22 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



form of research one may subsequently take up, research in 

 pure science is invaluable in the earlier part of the research 

 student's career, for it will give him a zest and a stimulus that 

 will remain with him throughout, enrich his scientific imagina- 

 tion, and adorn all his subsequent work. 



At the same time uniyersity research may lead to the most 

 utilitarian results : some of the most important dyes, artificial 

 alizarin, the phthaleins. indigo, and such drugs as phenacetin, 

 antipyrin, and aspirin, were all discovered in university chemical 

 laboratories. 



Now. why have we so few persons doing research work in 

 South Africa? Is it in part because no research geniuses are 

 born, or is it that we failed to recognise them, and neglected to pro- 

 vide them with the essential facihties? — youths, maybe, on whose 

 humble birth fair science frowned not, flowers " born to blush 

 unseen and waste their sweetness on the desert air," mute in- 

 glorious Miltons, whose genius remained latent because we took 

 no trouble to draw it out? 



Science to their eyes her ample page. 



Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll. 



Dr. P. G. Nutting about a year ago said that 



some writers have spoken of the investigator as a rare individual, to be 

 sifted out from educational institutions with great care for a particular 

 line of work. My personal opinion is that a large percentage of the men 

 students are fitted for research work if properly started along the right 

 line. 



What we in South Africa lack — next to the facilities for 

 research — is not so much the research students as the men to 

 start them on right lines. I think that Principal Beattie, at the 

 inauguration of the University of Capetown three months ago, 

 sounded the correct note in observing that the youth of South 

 Africa did not lack enthusiasm or ability for research, but they 

 lacked opportunity, and, he added, much depended on the men 

 they had as professors. That is the secret of it all. In this 

 dread war South Africans have more than once exhibited a phy- 

 sical courage and a pertinacity equal to anything that Australia 

 or New Zealand could show ; why should not South Africa, then, 

 produce a Bragg or a Rutherford as well as Australia and New 

 Zealand, seeing that intellectul courage and pertinacity are two 

 indispensable qualities in a successful research worker? The 

 position is analogous to that which war has developed in Europe 

 and America : there the opportunity has made the man. An 

 American chemist already quoted said that 



the German General Staff has learned, if others have not, that German 

 chemical achievement, which is great indeed, is no sign that equal ability 

 does not exist elsewhere. The Allies and America improvised a muni- 

 tions industry in two years to match their machine of forty years' pre- 

 paration. 



And then he went on to make a remark which we may well 

 take to heart : 



