34 NATURE 
¥ 
[SEPTEMBER 14, 1916 
The general treasurer has reported to the 
Council that Mr., M. Deshumbert proposed to 
leave a legacy of about 5000]. to the Association, 
subject to the condition that his wife and her 
sister should receive the interest during their life- 
time. 
The new members of Council elected by the 
General Committee are Mr. R. A. Gregory, Dr. 
S. F. Harmer, Dr. E. J. Russell, Dr. A. Strahan, 
and Prof. W. R. Scott. An invitation to meet in 
Cardiff. in 1918 was unanimously and gratefully 
accepted by the Committee. 
The total grants of money appropriated by the 
General Committee for purposes of research com- 
mittees proposed by the various sections amounted 
to 6021. The subjects and grants are as 
follows :— 
Section A,—Seismological observations,  10o0l. ; 
annual tables of constants, 4ol.; mathematical tables, 
2ol.; gravity at sea, fol. 
Section B.—Dynamic isomerism, 15!.; Eucalypts, 
3ol.; absorption spectra, etc., of organic compounds, 
rol. 
Section C.—Red Sandstone rocks of Kiltorcan, 4l.; 
Palzozoic rocks, 2ol. 
Section D.—Biology of the Abrolhos Islands, 6l.; 
inheritance in silkworms, 2ol. 
Section F.—Fatigue from an economic point of view, 
4ol.; replacement of men by women in industry, 2ol. ; 
effects of war on credit, etc., tol. 
Section G.—Stress distributions, 4ol. 
Section H.—Artificial islands in the, lochs of the 
Highlands of Scotland, 5l.; physical characters of 
ancient Egyptians, 2]. 12s. (unexpended balance); 
Palzolithic site in Jersey, 30l.; excavations in Malta, 
2ol.; distribution of Bronze age implements, 11. 14s. 
{unexpended balance). 
Section I.—Ductless glands, 15].; psychological war 
research, tol. 
Section K.—Physiology of heredity, 45].; ecology 
of fungi, 81. 
Section L.—School books and eyesight, s5l.; work 
of museums in education and research, 15].; effects 
of ‘‘free-place’’ system upon education, 15].; science 
teaching in secondary schools, tol.; mental and 
physical factors involved in education, rol. 
Corresponding Societies’ Committee.—For prepara- 
tion of report, 25]. 
SECTION B. 
CHEMISTRY. 
OPENING ADDRESS (ABRIDGED) BY Pror. G. G. HENDER- 
son, D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE 
SECTION. 
THE period which has elapsed since the. last meet- 
ing of the section in Newcastle has witnessed truly 
remarkable progress in every branch of pure and 
applied chemistry. For fully fifty years previous to 
that meeting the attention of the great majority of 
chemists had been devoted to organic chemistry, but 
since 1885, or thereabouts, whilst the study of the 
compounds of carbon has been pursued with un- 
flagging energy and success, it has no longer so largely 
monopolised the activities of investigators. Interest in 
the other elements, which had been to some extent 
neglected on account of the fascinations of carbon, 
»has been revived with the happiest results, for not 
only has our knowledge of these elements been greatly 
extended, but their number also has been notably in- 
creased by the discovery of two groups of simple sub- 
NO. 2446, VOL. 98] 
stances possessed of new and remarkable properties— 
the inert gases of the argon family and the radio-active 
elements. In addition, the bonds between mathe- 
matics and physics on one hand and chemistry on the 
other have been drawn closer, with the effect that the 
department of our science known as physical chem- 
istry has now assumed a position of first-rate import- 
ance. With the additional light provided by the de- 
velopment and application of physico-chemical theory 
and methods, we are beginning to gain some insight 
into such intricate problems as the relation between 
physical properties and chemical constitution, the 
structure of molecules and even of atoms, and the 
mechanics of chemical change; our outlook is being 
widened, and our conceptions rendered more precise. 
Striking advances have also been made in other direc- 
tions. The extremely difficult problems which con- 
front the biochemist are being gradually overcome, 
thanks to the indefatigable labours of a band of highly 
skilled observers, and the department of biological 
chemistry has been established on a firm footing 
through the encouraging results obtained within the 
period under review. Further, within the last few 
years many of our ideas have been subjected to a 
revolutionary change through the study of the radio- 
active elements. 
The more purely scientific side of our science can 
claim no monopoly in progress, for applied chemistry, 
in every department, has likewise advanced with giant 
strides, mainly, of course, through the application of 
the results of scientific research to industrial purposes. 
Many of the more striking results in the field of 
modern chemical industry have been obtained by 
taking advantage of the powers we now possess to 
carry out operations economically both at very high 
and at very low temperatures, and by the employment’ 
on the manufacturing scale of electrolytic and catalytic 
methods of production. Thanks largely to the inven- 
tion of the dynamo, the technologist is now able to 
utilise electrical energy both for the production of high 
temperatures in the different types of electric furnace 
and for electrolytic processes of the most varied de- 
scription. Among the operations carried out with the 
help of the electric furnace may be mentioned the 
manufacture of graphite, silicon, and phosphorus; of 
chromium and other metals; of carbides, silicides, and 
nitrides; and the smelting and refining of iron and 
steel. Calcium carbide claims a prominent place in 
the list, in the first place because of the ease with 
which it yields acetylene, which is not only used as 
an illuminant, and, in the oxy-acetylene burner, as a 
means of producing a temperature so high that the 
cutting and welding of steel is now a comparatively 
simple matter, but also promises to serve as the start- 
ing-point for the industrial synthesis of acetaldehyde 
and many other valuable organic compounds. More- 
over, calcium carbide is readily converted in the elec- 
tric furnace into calcium cyanamide, which is employed 
as an efficient fertiliser in place of sodium nitrate or 
ammonium sulphate, and as a source of ammonia and 
of alkali cyanides. Among the silicides carborundum 
is increasingly used as an abrasive and a refractory 
material, and calcium silicide, which is now a com- 
mercial product, forms a constituent of some blasting 
explosives. The Serpek process for the preparation of 
alumina and ammonia, by the formation of aluminium 
nitride from bauxite in the electric furnace, and its 
subsequent decomposition by caustic soda, should also 
be mentioned. Further, the electric furnace has made 
possible the manufacture of silica apparatus of all 
kinds, both for the laboratory and the works, and of 
alundum ware, also used for operations at high tem- 
perature. Finally, the first step in the manufacture of 
nitric acid and of nitrites from air, now in operation on 
