5^ PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION B. 



ulterior motives is highly commendable, when problems of 

 merely scientific interest are involved. But the majority of the 

 problems which the Department has in view, and which will 

 have to be solved when the new research scheme is inaugurated, 

 are not purely academic, and are bound to be of material benefit ; 

 and it is only reasonable that the men who do the brain work 

 should reap some of the benefit. Even the man who is animated 

 only by the highest scientific ideals will scarcely consent to sur- 

 render the results of years of patient labour and thought for 

 somebody else's immediate benefit, unless he be entirely devoid 

 of all business knowledge. In the case of the Government 

 analysts, it seems only reasonable that the successful participa- 

 tion in research work should bring with it prospects of more 

 rapid promotion. That would again be a stimulus to work 

 beyond office hours. Owners of private laboratories will see 

 nothing attractive in the scheme. Only professors and lecturers 

 will be aljle to enter whole-heartedly into the work, because to 

 them ])ublications of research work are. or should be. the best 

 testimonials when appl\-ing for new po.sts. I have digressed 

 somewhat from my immediate subject, but the question of 

 specialised research along certain lines, and the general question 

 of making ])rovision for research, are indissolubly bound U]i. 

 To return again to the question of plant investigation : a 

 complete examination may require anything up to 50 kg. 

 of material. Several enthusiastic friends of mine have supplied 

 me with sufficient quantities of Arctopus cchinatus. Monsonia 

 ovata, and Bnlbinc ahoidcs. But in view of the difficulty of 

 determining the most suitable season for collecting, of the need 

 of avoiding different species of the same genus being gathered 

 together, and of deciding which parts (roots or stems or leaves 

 and l>ranches) should he collected, it is imperative that the work 

 should be carried out under the supervision of a competent 

 botanist. I have, for exam])le. a parcel of Monsonia, which 

 reached me in a very dry and jxnvdery state, and with regard to 

 which 1 had considerable difficulty in deciding whether it was 

 the species ovata or biflora. Only in that way can material be 

 obtained, the identity of which is beyond doubt. There should, 

 however, be no difficulty in making the necessary provision. If 

 I am rightly informed, an officer of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture is at present collecting material for feeding tests to be 

 carried out at the Veterinary Research Laboratory at Onderste- 

 poort ; and a similar arrangement might be made for medicinal 

 and poisonous herbs when need arises. 



The majority of the apparatus required are of a special type, 

 not likely to be found in the equipment of the ordinary chemical . 

 laboratory. For getting the material into a sufficiently fine 

 state of subdivision, a bone or maize crusher answers well. The 

 first treatment by continuous percolation with hot alcohol re- 

 quires an extractor with a capacity of approximately 50 litres. 

 In the case of materials which in the preliminarv investigation 

 are shown to contain alkaloids, a large conical percolator is 



