456 



NA TURE 



[September io, 1908 



by the open research schohirships at present available 

 afford some indication of what might be done for industrial 

 chemistry by the foundation of such scholarships in applied 

 science. There are, no doubt, scattered over the country 

 many men who possess originality and inventive talent, and 

 who have practical experience in industrial operations, but 

 who have not been sufficiently trained in science ; if it were 

 possible to attract this dormant talent by means of open 

 scholarships it might be directed into proper channels 

 instead of being allowed to run to waste. 



It is easy to say how money might be spent advantage- 

 ously, but very difficult to suggest how the funds for such 

 open scholarships should be raised. An appeal to the 

 manufacturers hy this .'\ssociation or by the Society of 

 Chemical Industry might meet with some response, and it 

 is also possible that public bodies might render assistance. 

 If the Government of Bengal, under the spur of dire 

 necessity, can subsidise research work on indigo, and if 

 our county councils can offer scholarships for dairy work, 

 and grants for expc-riments on turnip-growing, bee-keeping, 

 and so on, our city and borough councils might award 

 scholarships in applied chemistry for subjects of especial 

 importance to the dominant trades of the district. By so 

 doing they would be utilising to the best advantage 

 the chemistry departments of our universities and poly- 

 technics. 



I noted a few moments ago that practically all the pub- 

 lished research work of this country has no direct refer- 

 ence to any industrial problem ; nevertheless the results of 

 this work are often of such a character that they might 

 be of considerable technological importance. New reactions 

 are discovered ; new or improved methods of preparing 

 known compounds; new facts as to the conditions under 

 which important general reactions occur ; and, needless to 

 add, a great many new compounds are prepared. 



Now, abroad, all or nearly all such matters are protected 

 by patents, generally taken out by some firm of manu- 

 facturers. To the uninitiated it seems absurd to think that 

 there is money in the great majority of such patents, and 

 yet it is ofcvious that the employment of this system must 

 pay in the long run. Why should it not be adopted in this 

 country — at any rate to a limited extent to start with? 



If ail those who are engaged in purely scientific research 

 work would seriously consider the desirability of obtaining 

 provisional protection for any discovery which they may 

 make, and would then consult some manufacturer or 

 industrial expert with whom the further development of 

 the matter might be undertaken, there is reason to believe 

 that in some cases at least the patent might prove to be 

 a commercial success. 



The examination of the therapeutic action of compounds 

 discovered in our laboratories is also a possible means of 

 assisting our chemical industries ; the matter is not so 

 trivial as it may seem : a monopoly in the manufacture of 

 some valuable medicinal preparation would serve as a fioint 

 d'appiii from which more important operations could be 

 undertaken. 



Unfortunately the investigation of the physiological action 

 of new preparations is a matter of some diflficulty in this 

 country, as it is to some extent connected with vivisection 

 in the public mind ; we may poison rats with impunity, and 

 even create an organisation for their extermination, but 

 we may not individually try the effect of a new compound 

 on a rabbit. 



In drawing this .Address to a conclusion T cannot but 

 feel that my suggestions may seem utterly inadequate to 

 the attainment of those important results which are so 

 greatly to be desired. If so, I can only plead that more 

 drastic measures are hardiv available, and that even in 

 the most favourable circumstances improvement can take 

 place onlv verv slowly. Whatever differences of opinion 

 may be held as to the details of any scheme for regaining 

 our lost ground, the main lines seem to be clearly indicated. 

 The workers in pure science must recognise that it is their 

 duty to do all they can to promote the industrial welfare 

 of their country ; the manufacturers must concede the para- 

 mount importance of science and the impossibility of dis- 

 pensing with its counsels. Guided by these principles and 

 bv a spirit of cordial cooperation, a sustained and strenuous 

 effort on the part of the leaders of chemical industry and 



NO. 2028, vol.. 78] 



of chemical science can hardly fail to accomplish the end 

 in view. 



In elaborating this .Address 1 have enjoyed the advantage 

 of the criticisms and suggestions of my friend and relative 

 Prof. Perkin, F.R.S., to whom my sincere thanks are here 

 expressed. 



SECTION C. 



GEOLOGY. 



Opening Address by Prof. John Jolv, M..A., D.Sc, 

 F.R.S., President of the Section. 



uramijM and geology. 

 Inlroditctioii. 



In our day but little time elapses between the discoverv 

 and its application. Our starting-point is as recent as the 

 year 1903, when Paul Curie and Laborde showed experiment- 

 ally that radium steadily maintains its temperature above 

 its surroundings. ;\s in the case of many other momentous 

 discoveries, prediction and even calculation had preceded it. 

 Rutherford and McClung, two years before the date of the 

 experiment, had calculated the heat equivalent of the 

 ionisation effected by uranium, radium, and thorium. 

 Even at this dale (1903) there was much to go upon, and 

 ideas as to the cosmic influence of radio-activity were not 

 slow in spreading.' 



I am sure that but few among those whom I am address- 

 ing have seen a thermometer rising under the influence of 

 a few centigrams of a radium salt ; but for those who pay 

 due respect to the principles of thermodynamics, the mere 

 fact that at any moment the gold leaves of the electroscope 

 may be set in motion by a trace of radium, or, better still, 

 the perpetual motion of Strutt's "radium clock," is all that 

 is required as demonstration of the ceaseless outflow of 

 energy attending the events proceeding w-ithin the atomic 

 systems. 



Although the term "ceaseless" is justified in comparison 

 with our own span of existence, the radium clock will in 

 point of fact run down, and the heat outflow gradually 

 diminish. Next year there will be less energy forthcoming 

 to drive the clock, and less heat given off by the radium by 

 about the one three-thousandth part of what now are 

 evolved. As geologists accustomed to deal with millions 

 of years, we must conclude that these actions, so far from 

 being ceaseless, are ephemeral indeed, and that if import- 

 ance is to be ascribed to radium as a geological agent, we 

 must seek to find if the radium now perishing off the earth 

 is not made good by some more enduringly active sub- 

 stance. 



That uranium is the primary source of supply cannot be 

 regarded as a matter of inference only. The recent dis- 

 coverv of ionium bv Boltwood serves to link uranium and 

 radium, and explains why it was that those who sought 

 for radium as the immediate offspring of uranium found 

 the latter apparently unproductive, the actual relation of 

 uranium to radium being that of grandparent. But even 

 were we without this connected knowledge, the fact of the 

 invariable occurrence in Nature of these elements, not only 

 in association but in a quantitative relationship, can only 

 be explained on a genetic connection between the two. 

 This evidence, mainly due to the work of Boltwood, when 

 examined in detail, becomes overwhelmingly convincing. 



Thus it is to uranium that we look for the continuance 

 of the supplies of radium. In it we find an all but eternal 

 source. The fraction of this substance which decays each 

 year, or, rather, is transformed to a lower atomic weight, 

 is measured in tens of thousands of millionths ; so that the 

 uranium of the earth one hundred million years ago was 

 hardly more than i per cent, greater in mass than it is 

 to-day. 



As radio-active investigations became more refined and 

 extended, it was discovered that radium was widely dif- 

 fused over the earth. The emanation of it was obtained 

 from the atmosphere, from the soil, from caves. It was 



1 See letters appearing in Nature of July 9 and September 24. 1903, 

 from ttie late Mr. W. E. Wilson and Sir George Darwin referring to radium 

 as a solar constituent, and one from the writer (October i. 1003) on its 

 influence as a terrestrial constituent. 



