PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION B. 29 



in their general application to the needs of the country. It ma} 

 be as well to consider in this connection what Sir William 

 Ramsay* has said as to the advisability of useful research: — - 



" Nothing is so sad as to see much time and labour spent, with patience 

 and devotion, in the investigation of some matter which possesses no real 

 importance. Tt may be retorted that every true statement is of importance, 

 but this is not so. Tt is only statements which hold forth some prospect 

 of contributing to an organic whole which can be held valuable. There 

 may, perhaps, be a little more merit in ascertaining to the hundredth of 

 a degree the boiling-point of sulphur than of measuring the area of the 

 wings of some particular butterfly; but the difference is barely appreciable. 

 One is as likely to prove useless as the other. Tt would * be well if 

 enthusiasts anxious to carry on research would remember that it is much 

 more stimulating to carry on an interesting than an uninteresting 

 research." 



* Sir Wm. Ramsay, Introduction to Stewart's " Recent Advances in 

 Physical and fnorganic Chemistry." 



