Creative Chemistry. By Edwin E. Slosson. (University of London Press.
12s. 6d. net.)—Dr. Slosson, a well-known American journalist who was trained by a chemist, has written a highly interesting book about recent developments in chemical industry. He deals especially with what was done in the war, as, for example, by Germany in the production of nitrogen from the air to replace the nitrates no longer imported from Chili, or by all the belligerents in the manufacture of explosives and poisonous gas. His chapter on the gradual discovery of the uses of rubber and on the production of synthetic rubber is particularly good ; he points out that the artificial product is too expensive to compete with the natural rubber, and that even under the stress of war Germany made very little. We are sorry to see that Dr. Slosson, in his enthusiastic desire that America should be independent of foreign supplies of rubber, as well as of all other natural products, should say that " the Guiana might be purchased." The British Empire is not for sale. Besides, as Dr. Slosson says, the Philippines could grow all the rubber that America requires. There are admirable chapters, too, en nitrogen, artificial manures, and cellulose. We are told, in regard to nitrates, that during the war the American Government began to build five large factories for extracting nitrogen from the air, and that two of them in Alabama were nearly ready to begin work when the Armistice was signed. The book is well illustrated with many photo- graphs, and gives the layman a very vivid idea of the immense activities of the modern chemist.
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