416 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1374 



cominercial managing director, and of Dr. 

 Herbert Levinstein as technical managing di- 

 rector, was designed to maintain tlie interests 

 of both groups, and to benefit the united enter- 

 prise by the special contribution of knowledge 

 and experience which each of these gentlemen 

 was expected to make. At the meeting of 

 shareholders in Manchester on Friday last it 

 was announced that Sir Joseph Turner and 

 Dr. Levinstein, while retaining their seats on 

 thfe board, have been superseded as managing 

 directors by Sir Henry Birchenough, the 

 chairman of the corporation. Sir William 

 Alexander, and Mr. Vernon Clay. 



It is no reflection on the new managing 

 directors to express the opinion that the posi- 

 tion thus disclosed must arouse grave mis- 

 giving amongst all those who recognize the 

 foundation of a self-supporting synthetic dye- 

 making industry as a matter of the greatest 

 national importance. Disregarding the woe- 

 ful absence of harmony which appears to be 

 indicated, the aspect of this rearrangement 

 which causes anxiety to chemists is the fact 

 that, at a time when all the scientific knowl- 

 edge and commercial energy available in this 

 country should be correlated in a concerted 

 effort to establish an industry which, more 

 than any other, depends for success upon the 

 combination of these factors, two of the most 

 experienced practitioners should be removed 

 from very intimate association therewith. 



The proper and perfectly natural request 

 for an investigation put forward by the share- 

 holders met with a cold response from the 

 board, and the declaration by the chairmen 

 that a general meeting is not the occasion 

 for an explanation of such peculiar circum- 

 stances is one with which many will sympa- 

 thize; but the public is entitled to full infor- 

 mation at the earliest convenient opportunity. 

 Pending more precise knowledge of the facts, 

 it would not be fair to the late managing 

 directors, or to the board, to pass judgment 

 on their action. JI, however, as the published 

 statements at present suggest, incompatibility 

 of temperament is the cause, chemists will 

 regard them as having failed in realizing 

 their resiwnsibility io science at a critical 



juncture; on the other hand, the board can 

 scarcely escape the reproach of having allowed 

 an impossible situation to continue far beyond 

 the point at which a surgical operation had 

 become an obvious necessity. Having regard 

 to the immense scientific and national inter- 

 ests which are involved in the ultimate suc- 

 cess of this enterprise, and to the large sum 

 of public money which has been invested in 

 the corporation, its future conduct demands 

 very careful scrutiny. — Nature. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Practical Plant Biochemistry. By Muriel 

 Wheldale Onslow. Cambridge University 

 Press, 1920. Eoyal 8vo, pp. viii -f 178. 

 Price 15s. net. 



It is being recognized by students of the 

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The volume is divided into the following 

 chapters: I. Introduction. The synthesis of 

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 chemical reactions by which they are brought 



