In 1856 an English chemist, of the name of Perkins, was seeking the way to make artificial quinine. In the course of his experiments he discovered in the laboratory of M. Hofmann the property residing in aniline of producing a violet colour by the action of bi-chromate of potass. Perkins got a Patent for this discovery. The attention of the scientific and industrial classes being called to this property of aniline, and to the possibility of extracting from it divers colouring matters, several French and other chemists and manufacturers got Patents for many more new processes. In 1858, Hofmann, continuing to study aniline, discovered the red colour. He sent a memoir to our Académie des Sciences, in which he gave the exact method to produce this magnificent crimson red. Hofmann took no Patent; it seemed as if he wanted to present gratuitously to tinctorial industry a new and beautiful produce. Six months after, a manufacturer, who as early as 1857 had tried to get patented in France the patented discovery of Perkins, sold to a manufacturer of chemical produce a process copied from the discovery of Hofmann, by which the red of aniline could be manufactured by the reaction of the bi-chloride of tin. The Patent was granted, and the produce manufactured. But very soon after, in France and abroad, more advantageous and more scientific methods, preferable to the patented one, were found. All the French manufacturers who tried to use any of these new processes were prosecuted and condemned for infringement on the right of the patentee. It then followed that one kilogramme of red of aniline was sold abroad for £12, and the monopolisers sold it for £40 in France. This could not last, particularly after the treaty of commerce, by which printed and dyed goods could be introduced. Manufacturers threatened to give up work, and the patentee thought proper to reduce his prices. But another result, no less fatal to French interests, soon followed. The most intelligent manufacturers of colouring-stuffs, those who were at the head of that branch of industry, and had concentrated in Paris, Lyons, and Mulhouse the fabrication of the finest and most delicate dyes for the home and foreign market, went to establish new factories across the frontiers. The existing Patent prevented them from satisfying the demands of their customers abroad, who required some aniline colours, and they were obliged to carry their industry to foreign parts. The following is the list of the manufacturers who have founded new establishments beyond the reach of the monopolising Patent:— A. Schlumberger, of Mulhouse, new factory at Bâle (Switzerland); Jean Feer, of Strasburg, new factory at Bâle; Peterson and Seikler, of Saint Denis, new factory at Bâle; Poirrier and Chappal, of Paris, new factory at Zurich; Monnet and Dury, of Lyons, new factory at Geneve.