172 



NATURE 



[April 20, 19 16 



ligation for its own sake often led to his claim to be 

 considered as the founder of modern chemistry being 

 overlooked. 



The importance of chemistry to national existence 

 was recognised in France as early as 1815, as is 

 witnessed by the origin of the " Le Blanc Soda" pro- 

 cess and the beet sugar industry in France. In our 

 own country the electrolytic work ot Davy and the 

 discovery 01 benzene and of liquid chlorine by Fara- 

 day have formed the starting points of many of the 

 manufactures of munitions and v^^^eapons of war now- 

 being employed, though more especially by the enemy. 



Just as the Royal Society grew out of soci^aes 01 a 

 more informal nature, so the Chemical Society had as 

 forerunners the Tepidarian Society, the Animal Chem- 

 ical Society, and also a Chemical Society or Club to 

 establish which an attempt was made in 1806. 



From the very foundation of the society stress has 

 been laid time and again, and by president after presi- 

 dent, that it is upon the amount of research work 

 carried out by its tellows that the reputation and true 

 value of the society must depend. At the first anni- 

 versary meeting the council reported tha^t it was " fully 

 sensible that the utility of the society and its reputation 

 in the scientific world will mainly depend on its pub- 

 lications." A curve was thrown on the screen show- 

 ing the steady increase year by year in the number of 

 original communications contributed to the Trans- 

 actions, commencing at 42 (occupying 254 pp.) in 1841 

 and 1842, and reaching 272 (occupying 2909 pp.) in 

 1914. in 1905 the first volume of the annual reports 

 on the progress of chemistry, initiated by Sir William 

 Tilden, was published. 



The president then dealt briefly with the progress 

 made year by year by the society, referring more par- 

 ticularly to the jubilee of the society in 1891, and to 

 the jubilee (in 1906) of the discovery of mauve. In 

 1876 a proposal to establish a research fund was re- 

 vived, when Dr. G. D. Longstaff promised to give a 

 sum of loooL if an equal amount were subscribed by 

 chemists. With a like sum from the Goldsmiths' Com- 

 pan}', together with donations from the Merchant 

 Taylors' Company, the Mercers' Company, and the 

 Clothworkers' Company, the research fund was placed 

 on a sure foundation. 



Reference was made to the importance of stimulat- 

 ing and encouraging research if we, as a nation, are 

 to hold our own in commerce and manufacture. That 

 it is the duty of everyone to do his utmost to wrest 

 from nature her secrets is tacitly agreed to by all, but. 

 unfortunately, there the matter rests. The apathy of 

 the public to the vital importance of research is due 

 in great measure to the fact that the so-called well- 

 educated classes have no conception of what research 

 means. The classical scholar pure and simple adds 

 but little to the sum of human knowledge. He 

 examines the knowledge accumulated in past ages, 

 extracts what is buried there, much as a ploughman 

 on the battlefield of Waterloo looks for a bullet fired 

 a hundred years ago. He wonders by whom the 

 bullet was fired, whom it hit, and other such matters, 

 which, however interesting they may be, are of little 

 use to anyone. The classic may retort by demanding 

 of what use are many of our chemical researches? 

 Let us look, therefore, at what research has done. 



Research may be divided into two categories : (i) 

 the mere addition of fresh knowledge to that already 

 recorded : of fresh mastery over the powers of nature 

 and of new ways of utilising energy ; and (2) the 

 definite quest for the solution of a particular problem, 

 it may be the manufacture of something occurring in 

 nature or of something which shall have definite pro- 

 perties. The experiments of Cavendish on the com- 

 position of the atmosphere when he converted nitrogen 

 and oxvgen into nitric acid are typical of the first 

 NO. 2425, VOL. 97] 



class of research. From this discovery an industry of 

 vast importance to the world, the utilisation of atmo- 

 spheric nitrogen, has sprung up in Norway, America, 

 and Switzerland. Moissan's researches into the re- 

 actions at temperatures producible by means of the 

 electric arc led to the production of many new 

 compounds, including calcium carbide. These two 

 industries have been established as the result of experi- 

 ments made solely to increase our knowledge. Who 

 could have foreseen what the discovery by Faraday of 

 benzene in oil-gas would lead to at no distant date? 



As examples of the second type of research mav be 

 mentioned the researches which led to the synthesis 

 on a manufacturing scale of alizarin and of indigo, and 

 to those which led Ehrlich to the discovery of sal- 

 varsan. 



Broadly, there are two types of chemists who en- 

 large our knowledge : the one who feels that he can 

 best fulfil his life's purpose by devoting himself to the 

 discovery of new laws and new substances for the 

 simple purpose of increasing the store of general know- 

 ledge so that those who follow after may reap the 

 benefit of his labours. For such a man the reward 

 is too often only the joy of having succeeded in his 

 aim, well knowing that the money prizes attached 

 to the application of his discoveries to industry will not 

 be his. The other type is the man of practical bent 

 who is always striving to apply the knowledge of the 

 laws of nature and of the properties of substances. to 

 the solution of definite problems which confront the 

 chemical manufacturer, the engineer, and others. Both 

 types of men must be trained in the most thorough 

 manner possible in the universities, and be taught 

 how to tackle both theoretical and practical problems 

 in a scientific manner. 



The manufacturer is prone to expect his research 

 chemist to indicate almost Immediately the value of his 

 presence in the works by a visible increase being 

 shown in the profits. It is by no means a rare thing 

 for a chemist employed at a miserable salary to be 

 consulted in the same way as a specialist who is called 

 in to see the patient on his death-bed. Had the aid 

 of the chemist been sought earlier he, like the 

 specialist, might have been successful in achieving the 

 desired object. If the chemical manufacturers are not 

 only to hold their own, but are to save themselves 

 from extinction, there is only one remedy : they must 

 seek the services of the man with a broad and sound 

 foundation of the facts and theories of the day, 

 and with a thorough training in the methods of ad- 

 vancing knowledge. Merely to maintain the dead- 

 level of a fair measure of success is an existence which 

 can only satisfy a decadent race, and this war has 

 shown the British race to be as full of energy, bravery, 

 and chivalry as of old. 



The nation is now learning day by day what neglect 

 of science has meant to it, and our legislators are 

 having the importance of science forced upon them. 

 Perhaps no branch of scientific knowledge has been 

 more appreciated for the time being than chemistry, 

 though it has required hundreds of thousands of tons 

 of T.N.T., lyddite, and dynamite to shade the founc^, 

 tions of their ignorance. 



Ji 



The newspapers and scientific journals have Ia_ 

 bare the defects of our education, more especially with 

 reference to our scientific education. It is obvious 

 that if the manufacturer is to employ propjerly trained 

 chemists, he must be provided with an adequate 

 supply not only of men trained in what are knowr 

 phenomena, who may be mere walking encyclopaedia- 

 but of men who are trained to attack problems. 



There are, however, many points which our news- 

 paper correspondents overlook when casting blame c 

 the various educational authorities for their short 

 comings. Much difficulty was experienced by head 



