650 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 



cotton and linen trades, where cellulose reigns supreme ; to our dye-houses or to 

 our breweries, or to any other industry, great or small, there do we find problems 

 in chemistry awaiting solution, and the nation which solves them will not only 

 progress in civilisation and contentment, but will also justly claim to have taken 

 a leading part in the advancement of science. 



It is not then in any grudging spirit of envy that we approach this question ; 

 recognising the splendid work of men of other countries, rejoicing in the services 

 which they have rendered to the world at large, our only desire is not to lag 

 behind in the general intellectual and industrial advance of nations. 



It is unnecessary to trouble you with any detailed comparison of the position 

 which we occupy to-day with that which we have taken in the past. The fiftieth 

 anniversary of the epoch-making discovery of mauve was held only two years ago, 

 and the proceedings are still fresh in our recollection ; the paeans of congratulation 

 addressed to the discoverer (now, alas ! no longer with us) were marred by a 

 plaintive note, a note of lamentation over our lost industry, the manufacture of 

 dyes. The jubilee of the founder of the colour industry in this country was also 

 the occasion for pronouncing its funeral oration. If this were the full extent of 

 our loss we might bear it with equanimity ; but it is not so much what has 

 already gone as what is going and what may go that are matters of such deep 

 concern. Those who doubt the seriousness of our condition may find statistical 

 evidence, more than sufficient to convince them, in the technical journals and in 

 the Board of Trade reports of recent years. 



The facts there disclosed show that in the manufacture of ' fine chemicals,* 

 including perfumes, alkaloids, and crude coal-tar products, as well as dyes, the 

 decadence of our industry is far advanced ; in the case of heavy chemicals our 

 position, perhaps, is not quite so serious at the present moment, but the future is 

 dark and threatening. Chemical industries are so intimately connected and 

 dependent on one another, that the fate of one may determine the fate of all ; the 

 by-product of one process is often the raw material of another. Who, then, can 

 deny that the patience, perseverance, and high scientific skill, which have built up 

 the colour industry abroad, if apjdied, as they have been and are being applied, 

 to the manufacture of heavy chemicals, will not soon defy all competition from less 

 progressive countries ? 



Such a possibility is full of national danger. It has been pointed out — and the 

 prophecy cannot be regarded as unduly pessimistic — that from present indications 

 a time will arrive when we shall be dependent on outside sources, not only for our 

 food-supply, but also for our means of self-defence. When nitrates are exhausted, 

 when nitric acid and ammonia are prepared from the components of the atmo- 

 sphere, when all chemical industries have been so highly developed abroad that 

 they have completely vanished from these Islands, and when their loss has reacted 

 on all our other important industries, then, indeed, shall we feel the pinch of 

 poverty; then, indeed, must we submit to national decay. 



Is it possible to remedy the present unsatisfactory state of afi'airs, and to 

 guard asrainst an ominous future ? 



During the Perkin Jubilee celebrations Professor Carl Duisberg answered 

 this question, in so far as it concerns the coal-tar colour industry, by an 

 uncompromising negative. In an able and interesting speech he pointed out that, 

 although the Briton is in general a practical man, he is lacking in patience, in the 

 power of waiting for success; he expects to be compensated in hard cash, and at 

 once, for his work or for his capital outlay. The German, on the other hand, 

 is primarily a theorist possessing endless patience, and works without any 

 immediate pro.spect of pecuniary reward ; he has now learnt to be practical as 

 well, but not at the expense of his ideals. It is to this happy combination of 

 qualities that Professor Duisberg ascribes the success of his countrymen in the 

 coal-tar- colour industry — a success which he considers we are powerless to 

 emulate, with which it would be futile for us to try and compete. 



With this view -that our chemical industries must submit to gradual 

 extinction, even when it is held by so high an authority, we cannot and must 

 not agree ; if ojle nation can learn to be practical, we — the four nations of these 



