PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS—SECTION B. 
SOME LANDMARKS IN THE PROGRESS OF CHEMICAL 
SCIENCE. 
bBy_¥.-B. GUTHRIE, FLLC., £6.58. 
Or all the sciences chemistry is, perhaps, the one richest in 
discovery. The preparation of new compounds, the observation 
of new facts, and the propounding of theories to account for the ~ 
observed facts, proceed at a rate that is sometimes bewildering, 
and it is not my intention to inflict upon you either a history of 
chemistry, or a list of the discoveries made in the numerous 
branches of chemical science. 
In selecting a few of the more prominent landmarks in the 
history of the science, my object is twofold. I wish, in the first 
place, to draw your attention to the evolutionary nature of 
chemical progress. We shall find that all the striking 
discoveries and generalisations which have marked the ad- 
vance of chemical science are not, as is sometimes erroneously 
supposed, the result of accident or guesswork, but follow 
each other in a logical sequence. The discovery of a 
group of new facts requires some generalisation to explain 
them, the enunciation of this generalisation in its turn 
advances our horizon, and suggests new lines of research. 
Thus, each new discovery, at least each new discovery of impor- 
tance, each landmark in the progress of the science, is itself a 
corollary from those that have gone — and the precursor 
of future discoveries. 
In the second place, I wish to emphasise the fact that the 
marvellous strides in the development of the science, and the 
material gains derived from its development, are exactly co- 
incident with the recognition of the necessity of pursuing know- 
ledge for its own sake. 
As long as the efforts of investigators were directed towards 
a purely material goal, the production of gold, so long did the 
science remain absolutely at a standstill; no progress was made 
on either the intellectual or the material side. 
