XIV. PKESIDKNTIAL AJ)I)RES8. 



erratic, but original and full of new discoveries ; Dalton, 

 essentially a thinker, rather than experimenter ; Davy, the most 

 brilliant and enthusiastic of English workers ; Cavendish, the 

 careful worker and founder of many branches of experimental 

 chemistry ; Graham, the atomist and forerunner of the physical 

 chemist of to-day ; and Faraday, the perfect type of scientific 

 student of nature. France produced such men as Lavoisier, 

 the founder of scientific chemistry, one of the greatest names in 

 the history of science, and who, by his own countrymen, was 

 sacrificed to the guillotine ; Dumas, also a Frenchman, a 

 most enthusiastic chemist and brilliant writer, who lived at the 

 time when organic chemistry began. Germany, also claims a 

 fair share, Liebig, a monument of honour to his nation ; Humboldt, 

 a worker in all science ; Wtihler, one of the greatest workers in 

 organic chemistry ; and Hoft'man, the greatest organic chemist ; 

 not forgetting Professor I>unsen, who has so recently passed 

 away. Sweden alsp stands in the front rank of chemistry, by 

 the labours of Scheie and Berzelius. Italy can justly be proud 

 of Avogadro and Cannizzaro, and their works. Russia can also 

 put forward its claim to representation, and among chemists 

 none more distinguished for accurate imagination than 

 Mendeleeft". Of course there are very great numbers of other 

 distinszuished names, but the few will suffice to show that science 

 knows no nationality. Research of late has chiefly been 

 confined to investigations in organic compounds and in high 

 and low temperatures. Six new elements have been discovered 

 and isolated, viz. : — Argon, Helium, Crypton, Neon, Metargon, 

 and Victorium, the former five being gases from the atmosphere 

 and mineral sources, the latter an earthy mineral found associated 

 with the Yttrium Groups. Thus, the list of elements is 

 gradually increasing, notwithstanding the ideas held by most 

 leading scientists a few years back, that as time would enable 

 us to obtain more perfect appliances and analysis, they would most 

 likely disclose that some of the so-called elements would be found 

 to be compounds, and hydrogen was looked upon to play an 

 important part in their composition ; but, up to the present the 

 stablity of the elements has not been shaken, although 

 hydrogen has been liquefied and solidfied, and found 

 to be similar in appearance to frozen water ; and 

 in it we have, owing to the enormously low temperature 

 of solid hydrogen, a new weapon for further investigation. 



