598 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 826 



as in a system of qualitative analysis, this 

 great mass of compounds has been split up 

 and divided and subdivided into general divi- 

 sions, subdivisions and sections. Presumably, 

 by the systematic use of these tables, after a 

 very considerable amount of practise on the 

 tests themselves, it ought to be possible for a 

 careful manipulator, without any previous 

 knowledge of dyestuifs, and with absolutely 

 no experience in the art of dyeing, to sepa- 

 rate and positively identify any one of these 

 hundreds of dyestuffs, much as a college 

 freshman can separate and identify barium 

 or bismuth in a qualitative mixture. 



Whether these elaborate tables and this vast 

 number of carefully classified experiments 

 will accomplish this desired result, as the au- 

 thor evidently expects, seems to the present 

 writer to be still rather an open question. 



He has not had the leisure to spend some 

 weeks of constant work, in making himself 

 familiar with the methods described, and with 

 the rather formidable looking hieroglyphics 

 in which the results of the experiments are 

 expressed — work which would certainly have 

 to be done before he could test the analytical 

 tables upon commercial dyestuffs. 



While glancing over the book, however, he 

 did notice one place, at any rate, where the 

 system seemed at fault. On page 52, under 

 Genus I., Division B, Section of Orange Yel- 

 low Colors on Wool, No. 81, can be found 

 carefully described the well-known mordant 

 dyestuff of the Meister Lucius and Briining- 

 Co., Coeruleine S, powder. This division of 

 Genus I., by the way, corresponds, so it is 

 stated, to azines, oxazines, thiazines, etc. Just 

 what the chemical classification of Coeruleine 

 S really is, the writer does not know, nor, in- 

 deed, care. But he does know that the same 

 Meister, Lucius and Briining Co. sell exactly 

 the same dyestuff, in a paste form, under the 

 name of Cceruleine, S. W. Paste. And it was, 

 accordingly, with some surprise that this lat- 

 ter coloring matter was found as ISTo. 1,153, 

 page 224, carefully located in Genus IV., 

 Division B, Subdivision 1, Section of Green 

 Colors on Wool, under the heading of " Py- 

 Tonine, Thiobenzyl and Azo-derivatives." It 



seems curious that the addition of a little 

 water should make such a difference! 



It is, of course, impossible that in such an 

 elaborate and complicated work as this no 

 errors should arise. Very possibly this is the 

 only case of that sort in the book; although it 

 would be interesting to have a study made of 

 it by representatives of the great color houses, 

 who, each knowing their own dyestuffs, could 

 readily pick out any similar slips, if they 

 were present. 



A more serious criticism, that may with 

 good faith be directed against this remarkable 

 monument of industry, is that the distin- 

 guished author, full of his scheme for a vast 

 qualitative separation of pure organic com- 

 pounds of every description, has attacked this 

 most practical problem of the identification 

 of dyestuffs, from a purely theoretical stand- 

 point. To paraphrase Wordsworth, " A dye- 

 stuff by the river's brim, an organic compound 

 is to him and nothing else." He has treated 

 these coloring matters as though they were 

 part of a collection of organic chemicals on 

 the shelves of a chemical museum, whose 

 labels had fallen off; and in no part of the 

 book is there a suggestion of the importance 

 of assisting the practical dyeing chemist in 

 his work, or of calling in his assistance, in 

 return. 



Now this attitude, it seems to the writer, 

 is distinctly unfortunate, and very seriously 

 interferes with the value of the book for any 

 purpose, excepting, possibly, as a storehouse 

 from which, with a good deal of difficulty, 

 some information can be dug out about 

 special scientific tests for a vast number of 

 dyestuffs. It is very doubtful whether, as 

 matters now stand, any dyeing chemist would 

 go so far out of his way as to try to solve a 

 dyeing problem by means of these quite un- 

 practical schemes and separations. And, 

 most of all, the more carefully and con- 

 scientiously these analytical tables are studied 

 and experimented with, the more hopelessly 

 astray would the student find himseK, when 

 brought face to face with any practical dyeing 

 problem. 



For these dyestuffs are not simply organic 



