president's address. 2^ 



realised ; it has thrown back for many years branches of investi- 

 gation in which ere now incalculable progress might have been 

 made, and untold pecuniary advantages reaped. Would that the 

 dire necessity of this searching^ war could stir up the South 

 African nation to a correct appreciation of the facts! 



About a year ago the President of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry, in his address at Birmingham, insisted on the absolute 

 necessity for the engineer and the chemist to " get into double 

 harness as quickly as possible," and work sympathetically to- 

 gether for the progress of chemical industry. In South Africa, 

 too, this necessity has been manifested, but I am glad to say that 

 we have had more than manifestation: we have had realisation, 

 and we have had operation. For example, when, some months 

 ago, the fertiliser scarcity arose. I was deputed to investigate 

 the potentialities of unutilised raw materials in the Union, and 

 found, amongst other things, that there were several thousand 

 tons of good material going to waste in various places in connec- 

 tion with such institutions as slaughter-houses and crayfish can- 

 neries for lack of by-products plant to deal with it. When I 

 had completed my tour of inspection and furnished my report, 

 the engineers were charged to follow on, and set to work to 

 make good the deficiency in plant, with the result that a respect- 

 able quantity of fertilisers will now be produced from the refuse 

 that hitherto has been going to waste. 



May I just here repeat^because they are still applicable to- 

 day — a few remarks which I made in my presidential address to 

 the Cape Chemical Society six years ago: 



As an industrial science, chemistry never operates in isolation. When 

 we concern onrselves with the chemistry of the country's vegetable 

 products, it is the science of botany that has to afford additional aid; if 

 it is general agriculture that we arc dealing with, the chemist may also 

 have to work in co-operation with the zoologist, entomologist, or mycolo- 

 gist. Often, in connection with the investigation of the country's mineral 

 products, and of its agricultural soils, consultation with the geologist is 

 required. In any case, there is tliis one outstanding fact : that these 

 various scientific offices need to be in closest touch with each other in 

 order to promote the smoothest working of the entire machine of investi- 

 gation as an organised whole. 



This close contact between science and science is of great importance, 

 but it is still more important that contact between the various workers in 

 one and tJ:c same science should be as intimate as proper co-ordination 

 and organisation can make it. During its annual convention towards the 

 close of iQiOj the American Society of Agronomy was very largely 

 occupied with the standardising of methods for conducting experiments. 

 It was then shown, again and apain, that a large amount of experimental 

 work, done in the United States, has led to results which could not be 

 compared with each other, were difficult to interpret in a reliable way, 

 and were liable to lead to wrong conclusions, because there had been no 

 agreement as to method amongst the various institutions involved in the 

 work. We do not wish to have these mistakes repeated in South Africa; 

 our desire is rather to profit by the experience of other lands ; but unless 

 we look well to our steps we stand to repeat some of those very mistakes 

 in an aggravated form. Therefore, lest we should go on a wrong track 

 with regard to this matter of investigation and research, two principles 

 should remain deeply graven on 'nir minds : these are co-ordination of 

 effort and unity of plan. 



