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Section B. 



CHEMISTRY. 



ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT : 



PROFESSOR C. FAWSITT, D.Sc, 



Professoi- of Chemistry in the University of Sydney. 



The progress of Chemistry may now be followed pretty well by the 

 perusal of the Annual Reports of the Chemical Society. These reports 

 render it superfluous for the Chairman of the Chemical Section in this 

 Association to attempt any general review of the recent advances in 

 Chemical Science. When considering what would be a suitable matter 

 for my address, I took the path of least resistance, and have simply 

 chosen to mention some things which have specially interested me. 



Great progress continues to be made in all branches of Chemistry. 

 There have been periods in the history of our science when one could 

 single out special branches which were advancing rapidly ' and 

 occupying the attention of chemists almost to the exclusion of other 

 branches. There is now, however, an advance all along the line. 

 Undoubtedly more progress is being made in some branches than others, 

 but there is no branch to-day which is unfruitful, no branch which 

 does not offer interesting fields of work for those who desire an 

 important research problem. 



While the discovery of the radioactive elements has arrested 

 pubHc attention, and has been to chemists the most startling discovery 

 of modern times, it has not delayed chemical investigations in other 

 directions ; rather has it acted as an incentive to those engaged in all 

 branches of chemical investigation. The discoveries in radio-activity 

 have enabled chemists to have a more secure belief in the " atom " as 

 a fact, and not merely as an accompaniment to hypotheses dealing with 

 chemical action. It seems, however, to me that the most important 

 development of Chemistry in this generation is the gradual but sure 

 development of order out of chaos, and the advance made in the 

 direction of reducing Chemistry to the position of an exact science. 

 For instance, great progress has been made in elucidating the constitu- 

 tion of chemical compounds ; the determination of the constitution 

 of the most complex organic substance is probably only a question of 

 time. 



In the determination of constitution physical determinations now 

 play an important part. A " law," usually an empirical law, can be 

 shown to connect each physical property with chemical composition, 



