SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 319 



When the Royal Society of Loudon was founded it encountered a 

 bitter opposition. Had it not been for the " merry monarch," Charles 

 II., it must have succumbed beneath the fierce maledictions launched 

 against it. 



As in Italy, when the opportunity was offered, men of the same 

 inclination of thinking sought each other, so here, to the surprise of 

 the most enthusiastic chemists, when such an association was pro- 

 posed, persons seeking membership came crowding in. The society 

 I have the honor of addressing this evening was the result. Already 

 it has completely organized itself; already it has published the first 

 number of its "Proceedings," a publication which lam sure will pro- 

 cure for it approval and respect. 



In these organizations of scientific effort, an opportunity of assist- 

 ing is given to those who, not having dedicated themselves to philo- 

 sophical pursuits, have yet achieved success in other walks of life, and 

 who, recognizing that the progress of civilization very largely de- 

 pends on the increase of knowledge, may desire to aid in promoting 

 that great result by the application of their means. See what im- 

 mense benefits have arisen from the money grants that foreign gov- 

 ernments have placed at the disposal of their scientific bodies ; see 

 what a stimulus there has been in the award of medals of honor, 

 and, if you desire to witness the effect of a well-judged benefaction, 

 look at the Smithsonian Institution. I would not say one word in 

 disparagement of gifts to colleges and universities, for it is indeed a 

 noble purpose ; but endowments for the promotion of a knowledge of 

 Nature conferred on scientific societies for the good of all men, no 

 matter what their country or color, no matter what their religious 

 profession or political condition, are still nobler. The one is a local 

 and transitory benefaction, the other an enduring and universal be- 

 nevolence. 



In our own special science, chemistry, all that has been done has 

 only served to extend the boundary of what remains. The thousands 

 of analyses that have been made have brought us into a wilderness 

 of results. We have not been able to rise to a point of view suffi- 

 ciently high to discover what is the true place of those results in Na- 

 ture. We try to represent on the pages of our books and on our 

 black-boards formulas of the constitution of things, conscious all the 

 time that these are at the best only convenient fictions, which must 

 necessarily change as we gain a more perfect insight into that grand- 

 est of all problems, the distribution of Force in Space, and the varia- 

 tions to which it is liable. The geometry of chemistry is that of three 

 dimensions, not of two. We have to consider the relation of points 

 not situated on one plane, and hence it is necessary to employ three 

 axes of reference ; nay, even more, we cannot avoid the conception of 

 the mathematical method of quaternions. Our inadequate information 

 respecting the real grouping of atoms is followed as a necessary con- 



