22 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
not only of a commercial but also of a scientific value, and 
the Australasian Colonies ought to be particularly interested 
in its work. 
Like many another institutions, its income is inadequate 
for the work in hand. 
CHEMISTRY OF THE ANCIENTS. 
I think we may include amongst the recent advancements 
of science the six important volumes (2,600 pages) upon 
the History of Chemistry, recently published by Prof. 
Berthelot, of Paris (Perpetual Secretary of the Academy of 
Science, and sometime Minister of Foreign Affairs), since 
they form a notable addition to the history of chemistry, 
and set us right upon many matters. 
My remarks are condensed froma paper by Dr. Carrington 
Bolton, read before the American Chemical Society, masmuch 
as I have not had time to do much more than glance through 
the volumes themselves. In them M. Berthelot gives an 
account of the ancient Greek alchemists and of the 
chemistry of the Middle Ages. These volumes contain 
many of the most ancient Greek, Arabic, Syriac, and Latin 
writings upon technical chemistry and alchemy, treasured 
in the great national libraries of Hurope. The task must 
have been an enormous one, and was, of course, only 
possible with the assistance of scholars well versed in old 
manuscripts in those languages, aided bv the substantial 
assistance of the French Government. 
Some of the Greco-Egyptian manuscripts have but little 
bearing on chemistry, being devoted to magic, incantations, 
dreams, signs, etc., but others relate to the working of 
metals, and the preparation of gold and silver, of alloys, the 
soldering and colouring of metals, and similar mdustrial 
matters. 
Berthelot thinks that the idea of the transmutation of 
metals arose from the attempts of goldsmiths and others to 
