33.3 Europe: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 21/27)

Late in the century British captains of industry tended to rest on their laurels and the new generation became attracted to the cultivated life of a leisure class. There was also a definite and deliberate lack of interest among the industrialists in any pure science and research. Although the aniline dye industry was started in Britain it was soon taken over by the German chemists in the 1860s. Still another liability was a law against the modern joint-stock companies, on the books until 1855, and the prohibition of limited liability until 1855. Still another British government decision had world-wide consequences. In 1864 the production of all artillery for the British services was entrusted to the Woolwich arsenal. Other firms, including the large Armstrong armament manufacturer, were forced to rely on foreign sales and this soon resulted in some danger to British security. Armstrong built a cruiser for Chile in 1882 that could outrun all existing capital ships, while still maintaining excellent firepower

In spite of industry's lack of interest, some pure science achievements were made in this period. John Dalton revolutionized theoretical chemistry with his Atomic Theory, as early as 1804. Humphrey Davy used electrolysis to discover and isolate sodium, potassium, barium, boron, strontium, calcium and magnesium and he demonstrated the potentials of producing both heat and light from electric current. There was public electric lighting in London in the 1880s. In other fields, there were researches on the nervous system and brain by Charles Bell and Lister first used antiseptic surgery in 1865, along with some anesthesia. Simpson of Edinburgh had used chloroform as early as 1847. As late as 1854 there were still 14,000 cholera victims with 618 deaths in London, even though the city had such great clinicians as Astley Cooper, Richard Bright, Thomas Addison and Thomas Hodgkin, all of whom have had diseases named after them and all of whom worked at the famous Guy's Hospital and Medical School. Noteworthy surgeons of the era were Benjamin Brodie and James Paget. Dental caries was rampant, apparently secondary to excess use of sugar and cheap, canned milk.