Supplement to '' N attire," October 19, 1905 



development of the English coal-tar colour industry 

 has realh' been much less than has been supposed. 

 A cause fundamental to those enumerated above, and 

 King at the basis of many other of our industrial 

 lapses, may be defined as the lack of an appreciation 

 of the importance of science on the part of the public 

 generallv. This has rendered the development of 

 manv industries quite impossible. It is reputably 

 stated that the Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik 

 spent upwards of one million pounds sterling during 

 a period extending over twenty years in solving the 

 industrial problem of the synthesis of indigo. What 

 English board of directors, even if themselves satisfied 

 to do so, would venture to spend any such sum on 

 apparently unproductive scientific experiments? Public 

 opinion in this country, as reflected in the share- 

 holders, would not allow it, any more than a six 

 or seven years' college science course is considered 

 a paying investment. Nor will satisfactory reform 

 of the patent laws and the excise laws come about 

 until the Government is made to realise, by the 

 pressure of public opinion, that the future of the 

 national industries largely depends upon the proper 

 utilisation of scientific fact and method. 



The work under review consists of three parts and 

 an appendix. Part i. comprises a description of the 

 various synthetic dyestuffs and the intermediate pro- 

 ducts from which they are derived. Part ii. gives 

 methods for preparing typical products on a labor- 

 atory scale, but as far as practicable by works pro- 

 cesses ; and part iii. deals with the analysis and 

 identification of dyes and with the detection of dye- 

 stuffs on the fibre. The appendi.x contains tables 

 giving the specific gravities of various solutions. 



The first chapter of the book gives a verv short 

 account of coal-tar and the separation and purification 

 of benzene, naphthalene, anthracene, and phenol. A 

 little more space might usefully have been devoted 

 to this section. 



Subsequent chapters deal with the nitration and 

 sulphonation products of the hydrocarbons, and the 

 production and properties of amido, hj'droxyl, and 

 carboxyl derivatives. The second section of part i. 

 gives in seventeen chapters, occupying about one- 

 third of the book, a systematic description of the 

 various groups of dyes, the classification being, of 

 course, based on the chemical constitution, and not 

 upon the mode of application, of the dyes. The treat- 

 ment of this section is excellent, the descriptions 

 being very lucid and sufficiently exhaustive without 

 loo much detail. 



Part ii., which deals with the preparation of colour- 

 ing matters and intermediate products, is at once the 

 most novel and the most useful feature of the book. 

 it is evidently the outcome of much personal experi- 

 ence on the part of the authors, and the limitations 

 of ordinary college laboratories have very sensibly 

 been kept in view, though at the same time only such 

 materials are employed as would be used in the 

 technical preparation of the several products in the 

 works. 



Perhaps the least satisfactory portion of the book 

 i-> the chapter dealing with the application of the 

 NO. 1877, VOL. 72] 



colouring matters. It is very doubtful whether any 

 useful purpose is served by such a short treatment of 

 the science of dyeing as can be compressed into 

 thirteen pages. Condensation to this extent inevit- 

 ably results in misleading generalisation, and the 

 authors would probably have been well advised to 

 have referred their readers to some of the well known 

 treatises on dyeing for this part of the subject. 



The chapters on the valuation and analysis of dyes 

 are to some extent open to the same criticism. As 

 an example of their deficiencies, the method given 

 for the analysis of indigo may be referred to. The 

 method described would be entirely untrustworthy if 

 applied to the estimation of natural indigos, and such 

 is evidentlv the intention. In its main and essential 

 sections, however, the book is a noteworthy addition 

 to the literature of specialised organic chemistry, and 

 both authors and publishers are to be congratulated 

 on its production. Walter M. Gard.n'Er. 



SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM. 

 Prinzipicnfragen in der Natunvissenschajt. By Ma.x 

 Verworn. Pp. 28. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 1905.) 

 Price 80 pfg. 



PROF. N'ERWORN detects mystical murmurs in 

 the scientific camp, and is full of apprehension 

 of coming dangers, for " mysticism is the negation of 

 scientific thinking." Naturalists have been working 

 out a monistic interpretation of the world, but there 

 have been symptoms of faint-heartedness lately, 

 especially before two questions, which the author 

 states in the following terms : — Do vital processes 

 depend on the same principles as the processes in 

 inanimate nature? Are psychical processes referable 

 to the same principles as those on which bodily pro- 

 cesses depend? Verworn assures us that both these 

 questions may be confidently answered in the affirm- 

 ative, for the world is one, with the same principles, 

 or rather with one principle throughout. What that 

 " principle " is we have not been able to discover 

 from the lecture, but we are assured that it is not a 

 " mystical principle." 



In regard to the first question. Prof. \'erworn says 

 that when we sufficiently analyse the criteria of life 

 we find none requiring other principles than those 

 which we require in interpreting the inorganic world. 

 The only feature distinctive of life is the combination 

 of potencies which are seen separately apart from life. 

 Chemical ferments illustrate metabolism without 

 growth ; the condensations and polymerisations of 

 chemical compounds illustrate growth without meta- 

 bolism ; the organism combines both. How it does 

 so we are not told, but it is not by any peculiar vital 

 principle. There is no need to assume a secret 

 " organisation " transcending physical and chemical 

 principles ; there is no warrant for postulating a 

 persistent protoplasmic architecture, either microscopic 

 or molecular, as the physical basis of life; the form 

 and structure of a cell is just like that of a fountain 

 or a flame; life is a flux; " TlavTapel" is true through- 

 out nature. To suppose, as Driesch, for instance, 

 does, that an Aristotelian "entelechv" resides in 



