NA TURE 



125 



THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1876 



ON THE ORGANISATION OF THE PROFES- 

 SION OF CHEMISTRY 



IT has probably happened to many young men who 

 have fallen within the attraction of chemistry at the 

 Universities or elsewhere to receive from their elders the 

 prudent warning— chemistry is not a profession. Nor has 

 this warning, or the fact conveyed in it, been without 

 influence upon the number of chemical students. The 

 complaint is often heard that original research in chemistry 

 is at a low ebb in England at the present time. Com- 

 paratively few have both inclination and income enough 

 to pursue chemistry as a scientific study without making 

 it also in some way a means of livelihood. Contributions 

 to biology come chiefly from members of the medical 

 profession, contributions to mechanical science from 

 engineers, contributions to chemistry from those who 

 make a living by teaching or practising chemistry ; and 

 in proportion as a knowledge of this science opens a 

 career, and is recognised as the basis of a profession, 

 will a twofold gain accrue. The character and attain- 

 ments and number of those engaged in educational or 

 practical chemistry will be raised, and as a consequence 

 the quality and number of the contributions made to 

 scientific chemistry will rise also. 



At the present time there is a considerable and an 

 increasing demand for young men having a knowledge 

 of chemistry, as teachers, as laboratory assistants, as ana- 

 lysts or experimentalists on chemical and other works. 

 But, partly because the importance of chemistry has not 

 long been recognised, partly perhaps for want of organisa- 

 tion, to be a chemist does not constitute a definite voca- 

 tion, which a young man of the professional classes may 

 choose with the same confidence as to be a doctor or a 

 lawyer. 



A vigorous attempt is now being made to organise an 

 Association, or Guild, or Institute of Chemists, member- 

 ship of which should confer a professional status and 

 imply fitness for duties requiring chemical knowledge and 

 experience. 



Under the Act of Parliament for the prevention of 

 adulteration of food and drink, and of drugs, passed in 

 1872, a number of persons have been appointed in all 

 parts of the country as analysts. It must frequently have 

 been a difficult task to find " persons possessing competent 

 medical, chemical, and microscopical knowledge " to fill 

 these posts. Where those with whom the appointment 

 lay took pains to assure themselves of the fitness of their 

 nominee, probably as good appointments were made as if 

 professional chemists already formed a well-defined class. 

 But a definition and separation of qualified chemists, such 

 as membership ofthe proposed Institute might effect, would 

 serve as a guide to those charged with the duty of making 

 such appointments, and would be a barrier against the 

 nomination of wholly unfit persons. 



On the other hand, it is worth remarking that the ex- 

 istence of a technical qualification is sometimes unfavour- 

 able to the selection of the best out of several candidates 

 who possess it. The friends of an inferior candidate are 

 apt to believe that all who possess the qualification are 

 Vou XIV.— No. 345 



capable of doing the required work properly, and that the 

 particular choice may fairly be determined by other con- 

 siderations. 



Employment of an unofficial kind, it may be thought, 

 is not likely to be given to incompetent persons, since the 

 employer has an immediate personal interest in being 

 well served. But here also the existence of a distinct 

 qualification, such as a licence to practice in chemistry 

 granted after examination by an authorised body, would 

 aid the choice of the employer, and would increase the 

 chance of employment to those properly qualified. 



The duties which fall to the lot of men engaged in 

 general chemical practice are perhaps less grave than 

 those which are discharged by medical practitioners ; and 

 the persons who consult or employ chemists are, as a class, 

 more capable of selecting a qualified practitioner than 

 the general public. The need of a professional stamp is 

 therefore much less in chemistry than in medicine. With 

 this limitation, the same Reasons which have led to the 

 establishment of a legal distinction between the doctor 

 holding a diploma and the quack doctor, would seem to 

 favour the estabhshment of a similar distinction between 

 the professional chemist and the amateur. 



At a meeting held recently in the apartments of the 

 Chemical Society at Burlington House, which was at- 

 tended by a large number of the leading members of the 

 Chemical Society, it was unanimously resolved that it is 

 desirable that an organisation of professional chemists 

 should be effected, and that for this purpose a body should 

 be formed, having authority to issue certificates of com- 

 petence. The questions which next arose, as to the 

 nature of the organisation, and as to the steps by which 

 it might obtain legal recognition, led to the consideration 

 of the advantages or disadvantages of connecting the 

 proposed organisation with the Chemical Society. 



This Society includes among its Fellows the most pro- 

 minent, and by far the greater number, of those who 

 are following chemistry as a profession. It has also the 

 advantage of long standing, having been founded in 

 1 841, of an established position, and, last but not least, 

 of incorporation by Royal Charter. Probably the exist- 

 ence of the Chemical Society might hinder the granting 

 of a Charter of Incorporation to the proposed Institute. 

 It is therefore clear that if the Chemical Society could 

 undertake to issue licences to practise in chemistry, or 

 certificates of competency, it occupies in some respects 

 an advantageous position for doing so. 



Nor does it appear that such an undertaking would 

 exceed the wide discretion which is granted to the 

 Society by its charter. The objects of the Society were 

 defined by its founders to be " the promotion of 

 chemistry and of those branches of science imme- 

 diately connected with it, by the reading, discussion, and 

 subsequent publication, of original communications." 

 Here we breathe the upper air of pure science, of 

 knowledge for its own sake. But the objects which the 

 Charter recites are : — " The general advancement of 

 chemical science, as intimately connected with the 

 prosperity of the manufactures of the United Kingdom, 

 many of which mainly depend on the application of 

 chemical principles and discoveries for their beneficial 

 development, and for a more extended and economical 

 application of the industrial resources and sanatory 



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