Chinese methods
Sir: Dr Bernard Dixon's remarks on the importance of the Chinese language in directing science along the right road (June 8) are underlined by the Flixborough disaster, the result of disguising inferior techniques behind a veil of showy automation devices. Compared with the Chinese, the British are just children playing with chemistry sets, "Working at the frontiers of knowledge" is a more acceptable way of saying that scientists are groping in the dark.
It is fortunate that ICI were wise enough to realise the inherently dangerous nature of their own nylon plants which have now been shut down for several months.
Before adopting the Chinese scientific method, scientists will have to learn modern Chinese. Before studying mo dern Chinese, one must first clear the mind of the false description of the language put about by scholars and which is still given in even the most authoriatative encycloeadia. This will not be easy for Confucianism is still a compulsory subject in British schools.
It is proposed to establish a Department of Modern Chinese Studies at Strathclyde University. It will have three functions. First, it will keep track of the language which, after years of neglect, is now in a state of flux with modifications to the characters and the grammar an almost daily occurance. Over the next ten years, for example, the aim is to reduce the number of characters from 9,000 to 5,000.
Second, it will provide courses at any level for business men, either formally .or on works' premises. These will include all 9,000 characters.
Third, it will correct the many errors in the history of China. Chinese foreign policy cannot be understood without an accurate knowledge of the history of China, especially the period from about 4,000 BC to 100 AD.
The Chinese are actively involved in all branches of science and technology, including nuclear energy, radioisotopes, machine-tools and chemical technology and chemistry, and a wide range of technical journals is published. In chemical technology, the Chinese have proved that nylon and very many similar chemicals can be produced in plants operating at atmospheric pressure. Since such plants are much cheaper and last longer than Western plants, the Chinese have eliminated a major source of inflation.
In chemistry, the Chinese are isolating and determining the structure of the active ingredients of medicinal herbs which have been used for hundreds of years in the non-surgical cure of various illnesses such as appendicitis, gall-stones, kidney ailments, brain inflammation, etc. There is a herb which is effective in the treatment of burns, even extending over nearly 100 per cent of the area of the body, and avoids the use of plasma and saline solutions. The Chinese people like to be in and out of a hospital as quickly as possible, and the use of these herbal remedies reduces to the minimum the time spent in hospital, and thus the cost of the health service.
A. J. H. Brown 46 Merryton Avenue, Giffnock, Glasgow
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