32 



NATURE 



{Nov. 13, 187^ 



which we are associated, the only way in which we can 

 render them available to our numerous Fellows resident 

 in our colonies, is through our publications, and heavy as 

 have been of late years our printer's and artists' bills, 

 they will and ought to becom - heavier and heavier still. 

 To render fully available the assistance we have received 

 from Government, we require continued and increased 

 support from our Fellows, and from the scientific public. 

 We reckon already among our Fellows the great majority 

 of those who have acquired a name in zoology, or botany, 

 and I sincerely hope that all men of means who take a 

 sincere interest in biological pursuits will think it a 

 pleasure as well as a duty to contribute directly or in- 

 directly to the support of the Linnean Society of 

 London. 



With regard to future arrangements in the new phases 

 of life into which the Society has entered, the Council 

 has kept in view three great objects, the endeavour to 

 render our Meetings attractive, the extended usefulness 

 of our library, and the steady maintenance of our publi- 

 cations. On meeting-nights the library will be open at 

 7 o'clock, the chair will be taken in the meeting-room 

 at 8 o'clock, as at present, and after the meetmg the 

 Fellows will adjourn to tea in the Council Room upstairs, 

 opposite to, and in direct communication with the library. 

 The extended shelf-room in the library has enabled a 

 classification of the books which will render those most 

 frequently consulted much more readily accessible than 

 heretofore ; and as evidence that there is no relaxation 

 in our publishing department, I have to announce that 

 besides the two numbers of our Journal, one in Zoology, 

 and the other in Botany, which have been sent out since 

 our last meeting, two new parts of our Transactions are in 

 the course of delivery, the concluding one of Volume 

 XXVIIl., and the second of Col. Grant's Volume XXIX. 

 The first part of Volume XXX. is in the printer's hands. 



INAUGURATION OF THE CHEMICAL SO- 

 CIETY'S NEW ROOMS 



ON Thursday night last the Chemical Society met for 

 the first time in the new apartments assigned to it 

 in the right-hand front wing of Burlington House. The 

 event was a notable one, and it is not often that such an 

 occasion happens to the president of a hard-working body 

 of scientific men as last Thursday fell to the lot of Dr. 

 Odling when he rose to welcome the fellows to their new- 

 home, and he might well feel it his duty to break for once 

 the tradition which imposes silence on the president on the 

 first night of the session. 



Dr. Odling accordingly rose and proceeded to bid them 

 welcome to the new rooms, and then to give in a few 

 words a general statement of what had been done in rela- 

 tion to the taking possession of them by the society. This 

 it seems had been by no means an easy matter, as but 

 a few days back the society was still in its old quarters 

 without a book of its library moved, and the present 

 apartments were in a damp and generally unfinished state. 



Thanks, however, to the exertions of the Council and 

 especially of the Junior Secretary (Dr. Russell), who were 

 most kindly met and aided in their endeavours by Mr. 

 Barry (the architect) and the Clerk of the Works ; the 

 new rooms were got into a habitable condition, the books 

 in great part placed in their cases, and the meeting-room 

 provided with seats in time for the first meeting of the 

 session. 



The rooms in question at present in use consist of the 

 librar)', a noble room on the second floor, well capable of 

 holding the books of the society for some time to come. 

 That for meetings, below the library and overlooking 

 Piccadilly, is capable of seating nearly twice the number 

 of listeners that could be provided for in the old quarters. 

 The seats, however, arc somewhat crowded, and though 



the room is pro\'ided with double windows there is a consi- 

 derable noise from the street. The president, however, held 

 out hopes of a wooden or asphalt pavement being before 

 long laid down in front of the building, and we hope a point 

 of such importance will not long be neglected by the autho- 

 rities. The most noticeable point, however, is a laboratory, 

 placed on the right-hand side of the meeting-room and 

 opening into it with double doors immediately behind 

 the lecture-table. This, though at present not quite 

 ready for use, is supplied with every fitting of a good 

 laboratory, and will shortly be provided with the neces- 

 sar)' apparatus and re-agents. According to the president, 

 " whatever may be its subsequent use, it is intended at pre- 

 sent to place it at the disposal of those authors who 

 may wish to illustrate their papers with experiments." 

 We do not know whether the words of the president 

 imply an intention on the part of the society to aid re- 

 search by granting the use of its laboratory in such cases 

 as it may think deserving, but in any case the society 

 deserves the thanks of every scientific man for so admir- 

 able an innovation as a room for the preparation of exp, 

 riments. 



Dr. Odling in his speech alluded to the " childish plea- 

 sure, childish in its earnestness and simplicity," with 

 which a chemist looks upon a new e.xperiment. We 

 quite a_'ree with him as to the fact of its existence, but 

 we think that this desire to see answers a far higher pur- 

 pose than that of mere pleasure. The science of the 

 chemist is essentially a science in which, to quote a 

 popular phrase, " seeing is believing," and nothing can be 

 more wearisome than the constant repetition of the de- 

 scription of reactions, or the recounting of qualitative or 

 quantitative results unenlivened by a single experiment. 

 Such descriptions quite fail to lay hold upon the mind, 

 except at the e,>:pense of a wearisome strain, and the con- 

 sequence is that many a valuable paper loses half or all 

 its effect when read (which should be to raise discussion), 

 simply because in an attempt to describe facts the author 

 loses sight of the necessity of succinctly generalising 

 therefrom. 



In the meantime what have the other societies affected 

 by the changes in Piccadilly been doing to provide for 

 the experimental illustration of papers ? and especially 

 what has the Royal Society done in the direction to which 

 we have alluded ? We are informed on the best authority 

 — nothing ! The rooms of the latter consist as did the 

 temporary ones, simply of those requisite for the accomo- 

 dation of the library and for the rcacliiif; of papers. Now 

 is the Chemical Society right ? If so the Royal Society 

 is wrong. It has not done all when it has provided com- 

 fortable reading-rooms for its members, and a place 

 where its secretaries can read the papers to a itw silent 

 Fellows who are sparsely scattered over the benches. The 

 reading and publication of papers is not all that a great 

 and wealthy society can or ought to do for the ad- 

 vancement of science. Why should its laboratories not exist 

 as well as its library ? 



There is no reason why the meetings of the 

 societies instead of being, as some of them now are, 

 dull reunions only attended by the Fellows as a matter of 

 duty, should not be made more useful to men of science. 

 What could be better than to see them attended by 

 the more advanced of the younger students of science, as 

 the meetings of the Chemical Society now very often are, 

 who might there see how the better known workers de- 

 monstrate their discoveries, and how their papers are 

 examined and discussed. Unless some attempt is made 

 to give the other societies a greater gra'ip o\er the seve- 

 ral classes of workers to which they moic directly appc .1, 

 they will infallibly lose the guiding power they have 

 hitherto had, and the advactages conferred by their orga- 

 nisation in the propagation of scientific knowledge will be 

 lost. It behoves the Royal Society in particular to show 

 the way to the others in following in the steps taken with 



