PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 13 



large and some small spots were present on the sun. The 

 storm lasted rather more than 24 hours. Another similar 

 storm occurred on March 22nd, accompanied by a fine Aurora 

 visible at Stonyhurst. One of lesser magnitude was 

 observed on March 4th. At Greenwich the magnetic dip, 

 which had been decreasing up to 1913, when it reached a 

 minimum, is now increasing and amounts to a little less than 

 67. The improvements in the speed and otherwise of wire- 

 less telegraphy have lately been so great that messages can be 

 transmitted to America at a lower rate than by cable. Wire- 

 less telephony can also be used across the Atlantic, and with 

 aeroplanes. The stations that send out wireless time signals 

 are now so distributed over the world that a ship in almost any 

 position equipped with a suitable apparatus can pick up her time. 

 The extraction of various metals by electrolytic methods from 

 the ore has become not only an experimental fact, but is 

 much practised commercially, and produces the metal in the 

 purest form by fewer processes than smelting. It is also 

 possible to use much poorer ores than before with profit. 

 Thus a gold ore containing only 1 dwt. of gold per ton can 

 be successfully worked, whereas the previous limit was half- 

 an-ounce. The fact that most substances in a state of fine 

 division are attracted to either the positive or negative pole of 

 a battery, has been taken advantage of to refine clays, especially 

 china clay, and separate them from foreign matter. It is found 

 that a purer clay can be produced in this manner than by any 

 other treatment. The X-rays are now not only extensively used 

 in medicine, but in a variety of other ways, for testing materials, 

 as they frequently shew internal flaws which could not other- 

 wise be perceived, and other details of structure. The crys- 

 talline condition of a substance is often shewn. 



CHEMISTRY. 



The War, which is now happily over, has been to a great 

 extent a chemical war; and I think that chemistry has risen in 

 this country from the very low estimation in which it was held 



