116 THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



represent them on this happy occasion RUDOLPH MESSEL, their President. At 

 no time in the history of experimental science has there been any hard and fast 

 line dividing science from its applications, and the President and Council of 

 the Society of Chemical Industry recognize with pride that among the Fellows 

 of the Royal Society have been found some of the most brilliant examples the 

 world has seen of the genius which, while it seeks and grasps the highest 

 generalizations, is at the same time intensely alive to the applications of 

 science in arts and manufactures. As the oldest chartered scientific society in 

 this country and the mother of many daughter societies, the Royal Society 

 rouses the sympathy and admiration of all followers of applied science 

 throughout the world. The Society of Chemical Industry cannot forget that 

 it owed much of its early success to the timely support of Fellows of the Royal 

 Society : the Right Honourable Sir Henry Roscoe, its first President ; Sir 

 Frederick Abel, Sir Lowthian Bell, Sir William Perkin, Sir William Siemens, 

 Dr. Angus Smith, Mr. Walter Weldon, Prof. A. W. Williamson, and Dr. 

 James Young, its first Vice-Presidents ; and Capt. W. de W. Abney, Sir 

 William Crookes, Dr. Peter Griess, and Dr. Hermann Sprengel, Members of its 

 first Council. When the Society of Chemical Industry opened its doors to men 

 of every country and every race, the Royal Society at once welcomed this 

 manifestation of the brotherhood of Science, and marked its appreciation of the 

 great importance of such international exchanges of courtesy and scientific 

 opinion by the new departure of a reception to the Society and its members 

 who had come across the sea. In industrial production the gain of one nation 

 may be the loss of another, but the victories of science stand alone in that 

 there is no enemy to vanquish but ignorance, and its conquests are for the gain 

 and enrichment of the whole human race. The increased power over nature 

 won by the work of Davy and Faraday, of Rumford, and of Rutherford gives 

 no exclusive gain to any one country. The Royal Society and the Society 

 of Chemical Industry have a common object in improving and increasing 

 natural knowledge, and the future condition of mankind, both intellectually 

 and materially, depends upon the growth and activity of scientific Societies. 

 The organized and systematic application of science to industry is still far 

 from complete. The Society of Chemical Industry looks to the Royal Society 

 to continue to bestow upon its work the interest and encouragement which 

 have been so fully granted in the past. In wishing for the Royal Society 

 continued and increasing prosperity, the President and Council trust that the 

 cordial relations existing between the Societies may be maintained and result 

 in a more extended co-operation. 



RUDOLPH MESSEL, President. 

 THOMAS TYRER, Treasurer. 

 CHAELES G. CRESSWELL, Secretary. 



