ARE OUR CHEMISTS BACKWARD?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 104, 5 November 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

ARE OUR CHEMISTS BACKWARD?

BRITISH SCIENTIFIC GENIUS UPHELD.

"WE HAVE AWAKENED."

Tho criticisms made by Professor Percy Frankland, of Birmingham University, on British laxity in chemical development have been the subject of equally candid animadversions reflecting on professorial methods. A prominent member of the Institute of Chemistry recently declared he could not help thinking that the professors who held the views expressed by Professor Frankland were to some extent responsible for the Britasn backwardness in chemistry. "I do not believe that this country has systematically neglected chemical science. We have certainly failed b .d----ly in developing a scient'fic syste a of education which lays the foundation for subsequent study. But our best chemists in this country are as good as, if not bettor than, any equal number of German chemists, few of whom can compare with the masters under wuom they have studied. •'The present war lias not reflected on British chemistry; and anything the Germans have created in the laboratory could quite easily have been created here, if our chemists wished to spend their hours in discovering means of destroying human life. But the Germans will themselves, I tnink, be led to confess before the war is over that tho so-called decadence of British) chemistry, was another of their professional miscalculations."

HARVEST OF HUMILIATION. Another member of the Institute of Chemistry, while preferring to remaiau anonymous, gave an astonishing record of what chemical science can do when it is effectively mobilised. "I have the greatest, respect," ho said, "for Professor Percy Frankland. We members of the Institute readily confess that he is one of the greatest amongst us. Moreover, what he has said in criticism of British chemistry is eminently true; and nothing us truer than when' he says that we are reaping a harvest of humiliation for our laxitv jn the past. "But we have awakened, and when it became necessary for the country to rub the sleep from its eyes the first thing tho Government did was to cast about for a source whence the highest chemical skill could be instantly found. It is a remarkable fact, but nevertheless true, that in spite of all the warnings this country had, no sooner was it seen to be necessary to organise and mobil'se the skilled chemical genius ot the country than the Government knew where to find it.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE. "They did find it at the Institute of Chemistrv, which to-day is coming into its own after years of preparation. What Professor Frankland has sa:d is only gospel truth. But what we are now doing through organisation and administration is immense. In nothing that the Germans have ever given, either for the ills of humanity or for humanity's destruction can we conceivably be "beaten. When the source of our drugs was cut off, our students and professors applied themselves night and dav, with the result that everything that can be devised for the alleviation of the wounded or the treatment of those who are in sickness can now readi'v be obtained. It is only a matter of "time when the supplies 01 our forces in the field are adjusted so that sufficient drugs of all presenptons can be obtained. "The chemsts of the country have rallied to our industries. Quite recently we have given formulae for the manufacture of various kinds of special glass which we believe will be a considerable improvement on the German article; for the manufacture of optical lenses we have prepared formulae which will be as good as any Germanyhas ever produced. . "In the matter of explosives and their compounds, Germany has produced nothing on which we cannot improve, and I am giving away no secret when I say that Germany will discover that sooner rather than later."