president's address— section ,b. 19 



SECTION B. 



CHEMISTRY. 



ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT : 

 Professor N. T. M. Wilsmore, D.Sc, F.I.C 



Professor of Chemistry in the University of Western Australia. 



THE PRESENT POSITION OF CHEMISTRY 

 AND CHEMISTS. 



The treinendous events through which we have passed siuce th© 

 last iiie.etmg of the Australasian Association for the Advancement 

 of Science have brought about changes in our social and economic 

 conditions of so far-reaching a nature, that little apclogy is 

 needed for attempting briefly to' take stock of the resultant effect 

 on the position of chemistry and chemists. 



Many of the changes caused by the war are still in progress, 

 whilst others are too recent to be viewed in their right perspec- 

 tive, so that with regard tO' most of them it is hardly possible 

 as yet to decide which ai'e for the better and which for the worse. 

 Neivertheless, I think w& have some ground for concluding that, on 

 the whole, the effect of the war on the position of chemistry and 

 chemists has been favorable. In any case, it has provided an 

 object lesson of the national importance of chemistry which the 

 man in the street cannot afford to' neglect. But much remains 

 to be done before chemistry is generally recognized, as it should 

 be, not only as an indispensable branch of exact knowledge, but 

 also as one of the learned professions, not inferior in status, for 

 example, to law, medicine or engineering. 



Prior to the war the status of science and scientists in the esti- 

 mation of the Government and people of Britain, and of Australia, 

 compared most unfavorably with that accorded to' them on the 

 continent of Europe or in the United States of America; and, in 

 spite of the drastic lessons of the war, it is still far from satisfac- 

 tory. It has been well said that the work of men of science like 



