38 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (BRITISH.) 



:v it may in other respects resemble the natural 

 product, differs from it in being optically inactive." 

 This barrier Mill exists, and he quoted from Pasteur 

 thestatement : " To transform one inactive compound 

 into anntlitr innetin- euiti/iouml. which has the power 

 ,.f iv.-olving itself simultaneously into a right-handed 

 comiK.und and its opposite, is in noway comparable 

 with the possibility of transforming an inactive 

 riiininniinl into ft x'imjle act i re eiiiiijiointd. This is 

 what no one has ever 'done ; it is, on the other hand, 

 what living nature is doing unceasingly before our 



" Then, reviewing the recent work in stereo- 

 chemistry, he contended that "we thus arrive at 

 the conclusion that the production of single asym- 

 metric eompounds, or their isolation from the mix- 

 ture of their enantiomorphs, is, as Pasteur firmly 

 held, the prerogative of life. Only the living organ- 

 ism, with its asymmetric tissue, or the asymmetric 

 products of the Jiving organism, or the living intelli- 

 gence with its conception of asymmetry, can produce 

 this result. Only asymmetry can beget asymmetry." 

 His conclusions were: " Non-living, symmetric 

 mutter the matter of which the inorganic world is 

 composed interacting under the influence of sym- 

 met ric forces to form asymmetric compounds, always 

 yields either pairs of enantiomprphous molecules 

 (racemoid form) or pairs of enantiomorphous groups 

 united within the molecule (meso-form), the result 

 being, in either case, mutual compensation and con- 

 sequent optical inactivity. The same will hold good 

 of symmetric matter interacting under the influence 

 of asymmetric forces (supposing that such forces 

 exist)', provided that the latter are left to produce 

 t heir effect under conditions of pure chance. If these 

 conclusions are correct, as I believe they are, then 

 the absolute origin of the compounds of one-sided 

 asymmetry to be found in the living world is a 

 mystery as profound as the absolute origin of life 

 itself. The two phenomena are intimately con- 

 nected, for, as we have seen, these symmetric com- 

 pounds make their appearance with life, and are 

 inseparable from it. How, for example, could hevo- 

 rotary protein (or whatever the first asymmetric 

 compound may have been) be spontaneously gener- 

 ated in a world of symmetric matter, and of forces 

 which are either symmetric, or, if asymmetric, are 

 asymmetric in two opposite senses? What mechan- 

 ism could account for such selective production ? 

 Or if. on the other hand, we suppose that dextro- 

 and l'vo- protein were simultaneously formed, what 

 conditions of environment existing in such a world 

 could account for the survival of the one form and 

 the disappearance of the other? Natural selec- 

 tion leaves us in the lurch here, for selective con- 

 sumption is, underthese conditions, as inconceivable 

 as selective production. No fortuitous concourse of 

 atoms, even with all eternity for them to clash and 

 combine in, could compass this feat of the formation 

 of the first optically active organic compound. Co- 

 incidence is excluded, and every purely mechanical 

 explanation of the phenomenon must necessarily 

 fail. I see no escape from the conclusion that at 

 the moment when life first arose a directive force 

 came into play a force of precisely the same char- 

 acter as that which enables the intelligent operator, 

 by the exercise of his will, to select one crystallized 

 enantiomorph and reject its asymmetric opposite." 

 Subsequently the following-named papers were 

 read and discussed: "On the Extraction from Air 

 of the Companions of Argon, and on Neon," by 

 William Ramsay and Morris \V. T ravers; "A New 

 Stand for Elect rolytic Analysis,'' by Hugh Marshall : 

 "Some Researches on the Thermal Properties of 

 Gases and Liquids." by Sydney Young : " The Action 

 exerted by Certain Metals and Organic Substanceson 

 a Photographic Plate," by William J. Russell ; " The 

 Action of Bacteria on Photographic Plates," by Percy 



F. Frankland; "Further Experiments on the Absorp- 

 tion of the Rontgen Rays," by John H. Gladstone 

 and Walter Hibbert ; " The Cooling Curves of Fatty 

 Acids," by A. P. Laurie and E. H. Strange ; " The 

 Equivalent Replacement of Metals," by Frank 

 Clowes; "Juvenile Research," by Henry E.Arm- 

 strong ; " The Analysis of Dorsetshire Soils," by C. 

 M. Lux-Moore ; " Green Cobaltic Compounds." by 

 R. G. Durrant ; " Recent Advances in the Tanning 

 Industries," by J. G. Parker; "A New Class of 

 Coloring Matters," by E. Noelting; "The Oxida- 

 tion of Glycerin in the Presence of Ferrous Iron," 

 by J. H. Fenton and Frank Jackson ; " Action of 

 Hydrogen Peroxide on Carbohydrates in the Pres- 

 ence of Iron Salts," by R. S. Morrell and J. M. 

 Croft ; " An Experiment illustrating the Effect on 

 the Acetylene Flame of Varying Proportions of 

 Carbon Dioxide in the Gas," by J. Emerson Rey- 

 nolds ; " A Ten-Candle Lamp to be used as a Stand- 

 ard of Light " and " On a Convenient Form of 

 Drying Tube," by A. G. Vernon Harcourt ; "Stand- 

 ards of Purity for Sewage Effluents," by Samuel 

 Rideal ; " Action of Certain Substances on the Un- 

 developed Photographic Image," by Charles II. 

 Bothamley ; " Action of Ammonia in Gun Cotton," 

 by W. R. Hodgkinson and Capt. Owen. 



Also a " Report of the Committee for deciding 

 on Electrolytic Methods of Quantitative Analysis," 

 a " Report on the Bibliography of Spectroscopy," 

 a " Report on the Action of Light upon Dyed Col- 

 ors," a " Report of the Committee on the teaching 

 of Science in Elementary Schools," a " Report of 

 the Committee on the Carbohydrates of the Cereal 

 Straws," and a '' Report of the Committee on the 

 Promotion of Agriculture," were presented before 

 the section. 



C. Geology. The presiding officer of -this section 

 was Mr. Wilfrid H. Hudleston, a past president of 

 the Geological Society. After brief reference to the 

 circumstance that last year many of the geologists 

 were in Canada, and others in attendance at the 

 International Geological Congress in St. Petersburg, 

 he called attention to the fact that this year the 

 gathering was a domestic one, indeed, " in that part 

 of England which has no small claim to be regarded 

 as the cradle of English geology." Accordingly he 

 devoted the greater portion of his address to local 

 considerations. For if " Europe is to be regarded 

 as presenting a geological epitome of our globe, and 

 if Great Britain is an epitome of Europe, then, 

 without doubt, this particular block of the south- 

 west which has Bath for its more exact center, with 

 a radius, say, of fifty miles, may be said to contain 

 almost everything to be found on the geological 

 scale, except the very oldest and the very youngest 

 rocks ; while east of the Severn and south of the 

 Bristol Channel true bowlder clay is rare or absent." 

 Recent information, the result of strides made dur- 

 ing the last quarter of a century, were discussed, 

 beginning with Palaeozoic rocks, continuing through 

 the Mesozoic, and concluding with the work don 

 on the Tertiary, Pleistocene, and recent formations 

 While most of the remarks were devoted to matter 

 pertaining to the arrangement of strata, still her 

 and there a practical question was taken up. Con 

 cerning the probability of finding workable coa 

 east of the proved Somersetshire field, he said 

 " Prospectors should bear in mind the warning o 

 Ramsay, that the basins containing coal are bu 

 few in comparison with the number of basin 

 throughout the Palaeozoic rocks. No doubt the lin 

 indicated is more favorably situated for coal explo 

 ration than the eastern counties, where, for instance 

 the Coal Boring and Development Company ha 

 lately gone into liquidation. The unsuitability o 

 East Anglia as a field for coal prospecting was in 

 sisted on in my second anniversary address to the 



