GERMAN METHODS 17 



others which should serve the same purpose occur 

 in the British Empire and in America, but because 

 Germany thought it worth while to promote the 

 scientific study of the Stassfurt minerals. One 

 of the most fascinating and intricate chapters 

 in modern Physical Chemistry is that compiled 

 from van 't HofFs exhaustive experimental and 

 theoretical investigations upon the German salt 

 deposits. It is, however, not impossible that a 

 biological source of the large quantities of potas- 

 sium salts required will be ultimately found; the 

 ash of the banana stalk contains about 90 per cent, 

 of potassium carbonate and only traces of sodium 

 salts. 



Whilst a vast number of directions exist in 

 which the British heavy and fine chemical industry 

 may be developed freely the magnitude of the task 

 of re-establishing the old chemical supremacy en- 

 joyed by Great Britain does not seem to have been 

 generally realised. For the accentuation of this 

 point it may be useful to mention a few striking 

 features presented by one of the important German 

 coal tar product manufactories, that of the Bayer 

 Company of Elberfeld and Leverkusen. So highly 

 developed is the organisation of this concern that 

 it runs free schools of technology, art, and music 

 for its employees and a lying-in hospital for their 

 wives; the company has its own savings bank, 

 life insurance scheme, refectories and dormitories. 

 The Bayer Company, like all the other German 



S. S. N. 2 



