SEPTEMBER 18, 1902 | 
NATURE 
495 
Mathematics and Physics. 
Rayleigh, Lord—Electrical Standards 435 
Judd, Prof. je ve —Seismological Observations ... 40 
Shaw, Dr. N. —Investigation of the Peper Atmo- 
sphere : 75 
Preece, Sir Ww. TEE —Magnetic Observations ee meat 40) 
Chemistry. 
Divers, Prof. E.—Study of Hydroaromatic Substances. 20 
Roscoe, Sir H. E.—Wave-length Tables of Spectra... 5 
Geology. 
Herdman, Prof.—Fauna and Flora of British Trias... 5 
Marr, Mr. J. E.—Erratic Blocks ... ott ae LO. 
Scharff, Dr. R. E.—To Explore Irish Caves cette 40 
Watts, Prof. W. W.—U underground Waters of North- 
West Yorkshire ... 40 
Marr, Mr. J. E.—Life-zones in “British Carboniferous 
Rocks ons 5 
Geikie, Prof. J. —Geological Photographs t20 ce Ke) 
Zoology. 
Herdman, Prof. W. A.—Table at the Zoological Station 
at Naples ... — oe a ec ce8 EeeELOO 
Woodward, Dr. H.—Index Animalium 100 
Geography. 
Keltie, Dr. J. S.—Tidal Bore, Sea Waves and Beaches 15 
Holdich, Sir T.—Scottish National Antarctic one 
tion ... : : 50 
Economic Sczence and Statistics. 
Brabrook, Mr. E. W.—Economic Effect of Woman’s 
Labour oie or oss a ae 709 eee 25 
Mechanical Science. 
Preece, Sir W. H.—Screw Gauges 5 
Binnie, Sir A.—Resistance of Road Vehicles to Traction 90 
Anthropology. 
Evans, Sir J.—Researches in Cretan 
: ; OO 
Read, Mr. C. H.—Exploration of Stone Circles | ann 5 
Cleland, Prof. J.—Anthropometric Investigation 5 
Ridgeway, Prof. —Anthropology of the Todasand Tribes 
of Southern India ; 50 
Read, Mr. C. H. — Anthropological Photographs 
(balance in hand) bi nos Sonat 
Phystology 
Halliburton, Prof. W. D.—The State of Solution of 
Proteids se ae sec oD a ae. 59) 
Botany. 
Miall, Prof. L. C.—Registration of Botanical Photo- 
graphs ; 31 
Farmer, Prof. J. B. —Investigation ‘of the Cyanophyces 25 
Ward, Prof. Marshall.—Respiration of Plants ... ooh fe 
Educational Science. 
Sherrington, Prof.—Conditions of Health essential for 
School Instruction 10 
Corresponding Socteties. 
Whitaker, Mr. W.—Preparing Report, &c. 550 <5 48) 
4960 
SECTION 
CHEMISTRY. 
OPENING ADDRESS BY EpwARD Divers, M.D., D.Sc., 
F.R.S., V.P.C.S., EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY | 
IN THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY or Toxyo, JAPAN, 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
The Atomic Theory without Hypothesis. 
IN opening the Chemical Section of the British Association in 
this city and in the halls of the Queen’s College, my first words 
must be those of reverence for the memory of Thomas Andrews, 
for so many years the Professor of Chemistry in this College, 
whose investigations into the properties of gases—above all, 
those which resulted in the recognition and determination of the 
critical pressure and temperature of carbonic anhydride—have 
NO. 1716, VOL. 66] 
, was already in Dalton’s mind just a hundred years ago. 
become a part of the foundation of the Kinetic Theory of Gases. 
At the Meeting of the British Association here in 1852, Andrews 
was President of this Section, and again at the Meeting in Edin- 
burgh in 1871. 
Since the Meeting last year another distinguished chemist, 
formerly professor in one cf the Queen’s Colleges, Maxwell 
Simpson, has also passedaway. He, too, acted as President of 
this Section, namely, at the Meeting in Dublin in 1878. The 
work by which Simpson’s name will ever be recalled is more 
especially that upon the synthesis of polybasic organic acids. 
One other name must not be left unmentioned in this Address : 
it is that of a long-time Fellow of the Chemical Society who has 
been intimately connected with the British Association—I mean 
that of George Griffith, the genial and most effective Assistant 
General Secretary of the Association for so many years, who 
died four months ago. He had visited Belfast in the spring and 
made the preliminary arrangements with the Local Committee 
for this Meeting. He joined the Chemical Society in 1859— 
just one year before I did—and remained a Fellow until his 
death. 
It is now almost a century ago since John Dalton made known 
to the world his theory of the nature of chemical combination 
by the publication of a table of atomic weights. He had been 
occupying himself for some years with the study of the physical 
properties and atomic constitution of gases before he was led to 
extend the notion of the atom to chemical phenomena, and thus 
to form that conception which was to become celebrated as the 
atomic theory. In his laboratory note-books, preserved from 
1802 onwards, the publication and analysis of which we owe to 
Sir Henry Roscoe and Dr. Harden, no reference is made to the 
theory till 1803, but we may well believe with Henry that it 
But 
however that may have been, it seems fitting in a year so closely 
approaching the centennial of its publication as the present that 
the occupier of this Chair should address his audience on a 
subject of such general interest and importance as the atomic 
theory, if indeed there remains anything to be said on a subject 
which has so long and so fully engaged attention. 
I dare not assert that I have found anything actually novel to 
bring before you with regard to the atomic theory, but I may 
say that there has certainly long seemed to me to exist the need 
to treat it as being a true theory instead of as an hypothesis, and 
to teach it and discuss it accordingly. 
In thus setting forth what appears to me to be the proper 
form of the atomic theory, I shall have, at the risk of overtaxing 
your patience, to restate and examine most of the fundamental 
and familiar principles of our science in order to illustrate and 
justify the view I take. Not only this, but in order as directly 
and briefly as possible to meet the objection that whatever the 
atomic theory may be it cannot be introduced to the student of 
chemical philosophy in another form than that now in use, I 
shall sometimes have to adopt, in order to show what can be 
done, a didactic method which, in most other circumstances, 
would be quite inexcusable before so distinguished an assembly. 
The atomic theory of chemistry stands unsurpassed for the way 
in which it has fulfilled the purpose of every great theory, that 
of giving intellectual mastery of the phenomena of which it treats. 
But in the form in which it was enunciated, and still is univer- 
sally expressed and accepted, it has the defect of resting upon a 
metaphysical basis,, namely, upon the ancient hypothesis that 
bodies are not continuous in texture, but consist of discrete, 
ultra-minute particles whose properties, if known, would account 
for those of the bodies themselves. Hence it has happened that, 
| despite the light it throws upon the relations of chemical phe- 
nomena and the simple means it affords of expressing these 
relations, this theory has always been regarded with misgiving, 
and failed to achieve that explicit recognition which its abound- 
ing merit calls for. Indeed, the desire has been expressed to 
see the time when something on a more solid foundation shall 
have taken its place. 
Now, it is not my intention to discuss the merits or demerits 
of the atomic hypothesis, which can indeed no longer be treated 
as a merely metaphysical speculation. What I would do to-day 
is to impress upon you that, in spite of all that has been said 
and written about the atomic hypothesis in connection with 
chemistry, the atomic theory propounded by Dalton and adopted, 
implicitly at least, by all chemists, is not founded upon the 
metaphysical conception of material discontinuity, and is not 
explained or illuminated by it. For if that should be the case 
there will no longer exist any grounds for hesitation in accepting 
