CHEMICAL RESEARCHES 189 



the gases evolved from iron furnaces, with reference to 

 the theory of the smelting of iron, presented at the 

 meeting of 1845 by Bunsen and Lyon Playfair. The 

 report includes a close examination of the methods 

 employed in the analysis of gases, and a considera- 

 tion of the ways in which furnace-gases may be 

 applied to practical purposes, when applied as fuel. 

 The studies of isomeric naphthalene derivatives and of 

 dynamic isomerism were very notable pieces of work 

 supported by the Association in more recent years. 

 At the Aberdeen meeting in 1885 there was an 

 important discussion on electrolysis, and this subject 

 continued to occupy the section in succeeding years. 

 The work of Arrhenius l and the theory of ionisation 

 were thus brought into prominence. From 1886 

 to 1890 a committee worked at the investigation of 

 electrolysis in its physical and chemical bearings, 

 and its reports contain important memoranda 

 (or references to publications elsewhere) by Prof. 

 H. E. Armstrong, Arrhenius, Fitzgerald, Lodge, 

 Rayleigh, Silvanus Thompson, J. J, Thomson, and 

 others. About the same time the section of chem- 

 istry was closely concerned with the consideration 

 of solution: committees in 1887-90 discussed its 

 nature and properties and drew up a bibliography 

 of the subject in a series of reports; and at the 

 Leeds meeting in 1890 a discussion on the theory of 

 solution was held, in which not only leading British 

 chemists, but also such distinguished foreign chemists 

 as Ostwald 2 and van 't Hof? 3 took part, the supporters 



1 Of the Nobel Institute, Stockholm. 



2 Sometime professor of physical chemistry, University of Leipzig. 



3 Sometime professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at 

 Amsterdam ; subsequently professor to the Prussian Academy of 

 Sciences, Berlin. 



