PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS - SECTION B. 47 
first to place metals in a separate group, based on their com- 
mon properties, and to give them the distinctive name which 
they still bear. For this want of progress in chemical science, we 
have to seek the cause in the Greek character. The Greek 
spirit was essentially emotional and speculative, and their in- 
tellectual activity was directed to such subjects as abstract philo- 
sophy, poetry, oratory. history, and the emotional arts of music, 
painting, and sculpture. A result of this was that those who 
occupied themselves with industrial pursuits were the least 
educated of the people, and the manipulative processes were held 
in contempt, and unknown to those who could have drawn 
scientific conclusions from them. 
If, however, the practical and experimental side of the science 
was neglected, speculation as to the material nature ofthe 
universe was vigorously pursued. How far these purely specula- 
tive views are removed from the exact methods of reasoning of 
to-day will be apparent from a short epitome of the teaching of 
Aristotle (350 B.c.), whose writings for more than fifteen centuries 
remained unchallenged, and whose theories held the field down to 
quite recent times. Aristotle proclaimed the proper method of 
reasoning to be from the general to the particular; that is to 
say, the province of the philosopher is to enunciate general laws 
from intuition, and proceed to apply them to particular in- 
stances. This method of investigation was the one naturally 
commending itself to the Greek mind, and included science in 
their scheme of speculative philosophy. It has proved almost 
absolutely barren of results. 
As an instance of the working of this method, we may examine 
the Aristotelian idea as to the nature of the elements. Accord- 
ing to Aristotle, matter is that which we can touch and which 
manifests itself to us by the sense of touch. Consequently, the 
ultimate elements of which matter is composed must possess 
certain properties manifest to our sense of touch. 
These properties are four in number. Matter may be hot, 
cold, wet, or dry. These, then, are the characteristic properties 
which are inherent in all matter, and must be looked for in the 
elements of which matter is composed. 
He further assumes that two of these properties are combined 
in each element, and as a substance cannot be at the same time 
hot and cold, or wet and dry, there remain four possible com- 
binations, producing four elementary substances, from which all 
matter is built up:—Hot and dry, represented by fire; hot and 
wet, represented by air; cold and dry, represented by earth ; 
cold and wet, represented by water. 
Tt is clear that this conception of the elements is very different 
from the present one, and that however creditable as a piece of 
mental gymnastics, it was valueless to assist progress in experi- 
mental science. 
