SOME CONSEQUENCES OF GRAHAM'S 



WORK 1 



THE NATURE OF ELEMENTS— THE DIFFUSION OF LIQUIDS 



Scientific workers not infrequently receive gifts of books from 

 authors or publishers. The practice is a most praiseworthy 

 one. It is not often, however, that the service rendered by such 

 gifts can be traced : I am glad therefore of an opportunity to 

 testify to their value. In 1876 I received a big book with the 

 compliments of Angus Smith and James Young — none less than 

 the monumental volume prepared by Angus Smith, I believe at 

 the expense of Young, of Graham's Chemical and Physical 

 Researches : a reprint of his published work with an all too 

 short notice of appreciation by Angus Smith. That book has 

 occupied a prominent place on my shelves until the present day 

 and I have often taken it down to ponder over some part of the 

 work described in its pages. The value of this particular gift 

 to me individually has been very great. Indeed, the interest 

 I have always taken in solutions and the special attention I 

 have paid to the subject of late years is largely traceable to the 

 inspiration I derived in early years from the study of the record 

 of Graham's altogether simple but none the less classical experi- 

 ments on diffusion. 



I am glad that to-day I can return thanks in public to James 

 Young and Angus Smith and proclaim the special value of a 

 memoir such as they have provided. " Collect the best monuments 

 of our friends, their own images in their writings," are words 

 used by Pope : after all, a man's work is the one and only true 

 monument of his worth that can be erected. 



But I was led to take an interest in Graham's work at a date 

 considerably earlier than 1876. I had the good fortune to study 

 chemistry in pre-examination days ; when it was possible to 

 learn things in an honest way, without fear of being ruined for 

 life by the over-teaching and spoon-feeding which under our 



1 The Graham Memorial Lecture delivered before the Royal Philosophical 

 Society of Glasgow, January 16, 1912. Reprinted from the Proceedings of the 

 Society. 



584 



