September 29, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



439 



very pure in concentrated solution, and the 

 peroxides of a number of the metals are 

 also utilized in many different ways. The 

 per- acids — perboric, percarbonie and per- 

 sulphuric — or their salts are employed for 

 oxidizing and bleaching purposes, and 

 sodium hydrosulphite is much in demand as 

 a reducing agent — e. g., in dyeing with in- 

 digo. Hydroxylamine and hydrazine are 

 used in considerable quantity, and the 

 manufacture of cyanides by one or other 

 of the modern methods has become quite an 

 important industry, mainly owing to the 

 use of the alkali salts in the cyanide proc- 

 ess of gold extraction. These remarkable 

 compounds, the metallic carbonyis, have 

 been investigated, and nickel carbonyl is 

 employed on the commercial scale in the ex- 

 traction of the metal. Fine chemicals for 

 analysis and research are now supplied, as 

 a matter of course, in a state of purity 

 rarely attained a quarter of a century ago. 

 In the organic chemical industry similar 

 continued progress is to be noted. Acces- 

 sions are constantly being made to the al- 

 ready enormous list of synthetic dyes, not 

 only by the addition of new members to 

 existing groups, but also by the discovery 

 of entirely new classes of tinctorial com- 

 pounds; natural indigo seems doomed to 

 share the fate of alizarine from madder, 

 and to be ousted by synthetic indigo, of 

 which, moreover, a number of useful deriv- 

 atives are also made. Synthetic drugs of 

 all kinds — antipyrine and phenacetin, 

 sulphonal and veronal, novacain and /?- 

 eucaine, salol and aspirin, piperazine and 

 adrenaline, atoxyl and salvarsan — are pro- 

 duced in large quantities, as also are many 

 synthetic perfumes and flavoring materials, 

 such as ionone, heliotropine, and vanillin. 

 Cellulose in the form of artificial silk is 

 much used as a new textile material, syn- 

 thetic camphor is on the market, synthetic 

 rubber is said to be produced in consider- 



able quantity; and the manufacture of 

 materials for photographic work and of or- 

 ganic compounds for research purposes is 

 no small part of the industry. However, it 

 would serve no useful purpose to extend 

 this catalogue, which might be done almost 

 indefinitely. 



British chemists are entitled to regard 

 with satisfaction the part which they have 

 taken in the development of scientific 

 chemistry during the last three decades, as 

 in the past, but with respect to the progress 

 of industrial chemistry it must be regret- 

 fully admitted that, except in isolated cases, 

 we have failed to keep pace with our com- 

 petitors. Consider a single example. Al- 

 though there still remain in South America 

 considerable deposits of sodium nitrate 

 which can be worked at a profit, it is clear 

 that sooner or later other sources of nitric 

 acid must be made available. The synthetic 

 production of nitric acid from the air is 

 now a commercial success; several different 

 processes are in operation abroad, and 

 Germany is reported to be quite independ- 

 ent of outside supplies. Electrical energy, 

 upon the cost of which the success of the 

 process largely depends, can be produced 

 in this country at least as cheaply as in Ger- 

 many, and yet we have done nothing in the 

 matter, unless we count as something the 

 appointment of a committee to consider pos- 

 sibilities. This case is only too typical of 

 many others. A number of different causes 

 have contributed to bring about this state 

 of affairs, and the responsibility for it is as- 

 signed by some to the government, by others 

 to the chemical manufacturers, and by still 

 others to the professors of chemistry. I 

 think, however, it will be generally ad- 

 mitted that the root of the matter is to be 

 found in the general ignorance of and in- 

 difference to the methods and results of 

 scientific work which characterize the peo- 

 ple of this country. For many years past 



