SCIENCE UP TO DATE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16487, 28 February 1914, Page 6

SCIENCE UP TO DATE.

MISCELLANEOUS RECENT ADVANCES. (By JAMES COLLIER.) CHEMISTRY OF PERFUMES. The chemistry of aromatic carbons owes its existence to the same fever of researches as gave birth to the many manufactured colouring matters. Chemists had had numerous successes connected with the perfume of wines, liquors and fruits. They had long used a number of ethers, such as the formiate and tho butyrate of ethyl (substitutes for the essences of rum and ananas), oenanthio ether (identical with the essence of cognac), etc. Yet little had been achieved. It needed the discovery of vanilline (essence of vanilla), which was artificially prepared and made a commercial product in 1876, to open the eyes of chemists to tho enormous possibilities of tbe industry. The discoverer was Professor F. Tiemaun, and ho continued, by his successive researches and discoveries, to fecundate the new industry that he had founded. To him is due the discovery of iron© (the scent of iris root) and of ionone (scent of violet). Till tho year 1876 tho chemistry of scents consisted in extracting from odoriferous flowers the principles they contained: and as such flowers are continually being multiplied, and their odorous power enhanced, by the art of the horticulturist, tbe industry was constantly expanded. But its actual or possible expansion was small when compared with the enormous new sources of odour placed within reach by chemists. These are stated by M. Banet-Rivet to bo principally throe 1. Those that are synthetically prepared, as tho artificial musks (substitutes for natural musjrs), nitro-benzine (substitute for tho essence of hitter almonds), benzoio aldehyde (essence of bitter almonds), and salicylio aldehyde (essence of queen of tho meadows). All of these, like the brilliant colours we have lately described, are marvellously derived from that cornucopia, coaltar. / . 2. Those that could bo synthetically manufactured, but aro more economically prepared by being extracted from primary natural matters. These are (1) identical with the essence extracted from tho plant, as vanillino, geraniol and rhodinol—both of tho last two being constituents of the essence of rose; or (2) they are substitutes, as heliotropine (tho odour of heliotrope), ionone (scent of violet), and so forth.

3. Certain products of partial synthesis, like the' artificial camphors. All these substances, with vanilline, ionone and the artificial musks, have, neither the fastness nor the sweetness, nor the principal qualities of the essences extracted from the plants themselves. Why is this ? The explanation given by chemists is to the point. Detailed analyses show that natural scents are. not due to a single substance, but' are the resultant of the combined action of various substances, whose mixture constitutes the natural essence. Consequently the variation of any one of these substances, in however small a degree, may completely change the character of the natural odour. For this reason perfumes that remind us of natural scents can be manufactured only by mingling the definite products named in suitable proportions, and even then they are prepared with difficulty. The chemistry of perfumes is, then, still in its infancy. Its processes ,?arc more empirical than scientific, and it is far from having attained the exactness and perfection of the chemical production of colours. It has not yet supplanted the extraction of scents from flowers. On the contrary, it has increased the demand for them. The two—natural and artificial—are now often mingled. Artificial perfumes are often so hard and so far removed from the softness and fineness of natural scents that it is necessary to mix them in order to make them saleable. For example, the discovery, or preparation of ionone has largely increased the consumption of violets. . It has raised the standard of sensation, as electricity has raised the standard of illumination and led to a greater consumption of gas. CHEMICAL DRUGS.

To the same movement, acting most powerfully in the same country, is due a remarkable advance in pharmaceutical chemistry. Seeking to make a synthesis of quinine, the grand febrifuge that we owe to South America, chemists have discovered a number or drugs—antipyrine, phenacetine, and phenol, which are said to be sometimes proferablo to. quinine itself. The synthesis of antipyrine was obtained by Professor Knorr in 1884; salicylic ncia was invented by Professor Ivolbe, of Leipzig; and a multitude of other medicaments have been artificially combined. Antipyrine is said to bo more costly than quinine, but in general, so medical practitioners assure us, the medicines they import from Germany are cheaper than they can bny in England. And their efficiency is often far greater. The ravages of that dread disease, syphilis, aye known, and the statistics of the disease in European and American armies and navies ore terrifying, but it has been stripped of its terrors since Dr Paul Ehrlicli synthesised tho famous drug, salvemn, No 606 (as if it were the “ mark of the Beast ” in “ the Book of Revelations.”) Dr Ehrlich is even described as the founder of Ghemothergpv, or the therapeutic treatment of disease by means of chemically compounded drugs.

ELECTRIC DRUGS. Electricity likewise comes to the aid of the drug-makers. It is by means of electrolysis that certain drugs are prepared, such as idoform; as also certain colouring matters, such as cyanine alizarin. Moissan’s electric furnace, with acetylene as . its chief agent, enables. the preparation of a substitute for idoform, diiodoform, endowed with identical properties, but deprived of its intolerable smell. ELECTRICAL APPLICATIONS. The renovating port played by electricity in all departments of chemical industry is known, and in metallurgy it has completely changed tho methods of manufacture. We are still in tho fiold of chemical industry in recalling the invention of an electric lamp, on which Professor Ernst, of Goettingen, was engaged for five years, and which is as great an advance in electric lighting as was Auer’s incandescent mantle in gas-lighting. -To Professor Abbe, of Jena, blending various qualities of glass and so modifying their properties, we owe the perfected lenses manufactured by the famous Zeiss Company. CHEMICAL FOODS. Chemical synthesis is no longer the mere complement of analysis, but aims at reproducing every substance in Nature, and among them the aliments of man and beast. So far back as 1854 Berthelot, the celebrated chemist, obtained by synthesis the natural fats by means of their nearest components, acid fats and glycerine; and these again can be produced entirely by means of their generators, carbons of hydrogen, which can easily be prepared by means of acetylene. The sugars, or hydrates of carbon, can be, almost all of them, obtained by synthesis; thus glucose (sugar of honey) can easily be prepared by taking glycine as the point of departure. Tbe saccharine substances, with cane-sugar among them, still resist synthesis; but chemists believe that they will not do so very long. Perhaps some of them have already been synthesized. The azote aliments, or albuminoids, necessary for the formation and repair of our tissues, will also, wo cannot doubt, bo one day manufactured in the chemist’s laboratory. OOEONOGRAPHIC RESEARCHES. Some notes in a previous article on the early history of oceonography may properly be here completed and made precise. A number of attempts, besides that of Nicholas of Cusa in the fifteenth century, were made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to sound the ocean without the aid of a line, but they had little practical value. Equally negative were the first scientific essays at deep-sea sounding in the open sea by Magellan in 1621. Cook’s voyages to Australia and New Zealand were the real initiation of scientific voyaging. Kircher was mentioned, but wo may note that the Jesuit's conception of submarine mountains was the first step taken to found geography on the forms and reliefs of the sea-bottom. So long ago as 1770, it is interesting to read, Benjamin Franklin issued the first map of the Gulf Stream. The two Forsters, father and son, voyaging with Cook, were the first to make observations of the sea temperatures beneath tbe surface; but Dr Irvine, during Lord Mulgrave’s expedition to the Arctic in 1773, was the first to use selfregistering thermometers for submarine temperatures. About the same time Captain Phipps made almost the earliest attempts at deep-sea sounding. SOUNDINGS AND DREDGINGS.

The first British Antarctic expedition of 1849-43 j captained by Sir James Ross and scienced by Sir Joseph Hooker, took tho first truly oceanic soundings in depths exceeding 2000 fathoms. With a specially constructed line, 3600 fathoms in length, “ the first abysmal sounding on record was taken,” says Sir John Murray, on January 3, IS4O. Important dredging work was carried out, and abundant specimens of animal life brought up. Still earlier dredgings in comparatively shallow waters had been made by French and Norwegian naturalists. In 1845, by the invention of the tow-net, Johannes Mueller gave a great impulse to tbe study of marine biology. »

The sounding apparatus invented by tho American midshipman Brooke, made deep-sea sounding more practicable, and enabled Maury to draw the first bathymetric map of the North Atlantic in 1854. Systematic soundings of that ocean were begun in 18512. In 1857 a modification of Brooke’s sounder was used, and by means of it Huxley’s imaginary Bathybius was dredged up. A more permanent resul of his own and others’ dredgings was that Agassiz laid it down that continental and oceanic areas have always occupied identical positions to what they do now. Seven years earlier Fleeming Jenkins’s recovery of the broken Atlantic cable proved beyond doubt that numbers of the higher marine species;live at great depth. EXPEDITIONS AND CRUISES.

In 1868 began a, series of short cruises that led up to the great Challenger expedition, and were directed by Sir'Wyville Thomson and Dr W. B. Carpenter. They showed that -animal life is abundant down to 650 fathoms, sometimes containing representatives of fossil species that. were believed to be extinct. They apparently found the first indications of what camo t r > bo known as the Wyville-T'homson Ridge. It is a submarine range that stretches from Iceland past the Faroe Islands to Shetland, and separates tho doep basins of the Atlantic and Norwegian Seas. It separates a warm from a cold area, which have not only different temperatures, but also different fauna and distinct systems of oceanic circulation. Further light was shed on it by. the Challenger expedition, hut the discovery was really made by two ships of the Royal Navy in 1880-2. LACUSTRINE SURVEYS. Having explored many of the areas of the ocean, science turned its attention to the inland seas and the freshwater lakes. Between 1884 and 1802 one of the most distinguished members of the Challenger expedition, Sir John Murray, explored the deep waters of those inland sens, Loch Etive end Loch Fyne, where he discovered the remnants of an Arctic fauna. From 1897 to 1900 the same investigator carried out a bathymetric survey of Scottish freshwater loohs. A subsequent continuation of the same researches by other hands has led to the solution of some oceanic problems. OTHER RESULTS.

The plankton, vegetable and animal, that is now known to form' tho bulk of the food of, the smaller fishes, was an object of research in the Bucaneer, when it explored the Gulf . of Guinea, and it was the special objective of the German expedition despatched in 1889. Haeckel’s “ Plankton Studies” are based on the results then attained. Another outcome of a German expedition, working in 1911, is notable. Tho Planet definitely ascertained, that the greatest known depth is found in the Indian Ocean. But marine research and discovery have ceased to be purely national. All advanced peoples co-operate. International hydrographic congresses are held in the various capitals, and an International Council for the Scientific Investigation of the North Sea has been founded. This international activity has communicated a great impetus to most departments of oceanic, science. A practical result is also worth noting. How greatly the industry of a country may gain from such-researches has been pointedly shown. Using the tow-net to ascertain where the fish spawned, Dr Hjort succeeded in finding enormous shoals of cod on the coastal banks off Northern Norway, where, in consequence of the discovery, millions of cod were afterwards taken.