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THE WAR AND BRITISH CHEMICAL

INDUSTRY.

WING to the urgency of the aniline dye ques

tion and the discussion which has been taking place on the Government scheme, it has been thought expedient to issue part iv. of a memorandum dealing with the entire question of the "War and British Economic Policy." It is published by Messrs. P. S. King and Son, of Westminster, and a brief summary of it is given in the Chemical News of February 26. British industries use annually dyes to the value of nearly 2,250,000l., of which about 1,750,000l. come from Germany, about 150,00ol. from Switzerland, and only about 200,000l. are of British home production. Aniline dyes constitute an indispensable material in many branches of the textile, leather, paper, and other industries, and the annual value of the goods in which they are an essential or important part is estimated at 200,000,000l.

The opinions of a large number of firms interested in the use or manufacture of aniline dyes are given in the memorandum in question, and emphasis is laid on the fact that the dependence upon German supplies is so great that the present capacity of British dye works is totally inadequate to fill the gap. During the past few weeks the Government scheme has formed the subject of of numerous articles and letters to the Press, and a brief review may here be given of these, so far as they deal with the general question of the relationship between science and industry in this country, and ignoring all problems of a political nature, such as the question of the necessity for a protective tariff for the proposed new industry.

Prof. Armstrong, in a letter to the Morning Post of February 27, after considering the report of the debate on the Government dye scheme in the House of Commons, concludes that the "situation is an almost hopeless one owing to the lamentable ignorance of our public men of matters scientific." He illustrates this want of knowledge by a criticism of Mr. Runciman's recent pronouncement that in organising the new scheme the Government "had at their elbows two, at least, of the greatest chemists of Europe," description which, it is contended, will "scarcely pass muster."

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If the production of dyes is to be taken in hand seriously, and the foundation laid of a permanent industry, men must be chosen to manage the enterprise who are as able as was my dear old friend, now deceased, Dr. H. Caro, who played so great a part in the development of the Badische Anilin Company, or as his eminent successor, Prof. Bernthsen is, or as is Prof. Duisberg, who has brought the Bayer Company to its present proud position, and now dominates the whole industry. . . . We have in our ranks men of their type who would be immediately available. But apparently the advisers of the Government want subordinate intellects, not leaders.

Dr. M. O. Forster, in a characteristically ironical letter to the same journal, points out that the establishment of an indigenous dye industry "is, has been, and ever will be as much a question of education as of trade. Education of legislators,

Government officials, manufacturers, and merchants." It was to have been wished that before scheme, every member of the Cabinet, together taking any steps towards organising the new with the other Ministers, "could have been transferred bodily to Ludwigshafen and personally. conducted through the Badische Anilin- und SodaFabrik." Dr. Forster depicts with considerable humour the astonishment that Mr. Runciman and the others might have expressed at the organisation and laboratories of this firm, and especially on finding some actual chemists on the directorate.

Several columns are devoted by the Financier of February 12, 23, and March 12 to interviews with Mr. W. P. Dreaper, who, as chemist to the Silk Association, speaks with some authority on the practical side of the question. Mr. Dreaper also most strongly emphasises the necessity that the board of the proposed company should contain a scientific representation, and the absolute importance of securing the best scientific knowledge which is available. He protests against the policy of training chemists of the "second class," of which Mr. Runciman seems to consider that general lack of understanding which exists we have an insufficient supply, and against the amongst manufacturers as to what a chemist is "owing to the demand that has sprung up in certain directions for the 70l. per annum variety."

The lack of appreciation in this country of the services of the chemist and the absolute ignorance on the part of the Government of what remuneration should be given him is admirably illustrated by the letter of Sir William Tilden in the Chemical News of February 26, protesting against the salary offered by the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, to assistant chemists in the inspection department. At a time when the nation is spending 1,250,000l., and will soon be spending 1,750,000l., per diem on maintaining our army in the field, the utmost that the War Office can afford to give a chemist who has "had a thorough training in inorganic and organic chemistry," and is "a university graduate or member of the Institute of Chemistry," is the sum of 2l. os. 6d. per week! Such an advertisement "gives one to think," and is, indeed, a striking object lesson of the fact which Prof. Armstrong deplores--"we have had no public use for science in our country, and we are blind to our needs and as to our opportunities."

The whole question of the utilisation of science in industry is indeed closely wrapped up with that of the miserably insufficient remuneration given in the majority of cases to science and scientific workers, which Sir Ronald Ross has so strongly emphasised in recent numbers of Science Progress. So long as the prospects of the young chemist and the remuneration that he receives are of the order indicated in the above advertisement there is little hope of developing in this country industries that require the services of large numbers of highly-trained scientific workers.

It is interesting to find a politician like Mr. L. G. Chiozza Money, M.P., emphasising the

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Let us not deceive ourselves into believing that "science" or "chemistry" affects a limited number of subsidiary industries. There is no industry in the world, from building construction to coke-making, from artillery construction to the making of explosives, from dyeing to leather tanning . . . which has not been in recent years turned inside out by science and invention. We have been content in too many matters to let the world go by us.

Even in the matter of preparation for war Mr. Money, quoting from the address delivered before the Mathematical Association on January 9 by Sir George Greenhill (see NATURE, January 21, p. 573), gives a melancholy contrast between the conditions under which German and British artillery officers have been trained in their science at the Military Technical Academy of Berlin and at Woolwich.

The neglect of science in industry and in public affairs, which is characteristic of this country, culminated in the prospectus of British Dyes (Limited), on the board of which science is entirely unrepresented. The opinions of Sir Henry Roscoe and Sir William Ramsay on the scheme, expressed in the columns of the Times, have already been given in NATURE (March 11, p. 41), whilst Prof. Armstrong, in the Morning Post (March 13), considers that "our fate as makers of dyes is sealed." The failure of the scheme to attract sufficient capital from investors to justify the directors of the company in proceeding to allotment was referred to last week (p. 94). A meeting of representatives of the textile and dyeing trades was held at Manchester on March 24 to consider the position, and a resolution was adopted in favour of proceeding with the company if certain modifications were made in the business part of the programme. There is no doubt as to the national necessity for such work as the Government scheme is intended to promote, but to expect that a company without a single industrial chemist upon its board of directors will be able to compete with the highly organised coai-tar colour industry of Germany is to show complete want of understanding of the scientific problems which must be faced if permanent success is to be assured.

How little Germany fears competition in this field in the future from English manufacturers, even though aided by the resources of the State, can be gathered from an admirable article by Prof. O. N. Witt in the Chemiker Zeitung for February 13. In this article are given the real reasons why Germany has been able to outstrip all competition and to secure practically a monopoly, and why the foundations of the industry are so solidly based that the prospects of the British scheme having

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anything like a permanent success seem altogether illusory. It must be remembered that the German chemical industry (with one or two exceptions) has never received any protection whatever from tariff's. How futile such protection as that afforded by patent laws can be in comparison with the results obtained by the organisation of science in the service of industry is emphasised by a report to Congress, which is reprinted in the Chemical News of March 5. In the United States a 30 per cent. duty on some coal-tar dyes for more than thirty years has not produced a real coal-tar dye industry. Germany, on the other hand, has succeeded because she has placed science on a sound business footing, of which the fair remuneration of the scientific worker has been a striking feature. The part played by the German banks, often with men of considerable scientific attainments on their boards, in developing German industry is emphasised by Mr. W. P. Dreaper in an article on Industrial Research in the Financier of March 12.

Germany, in short, has succeeded in the past because she deserved to succeed. Not only has she organised scientific effort on the manufacturing side, but she has organised equally effectively her commercial relations with foreign countries. This side of the question, which has played no small part in attaining the final result, is dealt with in the current Bulletin of the Société d'Encouragement (vol. cxxii., p. 33), by M. Lindet, who gives as an example an account of the methods adopted by Germany in Rumania.

The Germans present to the Rumanians objects specially manufactured to satisfy the local requirements, sold at a price which is lower than ours because they are manufactured more cheaply and because they bear lower charges for transport. The German and Austrian merchants and manufacturers interested in Rumanian business have formed a syndicate with its representative at Bucharest. They obtain in this way facilities for transport in common which we do not possess. They have at Bucharest banks which allow long-date credits, and they have representatives and travellers who without intermission pursue their clients. They advertise widely, and have inaugurated at Bucharest a museum of their goods.

It is an organisation of this kind, highly developed on both the manufacturing and commercial sides that we have to prepare to face in the future, after the war has ended and Germany is left free to resume her usual activities.

DR. A. S. LEA, F.R.S.

THE ranks of those who took part in founding the Cambridge Physiology School grows thin. But a few months ago we recorded the death of Dr. Gaskell. We have now to record the death, on March 23, of Dr. Arthur Sheridan Lea at sixty-one years of age.

Lea entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1872, he became Foundation Scholar of the College, and in 1875 he took a First Class in the

Natural Sciences Tripos. His bias was to the chemical side of physiological problems, and, in consequence, on Foster's advice, he began research with Kühne at Heidelberg. Kühne combined in a rather unusual manner the study of physiological chemistry with that of histology, and Lea's work with him developed, as it chanced, mainly on histological lines. Kühne and Lea were the first to observe satisfactorily with the microscope the changes taking place in a living gland-the pancreas-with intact circulation, and to note the special vascular supply of the Islets of Langerhans. One of the figures illustrating their paper is given to this day in most text-books of histology and physiology.

Lea, after his return to Cambridge, specialised in physiological chemistry though he gave instruction to pupils in the whole range of physiology, and to him was due the development in the Cambridge laboratory of advanced teaching in this subject. In the successive editions of Foster's "Text-book of Physiology," Lea wrote the part dealing with physiological chemistry, and in the fifth edition (1892) this part, revised and enlarged, appeared as a separate volume entitled "The Chemical Basis of the Animal Body." His research work was chiefly on the chemical changes in food during digestion, and on the action of rennet and fibrin ferments.

Lea's first post was that of demonstrator of physiology for Dr. Foster. In 1881 he became director of medical studies and assistant lecturer at Gonville and Caius College. In 1885 he was elected fellow of the college, and soon after became bursar. He was appointed university lecturer in 1884. His career in the university and in science was cut short by the development of a spinal disease-signs of which had long been present-making walking at first difficult and later impossible. None of his friends can forget the astonishing fortitude with which Lea met this shattering of his chief interests. He had always led an active outdoor life; he had cruised about the coasts in a yacht whenever opportunity offered; he was Captain in the Cambridge Volunteers, had taken special courses of instruction at Aldershot, and was a good rifle shot. Since he could no longer carry on these pursuits, nor continue his research in the laboratory, he decided after a time to break entirely with the old life. He left Cambridge and settled at Sidcup in Kent. Rarely then or later did Lea rail at fate. He put on a cheerful countenance, and made the best of what was left him. He kept in touch with his old friends, revised the proofs of their books as occasion offered, and occasionally made small pieces of apparatus for them with the mechanically-driven lathe which served to keep up the cunning of his hands. Before leaving Cambridge he had married, and had one son. In a letter written shortly before he died, Lea expressed pleasure that his son had volunteered for the Army and was serving in the trenches. In this as in other matters he kept his private anxieties to himself. J. N. L.

THE

PROF. A. A. W. HUBRECHT.

'HE death of Prof. Hubrecht at his residence in Utrecht on March 21, in his sixty-fifth year, removes another link between the zoology of the present day and the zoology of what may be called the great epoch of Huxley and Balfour. His earlier work dates back to 1874, and was of an anatomical character; it was only in the later part of his career that he devoted himself to embryology, and advocated views which led to lively controversy, and were provocative of good work, both on his own part and on the part of those who opposed him.

Speaking broadly, Hubrecht's name will survive as associated with thoroughly sound work and with the elucidation of a large number of most important new facts, even if the deductions which he drew from them no longer find favour with zoologists. So far, indeed, as theories are concerned, Hubrecht's mind continued to reflect the mental attitude of the zoological world in which his youth was passed; it was, indeed, a time of the "faith that moves mountains." Ardent naturalists were applying the Darwinian doctrine of evolution to every part of the animal kingdom; with the enthusiasm of pioneers they were tackling the most obscure and difficult problems of the natural relationships of animals; the deep abysses which separate different phyla of the animal kingdom were traversed by their soaring imagination, for were not the powers of variation limitless? and did not the principle of "change of function " enunciated by Dohrn authorise one to homologise any organ of any animal with any organ of any other animal to which it bore the slightest resemblance? So Hubrecht, to whom we owe the first thoroughly satisfactory account of the anatomy of the Nemertine worms, was convinced that Vertebrata were descended from a Nemertine worm, and that the Nemertine proboscis represented the Vertebrate notochord.

In his later years Hubrecht devoted himself principally to mammalian embryology, and made a series of most valuable observations on the relations between placenta and young in the eutherian mammals. He was led by these observations to a theory of the origin of mammalia, which has not been borne out by the work of other embryologists or by palæontologists. He supposed that the higher mammalia were directly descended from amphibia, and that the monotremata, the anatomy and embryology of which betrays in an unmistakable manner their reptilian affinities, were secondarily modified forms. Here, again, Hubrecht's firm faith carried him over all difficulties. These remarks are not intended as any disparagement of the methods of comparative anatomy or embryology, but are merely designed to emphasise the fact that in these, as in all other sciences, sound inductions are only possible on the basis of an immense accumulation of facts. Modern zoologists addicted to Mendelism would do well to remember that "of making many factors there is no end, and formulæ are a weariness to the flesh."

Hubrecht was a firm friend of England and a constant visitor at scientific meetings here; he could speak English like a native, and his death will be felt as a personal loss by a large circle of friends in this country. E. W. M.

NOTES.

THE following resolution of the council of the Royal Geographical Society has been accepted by the fellows of the Society: "The council, having become aware that Sir Sven Hedin, K.C.I.E., a subject of a neutral State, has identified himself with the King's enemies by his actions and published statements, orders that his name be removed from the list of honorary corresponding members of the society." Dr. Sven Hedin has also been excluded from the Russian Imperial Geographical Society.

THE Council of the Royal Geographical Society has made the following awards of medals and other prizes to be presented at the anniversary meeting on May 17: Founder's Medal to Sir Douglas Mawson for his conduct of the Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14; Patron's Medal to Dr. Filippo de Filippi for his expedition to the Karakoram and Eastern Turkestan in 1913-14; Victoria Research Medal to Dr. Hugh Robert Mill for geographical research extending over many years; Murchison Award to Captain J. K. Davis, who commanded the S.Y. Aurora during the time of the Australian Antarctic Expedition; Back Grant to Mr. C. W. Hobley for his contributions to the geology and ethnology of British East Africa; Cuthbert Peek Grant to Mr. A. Grant Ogilvie for his work in geographical investigation and research; Gill Memorial to Colonel Hon. C. G. Bruce for explorations in the Himalayas.

THE annual general meeting of the Chemical Society was held at Burlington House on Thursday, March 25. The Longstaff medal for 1915 was presented to Dr. M. O. Forster, and the retiring president, Prof. W. H. Perkin, then delivered his presidential address on "The position of the organic chemical industry," an abstract of which appears elsewhere in this issue. A vote of thanks to the president was proposed by Prof. H. E. Armstrong and seconded by Sir William Tilden. The new officers and members of council elected were:-President, Dr. Alexander Scott; Vice-Presidents, Prof. F. R. Japp and Prof. R. Threlfall; Treasurer, Dr. M. O. Forster; Ordinary Members of Council, Mr. D. L. Chapman, Prof. F. G. Donnan, Mr. W. Macnab, and Dr. J. F. Thorpe.

THE sixty-eighth annual meeting of the Palæontographical Society was held in the rooms of the Geological Society, Burlington House, on March 26, Dr. Henry Woodward, president, in the chair. The report stated that most of the authors for whom space had been reserved in the annual volume, had failed to contribute owing to the circumstances of the war, and an instalment only of Mr. F. W. Harmer's "Monograph of Pliocene Mollusca" would form the issue for 1914. Messrs. John Hopkinson, Clement Reid, S. Hazzledine Warren, and Henry Woods were elected new members of council. Dr. Henry Woodward was

re-elected president, and Mr. R. S. Herries and Dr. A. Smith Woodward were re-elected treasurer and secretary respectively.

THE seventieth annual general meeting of the Ray Society was held on March 25, the president, Prof. McIntosh, in the chair. The report for 1914 stated that the number of members had increased and the finances were satisfactory, but a diminution of income was to be expected this year owing to the loss of German and Austrian subscribers on account of the war. For 1914 the “British Marine Annelids,” vol. iii., part 1, by the president, had been issued, and for 1915 two volumes were in preparation: the "British Fresh-water Rhizopoda," vol. iii., containing the filose Conchulina, by G. H. Wailes, and the "Principles of Vegetable Teratology," vol. i., containing non-vascular plants and the root, stem, and leaves of vascular plants, by W. C. Worsdell. Prof. W. C. McIntosh was re-elected president, Dr. F. Du Cane Godman treasurer, and Mr. John Hopkinson secretary.

We notice with regret the announcement of the death on March 27 of Mr. J. J. Beringer, associate of the Royal School of Mines, and principal of the School of Metalliferous Mining, Camborne, Cornwall

THE death is announced of Prof. F. A. Sherman, professor of mathematics at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, from 1871 until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1911. Prof. Sherman died on February 25 in his seventy-fourth year.

WE learn from Science that the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research has made a grant of 4000l. to be used under the institute's direction to further medical research work under war conditions, and is equipping Dr. Carrel's new hospital in France with apparatus for research work in pathology, bacteriology, and surgery.

THE death is announced, in his seventy-seventh year, of the Rev. Dr. S. J. Coffin, professor of astronomy since 1873 at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, in which institution he also occupied the chair of mathematics from 1876 to 1886. He was the author of a treatise on conic sections, and had revised “The Winds of the Globe," by his father, Prof. J. H. Coffin.

THE Times correspondent at Ottawa states that in the Canadian House of Commons on March 27 Mr. Hazen, Minister of Marine, expressed the opinion that Mr. Stefansson, the Canadian explorer, had been lost with his two companions. The Government, he said, is doing everything of a practicable nature to find the missing men, and three steamers now in the Arctic will set out to the rescue of the expedition as soon as the ice breaks up in the spring.

THE American Association of Immunologists will hold its annual meeting at Washington on May 10 next, under the presidency of Dr. G. B. Webb, of Colorado Springs. The association was founded in 1913 for the purpose of bringing together the medical men of the United States and Canada who are engaged in the scientific study of immunity and bacterial therapy; to study the problems of immunology; and to promote scientific research in this department; to spread a correct knowledge of vaccine therapy and immunology among general medical practitioners.

THE Board of Agriculture and Fisheries announces that with a view of obtaining further information on their growth, migrations, and general life-history, a number of salmon and sea trout have been marked by means of a ring or wire, with or without a label or tag attached. Rewards will be paid for all such marks returned to the Board, with or without the fish, with information as to the date, time, place, and method of capture. When the entire fish is not sent full particulars of its weight, length, sex, and condition should also be given, and a portion of the skin or flesh of the fish to which the mark is fixed should be cut out. Postage and carriage need not be prepaid, and parcels and letters should be addressed to the Board at 43 Parliament Street, London, S.W.

PROF. H. ROBINSON, who occupied the chair of civil engineering at King's College, London, from 1880 to 1902, died on March 24, at seventy-eight years of age. From a short obituary notice in the Times we learn that Prof. Robinson had charge of many important works, including railways, water supply, sewerage, and electric lighting, an example of the latter being the successful installation at St. Pancras. He engineered the first public hydraulic power scheme in this country at Hull, and took an active part in promoting the distribution of energy in other towns by hydraulic power, compressed air, and electricity. Prof. Robinson was a fellow of King's College, of the Surveyors' Institution, and of the Sanitary Institute, and a past-president of the Society of Engineers.

We notice with much regret the announcement of the death, on March 23, at fifty-three years of age, of Dr. S. G. Rawson, principal of the Battersea Polytechnic, London. Dr. Rawson was educated at Charterhouse School, the Royal College of Science, University College, London, and University College, Liverpool. He afterwards became lecturer in chemistry at University College, Liverpool, and in 1895 he was appointed principal of the Technical College, Huddersfield. In 1903 he was appointed director of education to the Worcestershire County Council, and in September, 1907, he became principal of the Battersea Polytechnic. Dr. Rawson was a doctor of science of the University of London, an associate of the Royal College of Science, fellow of the Institute of Chemistry and of the Chemical Society, and, since January, 1914, was chairman of the council of the Association of Technical Institutions.

WE regret to announce the death of Mr. James Kearney, who for the last thirteen years has been inspector in charge of the photo-engraving section of the Egyptian Survey Department. He was originally in the Royal Engineers, and accompanied Sir G. Graham's expeditionary force to the Sudan in 1885 as photographic expert. He was then for several years attached to the Solar Physics Committee at South Kensington, and will be remembered by many old students of the Royal College of Science, London. In 1893 he went to West Africa with the British Eclipse Expedition as expert photographer, and again in 1906 he was with the party who observed the solar eclipse at Aswan. During this period he several times received the thanks of the Royal Society. From 1893

to 1902 he was one of the instructors at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham, which he left to go to Egypt. His wide experience of his subject and originality have largely influenced the development of the reproduction of maps by the Egyptian Survey Department, and practically all their maps now are reproduced by the photo-metal process.

THE following are among the arrangements for lectures at the Royal Institution after Easter :-"The Animal Spirits," Prof. C. S. Sherrington; "Advances in the Study of Radio-active Bodies," Prof. F. Soddy; "The Evolution of Steel: Influence on Civilisation,' Prof. J. O. Arnold; "The System of the Stars: (1) Star Colour and its Significance; (2) The Stellar System in Motion," Prof. A. S. Eddington; Advances in General Physics," Dr. A. W. Porter; "The Movements and Activities of Plants," Prof. V. H. Blackman; "Method of Presenting Character in Biography and Fiction," Wilfrid Ward; "Modern Artillery," Lieut.-Col. A. G. Hadcock; "Photo-electricity" (the Tyndall Lectures), Prof. J. A. Fleming; "Colouring Matters of the Organic World: (1) Colouring Matters of Nature; (2) Dyes, the Creation of the Chemist," Dr. M. O. Forster. The Friday evening discourses will begin on April 16. Mr. Stephen Graham will deal with "The Russian Idea" and Major P. S. Lelean with Military Hygiene at the War"; they will be followed by Canon Pearce, Sir John Jackson, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Dr. H. Walford Davies, Profs. F. G. Donnan and O. W. Richardson, and Mr. Edward Heron-Allen.

It is an axiom in business that to be successful the merchant must provide what the public wants. He may try to educate the public by advertisement and other means, but it is the public demand alone that regulates the quality of the supply. The population of this country demands a white loaf of light texture made from the finest portion of the wheat berry, and bakers and millers have made it their business to supply this want. Even at the height of the standard bread boom it is stated that the demand for this article did not reach 5 per cent. of the total. Whether the public taste is the most satisfactory on scientific grounds is possibly open to question; the subject was discussed in an article in these columns on January 7. In the opinion of nearly everyone qualified to judge, our bread is good enough in quality, and the fact remains that the public will take no other. The Bread and Food Reform League holds the contrary view, and recently presented a memorial to the President of the Local Government Board. The Times of March 26 reports the presentation of this memorial under the heading, "A Notable Protest." The list of signatories contains a number of notable names, but those of experts who can speak with authority upon the subject are not prominent, which is typical of the national attitude towards scientific knowledge. Samuel expressed the opinion that it is impracticable to undertake at the present time legislation on the lines suggested by the memorial.

Mr.

We regret to record the death of Lady Huggins, at Chelsea, on March 24, after a long illness. From the time of their marriage in 1875, Lady Huggins was

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