PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION B. 43 



emphasised that it is more allied to the medical science of 

 pharmacolog-y than to the abstract science of pure Chemistry, 

 whose devotees rarely happen to be qualified to take a place 

 on the pharmaceutical register. It is as much to the interest 

 of the pharmacist as of the chemist to separate the two terms. 

 The confusion, however, will doubtless last a few years longi'er, 

 althouo-h it involves bad Eng^lisb and worse sense. 



To the somewhat better educated, a chemist means a man 

 who "analyses things." This confusion is not quite .so repre- 

 hensible, since analytical chemistry is a branch of Chemistry 

 proper, and some dignity is graciously accorded to it — saving 

 word " analytical," which, like the blessed word -^Tesopcitamia in 

 the Bible, has a fascination for some minds. 



To the well-educated along old-fashioned lines, Chemistry is 

 a science which they learned all about in their first year at 

 college ; something they have forgotten. 



To the properly educated. Chemistry is a science underlying 

 all knowledge of materia] things, and providing the armoury 

 of all other sciences, professions, arts, and trades ; is one of 

 the three basic sciences of Natural Philosophy. In his intro- 

 duction to that admirable series of essays, "Science and the 

 Nation," issued by the Cambridge Press, Lord Moulton takes 

 occasion to point out that " in such a presentation it was 

 inevitable that Cliemistry should take the first place.'' 



The war has done much to open tlie conservative P>ritish 

 mind, and the national imiportance of Chemiisitry is more 

 clearly recognised. There is no doubt that a new era in 

 dignity has dawned for the chemist, and that the significance 

 of his work will quickly filter down to the voter and up to 

 the politician. To the discriminating he has never lacked in 

 dignity ; nor even to the thoughtless, when he turned his science 

 into trade and made tracks for the Upper House. 

 But to return to the fission of our science. 

 At the beginning of the last century Chem-istry was divided 

 into two main branches, " Inorganic,'' which dealt with metals 

 and minerals, and " Organic,"' which concerned itself with com- 

 pounds of animal or veeetable origin. In 1828 the famous 

 research of Wohler. resulting in the conversion of ammonium 

 cyanate, which had been prepared from wholly inorganic sources, 

 into urea, which had hitherto only been known as a product of 

 vital action, smashed the arbitrary distinction between *' organic " 

 and " inorganic," and reunited the breaking science. The reunion, 

 however, was of very brief duration, since in following up the 

 ideas involved in the first organic synthesis it was 'found that 

 the number of derivatives of the one element, Carbon, far 

 exceeded all the other derivatives of all other elements put 

 together, and it six>n became evident that a fresh division into 

 carbon and non-carbon comixumds had to be made. Since 

 Carbon was the most characteristic element of the old "organic 

 compounds," the old term was revived, and " Organic Chemistry " 

 became the " Giemistry of the Carbon Comix^unrls." The 



