70 JOURXAL OF THE MiTCIIELL SoClETY [NoV. 



Chemistry, perhaps more than any other hraneh of sci- 

 ence, has received wide advertisement in connection with the 

 present war. Many to whom it was formerly little more than 

 a name, have within the past year done it homage; but such 

 glorification has emphasized the application of chemistry 

 rather than the broad, deep foundation which has been so 

 quietly laid by the workers in university laboratories during 

 the years that have passed. Pressure for industrial applica- 

 tion of chemistry along very restricted lines is great at 

 present. The public is willing to listen and capital ready to 

 invest. It seems fitting, therefore, that at this moment em- 

 phasis be laid on the basic science which underlies these 

 applications. It seeks no advertisement and often in dis- 

 jointed form receives but scant recognition, but it is the soil 

 from which the fruitage must spring. To the maximum de- 

 velopment of that soil all chemists, at least to some degree, 

 are pledged and bounden. I do not hesitate, in a plea for 

 cooperation, to urge that in all industrial research labora- 

 tories, ranging from those of the large corporations, splendid- 

 ly manned and equipped, to those of the youngest analytical 

 chemists, there be carried on some line of research which 

 has no special client, for which no fee is expected, but whose 

 function is to repay in some slight degree the debt that every 

 chemist owes to the science of chemistry. The subjective 

 influence of such work would far more than compensate for 

 the time spent in its execution. 



The ideal of research which I am urging includes both 

 pure and applied chemistry. Since it is the function of uni- 

 versities to give the younger generation, chiefly through re- 

 search, that training which will equip them for trustworthy, 

 intelligent and broad-minded independent eft'ort, should not 

 our universities provide investigations in the field of applied 

 as well as pure chemistry '( The carrying out of successful 

 work in this field involves thorough search of the literature, 

 preliminary tests, systematic experiments, carefully drawn 

 conclusions and preparation of the work for publication. 

 These are the normal proceedings in all research work. 



