Abstract
MANY possible uses of seaweeds are described in Prof. Sauvageau's excellent treatise—agricultural, industrial, alimentary, therapeutic. Their value as manure is great, but is limited by cost of carriage. Among industrial uses of brown algae may be mentioned the kelp industries, formerly so profitable as the source of soda, and still yielding potash, iodine, and bromine. Algin, norgin, and tangin are patented products used as dressings for textiles, etc., as also are the mucilages extracted from red algæ. During the war acetone was produced on a large scale by fermentation of brown algae in American munition factories, and used as a solvent for gun-cotton, etc. By a similar fermentation, alcohol can be manufactured in quantity for motor fuel. The Germans devised a “fuse” of Laminaria to explode shells falling into water. Algæ, though commonly eaten in Japan, China, and elsewhere, are really valueless as human food, but for domestic animals they have for ages been used as winter fodder. During the war French horses were successfully fed on a partial diet of algæ; the new food, though quite indigestible at first, gradually became assimilable, probably through the adjuvant action of bacteria or yeasts. Prof. Sauvageau's monograph is a welcome acquisition.
Utilisation des Algues Marines.
Prof.
Camille
Sauvageau
By. (Encyclopédie Scientifique: Bibliothèque de Botanique Appliquée.) Pp. vi + 394. (Paris: Octave Doin, 1920.) Price 7.50 francs.
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Utilisation des Algues Marines . Nature 106, 435 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106435c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106435c0