wish to die 
—suddenly in his laboratory, in full harness, and 
before the rust of age had dimmed his powers. 
Born in 1854 at Strehlen, in Silesia, of Jewish 
NO. 2391, VOL. 95] 


; logical laboratory. 
parents, he was one of the many distinguished 
Hebrews who have contributed to make Ger- 
many’s fame what it is in the world of science 
and art. He was educated at the Gymnasium at 
Breslau, and afterwards at the Universities of 
Breslau and Strasburg, where he graduated in 
medicine. From the outset of his career he took 
| the deepest interest in the chemical relationships 
of living matter and in the affinities of various 
reagents for living cells. One of his earliest 
researches was upon the effects of certain aniline 
colours upon living tissues, and he devoted much 
| attention to staining methods, devising new stains, 
and Ehrlich’s hematoxylin and Ehrlich’s triacid 
stain are stock solutions in the present-day bio- 
An investigation on staining 
methods for the tubercle bacillus led to the dis- 
covery that certain dyes possessed a_ peculiar 
affinity for this bacillus, and this fact tinged his 
whole philosophy, and suggested the conception 
of the specific affinity of certain chemical groups 
for particular cells and tissues. 
He carried out pioneer work in haematology, 
differentiating and classifying the various forms 
of leucocytes or white blood-corpuscles. 
His bent now turned largely on chemical lines. 
Diphtheria antitoxin had been discovered by Roux 
and Behring, but discrepancies in its standardisa- 
tion came to light, and Ehrlich set himself to 
elucidate the cause of these discrepancies. As 
an outcome of this work a method of standard- 
isation was evolved which exists to this day, and 
the strength of diphtheria antitoxin is now prac- 
tically always described in Ehrlich “units.” This 
work led on to an investigation of the mode of 
genesis of antitoxin, and the publication of the 
now famed ‘side-chain theory ” of the formation 
of anti-bodies in general. 
Ehrlich also performed some notable researches 
on cancer, and developed the atreptic theory of 
certain forms of immunity, but this investigation 
was dropped before long, probably because he 
foresaw that it was unlikely to bear fruit. 
He now returned to some of his earlier work on 
the specific affinity of dyes and other substances 
for certain cells and micro-organisms, particu- 
larly the protozoan parasites. In trypan red he 
found a substance which attacked certain species 
of trypanosomes and cured the infection caused 
by them, but he failed to find a substance which 
would cure the allied trypanosomiasis in man. 
Besides dyes, a large number of complex organic 
compounds of arsenic and mercury were prepared 
and tested by himself and his assistants, and 
resulted in the discovery of “606,” or salvarsan, 
as a cure for syphilis. 
These are some of his achievements. Not only 
have his discoveries already benefited mankind in 
the direct alleviation of human suffering, but his 
researches into the perplexing phenomena of im- 
munity and chemo-therapy have opened the way 
for further discoveries in these directions. He 
must be regarded as apioneer who has carved the 
first track through that dense forest of the Un- 
known, which the worker of the future, following 
