The chemical and drug industry is not only in itself an enormous business, but it supplies essential materials for almost every branch of manufacturing. Chemical products are employed in our buildings, our clothing, our food; we come into the world and go out of the world with the odour of chemicals about us. The manufacturer or dealer cannot analyze all the influences that affect his market, and when he tries, as he must, to consider the future of the trade, to reckon with the channels of demand that will arise in the course of new applications of chemical products, he is facing all the problems of all the industries.

The variety of raw materials from which chemical products are derived, and the activity with which new sources are discovered and developed, are almost as bewildering. Only a century has passed since coal-tar was first distilled, and to-day no chemist would venture to fix the limits of its industrial possibilities. Electrolysis has been in use since 1804, and yet the future of the world’s wheat supply probably depends upon processes, as yet hardly beyond the experimental stage, of utilizing atmospheric nitrogen.

In connection with so comprehensive an industry, the uses of the Britannica are so manifold that this whole Guide might be devoted to them. Articles on every manufacturing process touch upon the use of chemicals. The articles on countries, states and cities are full of relevant information; and there is hardly a scientific article that would not be helpful. But the 40 general articles on chemistry, the 350 on chemical compounds, and the 75 on manufactured products call most immediately for attention; and, with the aid of other chapters in the Guide, the reader who desires to go further will easily find his way.

Articles on ChemicalsThe article Chemistry (Vol. 6, p. 33), equivalent to 135 pages of this Guide, is divided into 6 sections. The first, History, traces the general trend of the science from its infancy to the foundations of the modern theory. The second section, Principles, treats of nomenclature, formulæ, chemical equations and chemical changes. It provides a brief but complete introduction to the terminology and methods of the chemist, and there is not a line in it which will not prove of value in some way or other to the chemical manufacturer. Sections 3 and 4 are devoted to Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, giving a history of the subjects and the principles underlying the structure of compounds, with cross references to all articles dealing with their preparation and properties. Sections 5 and 6 deal, respectively, with Analytical and Physical Chemistry.

Dr. Walter Nernst, professor of physical chemistry, University of Berlin, is the author of Chemical Action (Vol. 6, p. 26), which deals specifically with the nature of chemical forces and deduces the laws of chemical statics and kinetics. Of interest and importance in connection with the manufacture of chemicals is Solution (Vol. 25, p. 368), by W. C. D. Whetham, of Cambridge University, author of Theory of Solution, etc. Another theoretical article which will be found widely useful is Thermochemistry (Vol. 26, p. 804), by Prof. James Walker, of Edinburgh University. For further details see the chapter on Chemistry in this Guide.

Manufacture of ChemicalsIt is possible here to mention only a small amount of the material dealing with the manufacture of chemicals. At the end of this chapter there is a fuller alphabetical list. It may be noted, however, that the articles on the elements, metallic and non-metallic, give much consideration to their compounds, how these are made and how used in the arts and in medicine. But in addition to this there are many noteworthy contributions dealing with chemical manufacture. For instance, Alkali Manufacture (Vol. 1, p. 674), by Dr. Georg Lunge, professor of technical chemistry, Zurich Polytechnic, 11 pages in length and with 10 illustrations. The chief processes described are the Leblanc, ammonia-soda, and electrolytic, together with others dependent upon them. The facts about the manufacture of the carbonate, hydrate, and sulphate of soda, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, etc., are fully given. Potassium (Vol. 22, p. 197) treats of the commercial compounds of this metal in the same manner. Nitrogen (Vol. 19, p. 714) explains the new process for the commercial manufacture of nitric acid from atmospheric air—a matter of enormous industrial importance—and also the conversion of nitrogen into ammonia, which has been done successfully only within the past few years.

The manufacture of chemical products by the use of electricity is the subject of Electrochemistry (Vol. 9, p. 208), and a still larger field is covered by Electrometallurgy (Vol. 9, p. 232). Both of these valuable articles are by W. G. M‘Millan, formerly secretary of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Great Britain. Sulphuric Acid (Vol. 26, p. 65), illustrated, by Dr. Lunge, describes the properties, reactions and manufacture of the most important of all chemicals, including the more modern contact processes.

Drugs, Origin and ManufactureAs a key to the subject of the origin and manufacture of drugs, the article Pharmacology (Vol. 21, p. 347), by Dr. Ralph Stockman, professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the University of Glasgow, presents a great amount of interesting and valuable information on the action of chemical substances (apart from foods) on all kinds of animals, from bacteria up to man. A short history of pharmacology is given and a large part of the article concerns the action of drugs. There is also a classification of drugs according to the latest and most scientific methods into twenty-eight groups, describing the effects of each group. An appendix to the article, by Dr. H. L. Hennessy, is entitled Terminology in Therapeutics, and is a general explanation of the common names used in the therapeutic classification of drugs.

Since therapeutics is concerned with the remedial power of drugs and the conditions under which they are to be used, the article Therapeutics (Vol. 26, p. 793), by Dr. Sir Lauder Brunton, of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and author of the well-known treatise, Modern Therapeutics, should not be overlooked, nor Poison (Vol. 21, p. 893), by Dr. Sir Thomas Stevenson, lecturer on chemistry and forensic medicine at Guy’s Hospital, London, wherein all poisons are classified and their antidotes are indicated.

Pharmacy (Vol. 21, p. 355), by E. M. Holmes, of the Pharmaceutical Museum, London, is largely historical in its nature, and yields much interesting and valuable information about the pharmacist. We learn that an Egyptian papyrus of the date 2300 B.C. gives direction as to the preparation of prescriptions, and that diachylon plaster, invented by Menecrates in A.D. 1, is used for the same purposes to-day. A great deal of curious knowledge about ancient remedies, such as the thigh bone of a hanged man, moss grown on a human skull, the ashes of the head of a coal-black cat, etc., renders this article especially entertaining. Pharmacopœia (Vol. 21, p. 353), also by Mr. Holmes, tells about the pharmacopœias in use in different countries, the standardization of drugs, etc.

In the list at the end of this chapter are noted the numerous separate articles on drugs, their preparation and use that appear in the Britannica. Mention should be made of the articles on the elements, such as Iron (Vol. 14, p. 799), Arsenic (Vol. 2, p. 653), Mercury (Vol. 18, p. 158), Iodine (Vol. 14, p. 725), Bromine (Vol. 4, p. 633), Sodium (Vol. 25, p. 343), Potassium (Vol. 22, p. 200), Magnesium (Vol. 17, p. 321), Bismuth (Vol. 4, p. 11). Separate sections dealing with pharmacology are found in the articles on very many plants, such as Aloe (Vol. 1, p. 720), Anise (Vol. 2, p. 55), Arrowroot (Vol. 2, p. 649), Iceland Moss (Vol. 14, p. 241), Cinchona (Vol. 6, p. 369), Coca (Vol. 6, p. 614), Colchicum (Vol. 6, p. 661), Dandelion (Vol. 7, p. 801), Hop (Vol. 13, p. 678), Horehound (Vol. 13, p. 692), Lobelia (Vol. 16, p. 837), Mint (Vol. 18, p. 557), Mustard (Vol. 19, p. 97), Peppermint (Vol. 21, p. 128), etc.

Biographies of Eminent ScientistsThe scientific biographies include not a few subjects which will be of interest, owing to familiarity with the names, to those engaged in the chemical and drug business. Among these are Lister, Baron Joseph L. (Vol. 16, p. 777), to whose work and teaching the present importance of the manufacture of antiseptics is largely due; Pasteur, Louis (Vol. 20, p. 892); Curie, Pierre, and Mme. Marie Curie (Vol. 7, p. 644), the physicists who first announced the existence of radium; Liebig, Baron J. von (Vol. 16, p. 590), the great physiological chemist; Lunge, Georg (Vol. 17, p. 126), the noted expert in technical chemistry, already mentioned as a contributor to the Britannica, and Glauber, J. R. (Vol. 12, p. 114), the German chemist who made a living chiefly by the sale of secret chemical and medicinal preparations.