FIRST WINTER MEETINQ.— OCTOBER 17th, 1905. 



PBESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY MB. SIDNEY HARVEY.— " A RETROSPECT 

 OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE." 



The annual meeting for the election of oflScers, 

 etc., was held in the beaney Institute on Tuesday, 

 October 17th, 1905. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



At the close ot tae ordioary business, Mr. S. 

 Harvey, F.O.I., F.C.ti., delivered the presidential 

 address. 



In the course of his prefatory remarks, Mr. 

 Harvey observed that tdey had heard him so 

 frequently, and he was restricted to such a small 

 choice of subjects, that he found some difficulty in 

 interesting mem as he should like to do. He had 

 chosen tor his subject that evening " A Ketro- 

 spect of Chemical Science" — he feared that it was aa 

 enormous subjtiCC, but hetliought that iu looking 

 back over thts past history of chemical science, he 

 might interest them to some extent. He would 

 give them to distinctly understand that he 

 should touch only very briefly upon certain 

 salient points of the past history of chemistry. It 

 iras geneitilly thought that chemical science was 

 a new sciencf, but the practice of chemistry was as 

 old as man himself. When he said that, he 

 meant that as tar back as man had any 

 consciousness at all, whether he recognised 

 it or not he was surrounded by chemical phe- 

 nomena. Every breath he drew was a chemical 

 phenomenon, the food he ate was a chemical phe- 

 nomen ; the tfEeCC of the food upon man was a 

 chemical phenomenon, for be grew and developed 

 by means of chat food. Then again they looked 

 at the seed which yielded him his food, whether 

 he troubled himself to understand it or not, the 

 action ot the earth favouring the growth of the seed 

 and the ultimate development of the food or corn, was 

 achemicalphenomenon. Hecouldnotget awayfrom 

 it. Had a puilosopher arisen at that early stage of 

 the world's history he certainly would have made 

 that one of his studies and have recognised its 

 great importance and the necessity of understand- 

 ing somcCDiug about it. They came ultimately to 

 the production of metals or rather the production 

 of them iu the torm in which men could use them. 

 Here tney came to a very debateable question — the 

 production ot metals from their ores. There could 

 be no doubt but that there was a great deal of 

 mystery surrouudmg the first production of 

 metaU. Tuete was not much difficulty in fiading 

 some metals for they *«re found in their native 

 state. With regard to copper it was quite to be 

 imagined that opper wuuld be smelted and 

 cast loto foims aud tools usetul to man, but they 

 were met with a remarkable occurrence. They 

 were met at a certain stage of man's history with 

 bronze instruments. They here had a mixture of 

 two metals of a very hard character, from which 

 was produced a substance harder than either of 

 the metals composiug it. In regard to tin, one 

 of those mrf'ala, no uue had ever found it in its 

 native state. Aa ore there was nothing in 



it to attract observation or fco give the observer an 

 idea that a metal lurked within it. Some of the 

 more abundant and richly-yielding tin ore had far 

 more the appearance of non-metallic origin than 

 any suggestion of metal. There was a mastery as 

 to how man originally ariived at the production 

 of tools in that way unassisted by scientific know- 

 ledge. Passing on to the early history of Egypt, 

 they had, he said, evidence that cht-mistry was 

 practised there. They had dyes, salts of various 

 kinds, and several chemical productions, and he 

 might also draw attention to tbe fact that, if 

 marking-ink was not known, some system of 

 marking fabrics by means of silver salts or some 

 other substance was known. When tht-y came to 

 Greece they found there high refinement, looking 

 more upon theory than upon observation. TheGreeks 

 were content with philosophizing Th^ practice of 

 science, especially chemical science, did not seem 

 to have flourished, but for all that, they hit upon 

 some good generalizations. Their coDception of 

 matter, viz., air, water, oarth, and fiie — or as it 

 should be more fairly put, matter in the 

 gaseous, liquid and solid form, the form more or less 

 dependent on heat — afforded evidence of a right 

 comprehension of the various forms in which 

 matter could exist. They had not got bpyond 

 that now J they only recognized thren forms of 

 matter. As regarded Rom^ that seemed to have 

 been content with appropriating discoveries, but 

 it made no progress whatever, and tbe declension 

 of Rome and the overwhelming of the great 

 kingdom and government of R-tme. seemed to 

 have stifled for a longtime any pr^gre-s in the 

 sciences, especially in chemical science. It seemed 

 to have fled to tbe wilderness and been taken op 

 and brought back to Europe by the Arabs who, in 

 Spain and Northern Africa, made very great 

 advances. They were now brought to an era in 

 chemistry of a very remarkable character, viz., 

 the first appearance of alchemy By that 

 he did not mean the pruducti"n of the 

 philosopher's stone, or the attempt to 

 convert the baser metals into g'-ld. They 

 were greatly indebted to the alchemists for 

 the great advances which they had made in that 

 direction. The Crusades were int^tuimental 

 in briuging chemical knowledge back into 

 Europe. But the overwhrlming m^'tive pre- 

 dominating a good deal of the investigation was 

 due to the fact that the first idea of mt-n in those 

 days (or at any rate of men in high pUces) was 

 to acquire unlimited health and unlimued wealth, 

 and treedom from disease and suffering Thousands 

 of men gave up everything, riskHd ev. n life 

 iteU'.and by self denial they had ama-ssnd a mass 

 of observation for which they were ind' bted to that 

 very day. It took a thousand yearn t<> convince 

 the alchemists that their object wa- futile ts far as 

 prolonging life and the transmutatiou ot precious 



