PRESIDEXTIAL ADDRESS. — SECTION" II. 27 



emphasis — in days to come. Common-place though they be, 

 these matters are of special interest at present, for the whole 

 national organisation of this sub-continent — hke some of the 

 scientific theories I have mentioned — is in the melting-pot to-day. 

 Chemistry has hitherto been very much of an exotic in South 

 Africa, and we have too long been content to feed on the fruits 

 of advances made by students of the science in other lands. I 

 do not, of course, undervalue the educational work done here, 

 first of all by Professor Hahn, whom I may call our chemical 

 pioneer, and then by his confreres in the other colleges of South 

 Africa ; and a fair amount of rather routine work has also been 

 performed in the somewhat meagrely equipped Government 

 Laboratories of the several South African States. With all due 

 allowances, however, it still remains true that all the original 

 chemical investigations performed in South Africa, even inclusive 

 of what has been carried out in private laboratories and in those 

 of the Johannesburg mines, is comparatively insignificant when 

 contrasted with the constant activity of European and American 

 institutions. In the past it has been quite impracticable even 

 to dream of undertaking any sort of investigation, whatever along 

 some of the lines most prolific in practical results in the older 

 countries of the world. It needs, for instance, scarcely any mental 

 reflection to bring home to us how utterly beyond the pale is the 

 hope of research in physical or technological chemistry being 

 carried on under present South African conditions. 



Quite apart, however, from research in pure or in technological 

 science, there are numerous matters of very j:)ractical import to 

 which we shall need to turn our attention soon if we do not desire 

 to be found lamenting our inciifference and our consequent ignor- 

 ance — and perhaps our prevenient ignorance as well — ere many 

 years are over. 



A moment ago I used two words in a sense which I had already 

 explained elsewhere on a previous occasion : those words are 

 " investigation " and " research." They are so commonly 

 misapprehended that, even at the risk of some repetition, I must 

 again refer to them here. Do not brand me as unpatriotic if I 

 utter my established conviction that in matters of chemical research 

 and investigation we are at this moment practically behind all 

 the civilised countries of the world. The facts are undeniable, 

 and they are serious facts- if we will but look at them. And in the 

 face of those facts consider also this, that even in countries which 

 have far outstripped us in these matters, the cry is raised all round 

 that research cannot proceed satisfactorily for lack of men. If 

 in Great Britain and in the United States of America cause is found 

 for such a lament, what, I ask, must our position be ? We go on, 

 for the most part, in cheerful light-hearted ignorance of the very 

 need for that class of work that England and America are deploring 

 that they cannot find enough qualified men to do. 



Eighteeen months ago I quoted what the Editor of the United 

 States Experiment Station Record had said regarding research 

 and investigation.* The investigator had to set before him a 



* Presidential Address to Cape Chem. Soc, p. 10. 



