12 Dixon, Iiuxugural Address. 



conspiracy of silence or contempt seek to obscure his 

 merits and so maintain their own prestige. It is, of 

 course, difficult for an amateur, unless he be a man of 

 wealth and leisure, to improve on the measurements of our 

 fundamental units. My experience, for instance, would 

 not lead me to suggest to a business man anxious for 

 some chemical recreation that he might with advantage 

 re-determine the atomic weight of chlorine. But, on the 

 other hand, no one can carry through a chemical research 

 without meeting numerous problems in the shape of 

 unexpected obstacles, most of which he has to ' side- 

 track ' if he wishes to make progress. And it is surprising 

 what a little way one has to travel before bumping up 

 against the unknown — or the forgotten. If anyone were to 

 ask me the simple question, " Do hydrogen and oxygen 

 combine slowly in the light ? " I should have to say, "I 

 don't know : the evidence is contradictory." Indeed, our 

 ignorance is so vast that there are chemists who do not 

 hesitate to affirm that in all probability nothing combines 

 directly with anything. The study of the conditions 

 under which some simple chemical change occurs would 

 not, I believe, involve great expenditure of time or money ; 

 it would require patience, skill, and enthusiasm, it would 

 require an open mind. Is not the amateur possessed of 

 this armoury ? I have spoken only of the experimental 

 sciences : in astronomy, natural history, geology, does not 

 the amateur hold his own ? 



Again, does not the amateur bring to our discussions 

 a freshness of ideas which more than compensates for any 

 possible defects of critical judgment? Criticism is cheap 

 — ideas are precious. Ideas are given to the }'oung — 

 judgment is left to the old. And the amateur is always 

 young ! At an age when the professional has given up the 

 game and become an umpire the amateur is still scoring! 



