84 



NATURE 



[November 24, 1898 



used as light filters. Thus for Lumiere's " B " plates we must 

 have a brif;ht chromium green, a deep pot-green glass, together 

 with aurantia ; while for Lumiere's " A," we should use a red 

 light consisting, for instance, of aurantia, naphthol yellow and 

 fuchsin films, l-'or Thomas's plates a faint green or a fairly 

 bright red glass with a strong tint of aurantia dye might be 

 employed. Edward's snap-shot isochromatic and rapid spectrum 

 plates require the quality of the filter light to be very pure. 



THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY'S BANQUET TO 

 PAST-PRESIDENTS. 



T) EFERENCE has already been made to the banquet given 

 •^^ on November II to Sir J. Henry Gilbert, Sir Edward Frank- 

 land, K.C.B., Prof. W. Odling, Sir Frederick Abel, Bart., 

 K.C.B., Prof. A. W. Williamson, and Dr. J. H. Gladstone, 

 Past-Presidents of the Chemical Society, who have been Fellows 

 of the Society for fifty years or more. The idea of expres.sing 

 in this way the high regard in which men of science hold the 

 work of these distinguished chemists was an excellent one, and 

 it was well carried out. The large number of congratulatory 

 telegrams and communications received on the day of the 

 banquet from every country where the science of chemistry is 

 cultivated showed that the whole civilised world was in sym- 

 pathy with the object of the banquet. Communications were 

 received from France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, 

 Kussia, Austria, the United Slates, and several other countries. 

 Prof Friedel wrote : " I should have been happy to associate 

 myself with the Chemical Society in doing honour to these 

 veterans of science. I have the honour to be the friend of most 

 of them, and the beneficent action they have exerted on Chemical 

 Science cannot be esteemed too highly. They form the 

 finest phalanx of the Fathers of our science which exists 

 in any country. With these sentiments you will under- 

 stand the liveliness of my regret to be able to take 

 part from afar and in spirit only in the honour paid them." 

 At a meeting of the Russian Chemical Society the following 

 was passed ; " That the Society avail itself of the exceptional 

 opportunity of being able to congratulate conjointly Sir Joseph 

 Henry Gilbert, Sir Edward Frankland, Prof. Odling, Sir ¥. A. 

 Abel, Dr. A. \V. Williamson, and Dr. J. H. Gladstone, whose 

 distinguished services during half a century stand out as a model 

 for all investigators in chemical science, and also express the 

 wish to see the further results of their labours in the annals of 

 science for many years to come." .\ telegram from the German 

 Chemical Society contained the message: " The sister Society 

 sends both Jubilee congratulations and greetings to the Jubilee 

 eelebration of the Presidents of the Chemical Society, Gilbert, 

 Frankland, Odling, Abel, Williamson, and Gladstone." These 

 messages show that the distinguished men to whom the banquet 

 was oftered are held in the highest esteem in all places where 

 ■chemical studies are carried on. 



We regret that the limitations of space will not permit us to 

 print the speech in which the President, Prof. Dewar, who 

 occupied the chair at the banquet, alluded to the work of the 

 six Past- Presidents, nor can we find room for any speeches 

 other than those in which these distinguished men replied to 

 the toast in their honour. 



Sir J. Henry Gilbert .said :—" After the extremely flattering 

 and eloquent terms in which our President has referred to the 

 work of the six Past- Presidents of the Society who are so highly 

 honoured to-night, it is surely a difticult task to say anything in 

 response. I feel that any words of mine would Ije entirely 

 inadequate ; and I must, I think, fall back on what I was 

 intending to say, and give a little personal history of the early 

 times of the Society. Vou are aware, most of you, that I am 

 to night in the position of the senior of the Past-Presidents, in 

 consequence of the death of Eord Playfair. He was, as you 

 know, one of the founders of the Society, and, before he died, 

 the only survivor of those founders. I myself came in within 

 three months of the foundation, and so had .some knowledge of 

 the Society's early doings. In fact, before I was really admitted 

 to the Society, under the influence of the late Professor Graham, 

 I undertook the translation of a paper by Rcdtenbacher and 

 Liebig on ' The Atomic Weight of Carbon,' and that paper 

 occupies eighteen pages in the first volume of the Society's 

 'Memoirs.' I should say that, less than a fortnight .ago, I 

 cceived a letter from Lady Playfair, just before she left to 



NO. 1517, VOL. 59I 



visit her friends in America, in which she said with wh; 

 interest he had looked forward to being present at tl 

 banquet appointed for June — but that was not to be 

 I first made the acquaintance of Playfair in Liebig 

 Laboratory at Giessen, the year before the establishment of tni 

 Society, that is, in 1S40. Playfair was at that time very busil 

 occupied in translating the memorable work of Liebig. 

 ' Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture an^ 

 Physiology ' ; and before the session was over he left for thi 

 country with Liebig, who was to present the substance of thai 

 work as a report to the British Association at Cilasgow in .Sep- 

 tember. Vou may be interested to know who there were from 

 this country in Liebig's laboratory at that time. Besides Playfair 

 and myself, there were Dr. William Allen Miller, afterward 

 professor of chemistry at King's College ; Dr. Stenhouse, wh' 

 has contributed so much to the fournal of this Society ; Dr 

 Angus Smith ; and, lastly. Dr. Edward Schunck. He and I 

 are, I believe, the only survivors of that time among those from 

 England who were with Liebig then. Of the Germans whi 

 were there, some of the names you \\\\\ probably remember. 

 Therewere Heinrich Will,Varrentrapp, Redtenbacher, Hermann 

 Ropp, Scherer, Bromeis, Boeckmann , and others, of various nation - 

 alities ; but I believe that not one of these survives at present. 

 Schunck joined the Society early in 1S42, and he from that timt 

 to this has devoted himself to scientific investigation. He buil 

 a laboratory, and a museum devoted especially to specimens of 

 organic bodies, in his own grounds on the other side of Man 

 Chester, where he still lives. He was, in fact, the oldest member 

 of the Society, I believe, except Playfair and myself. He ha- 

 worked indefatigably ever since ; but I am very sorry to say hi 

 is not able to be here to-night, having had an attack of bron- 

 chitis, which renders it impossible, though it would have given 

 him great pleasure to be present. Referring to that time at 

 Giessen, I may say that Playfair, Stenhouse, and myself, each 

 look our degree then ; and Playfair, though joining with us, 

 having gone with Liebig, the responsibility was left with Sten- 

 house and myself to give the usual supper to the other students 

 of the laboratory, and a few distinguished guests, among 

 whom was Bunsen, who was then at Marburg ; and who, I 

 am glad to learn from Sir Henry Roscoe, is still well. Sten- 

 house was much my senior. We had a large and lively 

 party, but Stenhouse did not enjoy that sort of thing ver) 

 much, and when the last bottle of champagne was opened, he 

 said : ' Now, Gilbert, I shall leave you to it,' and away he 

 went. That was, however, not near the end of the evening. 

 They stayed a very long time, and we did not exchange the 

 smoky atmosphere of the supper-room for the clearer airoutsidi 

 until early morning. We then went round the boulevards 1 1 

 the little town, the Germans singing students' songs, and 

 coming in time to the hotel where Stenhouse lodged, we seren- 

 aded him from the outside. Then some one tried the door, 

 and finding it unfastened, the whole party went up, lighted 

 candles, and serenaded him in bed. Next morning there was a 

 very capital caricature brought out, showing Stenhouse's rather 

 long nose pointing in one direction, and his longer nightcap in 

 the other. But this is enough of this kind of history, and I 

 must now turn to rather more serious matters. It was in 1843 

 that I became associated with Mr. (now Sir John) Lawes in 

 agricultural investigation — a collaboration which has now ex- 

 tended over more than fifty-five years. As you all know, how- 

 ever rude may be some of the methods of the art of agriculture, 

 the investigation of the principles underlying its practices 

 involves a wide range of scientific inquiry. It involves the 

 chemistry of the atmosphere, of the soil, of vegetation, and 

 of animal life and growth. That is to say, besides chemistry, 

 it involves meteorology, botany, vegetable physiology, am 

 animal physsiology, to some extent. It is impossible t( 

 be a specialist in so many subjects, jiarticularly in thes 

 days, and I can only say that in venturing to deal will 

 these other branches of science we have taken great car 

 to avoid mistakes. The wide range of the investigations mus 

 be accepted as some explanation of the fact that we have no 

 contributed more of the re.sulis to the Chemical Society. Man; 

 of them being connected largely with olher branches of science 

 have been recorded in other than purely chemical journals 

 whilst those having a more directly practical bearing have beei 

 published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, or 

 in other agricultural publications — the Kothamsted jiapers 

 now numbering considerably more than 100. But we feel that, 

 however long or short may be the time that we shall still work 



