Ehrlich's Discovery.—Pointing out the difficulties in developing the manufacture of salvarsan, he explains how the process was originally discovered by an organic chemist, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, co-operating with a German dye company, the crude material coming from the dye plants, the product itself strongly resembling dyes, "containing arsenic instead of part of their nitrogen." The great importance of this drug is brought out by another witness before the same committee, Mr. Francis P. Garvan, who explains how, by refusing or neglecting to ship salvarsan, Germany wanted the United States "to starve to death" for lack of it, and he continues: "Think what an extension of disease and that an intensification of suffering and distress Germany was willing to impose upon her best market in order to obtain her imperial will."
Germany had monopolised the production of the important synthetic drugs, including the derivatives of salicylic acid, of which aspirin had developed wide use in Allied countries. After every household had learnt the value of German produced aspirin, its supply was cut off at the outbreak of war. The same disadvantages applied in the field of anaesthetics. For a long period America had no local anaesthetics for hospital surgical work, being compelled to use what were termed "Bulgarian Operations," that is, operations without anaesthetics. Professor Stieglitz claims that the lack of drugs and anaesthetics threw back American surgery some fifty to seventy years in civilisation.
But what of this country? We have already outlined how the outbreak of war found us with, at the most, two or three relatively small producing centres, which did valiant service during the war and amply proved the importance of the dye industry by revealing what could have been done had we been many times stronger. Was the same German chemical policy responsible for our pre-war position? As far as we know official investigations have not been pursued to the same length as in America, but it is beyond doubt that the German dye companies took every possible step to stifle the development of our organic chemical production. When the war broke out, our comfortable commercial contact with the I.G. became a strangle-hold. It could not be otherwise. Whatever the German attitude, and we could hardly expect it to be friendly, the strangle-hold at the outbreak of war was inevitable. But this dye menace facing our textile industries, and weakening our power of retaliation in the chemical war, was not the only danger from the I.G. We were in a critical position through failure to produce other commodities than dyes.
Drugs and Medicinal Products;—The German Monopoly;—National Health Insurance Commission.—The question of drugs assumed critical importance at the outbreak of war. Germany had been asserting her monopoly for years in the field of medicinal chemicals. Cessation of supplies at the outbreak of war caused grave apprehension of a serious shortage in these products, so important for the adequate treatment of disease. In some cases we possessed neither the raw materials nor the technical knowledge to undertake rapid home production. But in the important group of the synthetic drugs derived from coal-tar products, the raw materials were produced in quantity in the United, Kingdom, only to be exported to Germany, thus contributing to her monopoly. British manufacturers, on the other hand, held their own in the production of certain kinds of drugs, such as the alkaloids, gaseous anaesthetics, and some inorganic salts of bismuth and mercury. In a summary of certain war activities of the National Health Insurance Commission, we read: "It was chiefly in the making of the coal-tar synthetic remedies that Germany was pre-eminent, and that position was due not to any lack of skill or invention on the part of the British chemists, but to the high degree of organisation attained by the German chemical industry, which made it possible to convert the by-products of the aniline factories into medicaments of high therapeutic and commercial value."
The Royal Society;—Novocain.—So serious was the situation that for some time we existed on feeble stocks. But during this period the utmost efforts were made to develop our own production. The Royal Society promptly came forward with a scheme to link up would-be producers with appropriate centres of research. The latter not only assisted production but actually produced sufficient quantities of important drugs to tide us over the difficult period. Thus, for example, for the production of novocain the assistance of about forty university laboratories throughout the country was invoked, and they proceeded to produce the intermediates, diethylamine and ethylene-monochlor-hydrin. These substances were converted into diethyl-amino-ethanol, and the final step, the production of novocain, was undertaken by manufacturers, including a prominent dye firm. We have referred to one of these substances in connection with the German production of mustard gas, and need only say that in England, in a time of national emergency, the Government had to depend on the improvised assistance of forty teaching and research institutions for the production of small quantities of drug intermediates. Further, this work, although to the permanent credit of those who undertook it, did not enable us later to produce rapidly war quantities of mustard gas, itself dependent on the same important intermediate, ethylene-monochlor-hydrin. Germany settled the drug and mustard gas question by a simple demand to the I.G., because the latter, holding the indigo monopoly, possessed actual large-scale ethylene-chlor-hydrin production.
Other cases, although equally creditable to those actually engaged in the work, also reflect our national unpreparedness and neglect of chemical industry.
Beta-Eucaine.—Beta-eucaine is a very important local anaesthetic. Before the war we obtained it almost exclusively from Germany. When urgently needed in 1915 for the War Office and Admiralty, the Government discovered that it could not obtain this substance from commercial sources. Seventeen laboratories co-operated to produce two hundred and sixteen pounds of the material. Such examples would be ludicrous did they not possess such a serious national aspect. Our position was almost as desperate regarding chloral-hydrate, the important hypnotic, and the rare carbo-hydrates required for bacteriological purposes. Sir William Pope's comprehensive statement[1] supplies further examples.
[1] Science and the Nation, A. C, Seward. F.R.S. Cambridge University Press, 1917.
Photographic Chemicals.—Our dependence upon German monopoly, so drastically revealed at the outbreak of war, was not limited to dyes and drugs, Photographic chemicals were of special importance for war purposes, yet, when the development of aviation increased our demands for photographic chemicals, we had no normal sufficient source to which to turn. We needed not only the essential bulk chemicals, such as amidol, metol, para-amidophenol, and glycine, but also certain rarer substances, such as the photographic sensitisers, which were so essential for the Air Force. By calling upon chemical industry and research institutions both needs were satisfactorily met, but the contrast with Germany leads perforce to the same conclusion, their case and speed of production as compared with ours.
This examination shows the fine texture of the tenacious web by which Germany had entangled and stifled the organic chemical industries of other countries. Although at the outbreak of war the Allies were slow to realise the war significance of the dye industry, yet they were quick to determine that the resumption of peace would not find them in such an ignominious position. Steps were taken to establish dye industries in England, France, and America. Not only did plants spring up to meet the immediate needs of the textile industries of the world outside Germany, but the question received considerable Government attention. Promises were made and steps taken to encourage the growing industries. But these cannot be examined in detail here, and the main facts are common knowledge. Two points emerge, however, which are of prime importance from the point of view of our discussion. In the first place, the acute needs of the armies prevented the maximum use of the war opportunity for developing Allied dye industries on a sound basis. No sooner was producing capacity installed, than it was taken over for the production of urgently needed organic chemicals for explosives. Dye enthusiasts would have regarded the war as a supreme opportunity for a period of concentrated organic chemical research to make up the leeway which existed, owing to forty years of German development. But the research energies of the country were occupied on more pressing problems. In Germany, the war chemical activities of the dye factories all contributed to their future post-war strength. In England and France it was otherwise. Our equivalent energies were concentrated on developing improvised processes and plant, absolutely necessary to counter the German attacks, but almost without exception of no direct ultimate value to our peace organic chemical industries. This is a point which merits careful consideration. These industries voluntarily threw aside what was, logically, a great opportunity for them to push their research investigations so necessary for eventual success. The state-aided Huddersfield factory represented national vision, whose fruits were stolen by our ceaseless need to improvise counters to German aggression. But we owe to our dye industry the national recognition of these facts. Stress of war gave us true vision, but prevented its logical outcome. War needs are now removed, and everything should be done to place at the disposal of the dye industries those facilities which they necessarily, but gladly, sacrificed in time of emergency.