80 UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI BULLETIN 



tery and sometimes a science. It is as the latter that I shall 

 regard it this morning, and particularly in its quest of the 

 unchanging basis of all natural phenomena. 



I shall not attempt to define its limit which is so vast 

 that in space it stretches from north to south, from east to 

 west, from the zenith to the nadir; that in time it was domi- 

 nant before the earth was without form and void and when 

 darkness was upon the face of the deep, before earth or atmos- 

 phere, before plant or animal, before man chemical agencies 

 were at work, assuming again that matter is indestrucible and 

 possesses the same properties at all times, in all places and 

 under all conditions, pulling down and building up, destroying 

 and producing all things both great and small which make up 

 our planet, our solar system and the systems of worlds of 

 which we are but a small part. 



This whole field of nature is not too large a domain for 

 chemistry, for every object in this field is composed of matter 

 matter in a continual state of rearrangement and flux, at 

 times seemingly fixed and unchangeable, at other times rapidly 

 changing. 



The study of this fundamental something, matter, whether 

 there be only one kind or many kinds, out of which every- 

 thing is made and which takes part in every physical event 

 is the province of chemistry. Chemistry is natural science, be- 

 cause, when, if ever, the properties of matter are fully known, 

 it should be possible to trace out the sequences which have re- 

 sulted in the world as it is, the universe as we find it and as 

 it will and must be. 



That matter should and does conform to law, that is 

 behave in exactly the same way under similar conditions, that 

 the sequence of events under given conditions is invariable 

 and that these sequences or coexistences may be expressed by 

 mathematical formulas would not affect chemistry as the 

 physical science, for mathematics waits ready to solve any 

 problem of biology, geology, physics or chemistry or life 



