964 REPORT—1885. 
published work is of little value, and that chemists are devoting themselves too exclu- 
sively to the study of carbon compounds, and especially of synthetical chemistry. 
We are told that investigation is running too much in a few grooves, and it is said 
that we are gross worshippers of formulz. Most of these outbursts are attributable 
to that pardonable selfishness which consists in assigning a higher value to the 
particular class of work with which one happens to be engaged or interested in 
than to any other line of investigation ; too frequently they result from want of 
sympathy with, if not absolute ignorance of, the scope and character of the work 
complained of. It must not be forgotten that chemical investigation, like other 
investigation, is to a large extent the work of genius; the rank and file must 
necessarily follow in the order of their abilities and opportunities: hence it is that 
we work in grooves. The attention paid to the study of carbon compounds may 
be more than justified both by reference to the results obtained and to the nature 
of the work before us: the inorganic kingdom refuses any longer to yield up her 
secrets—new elements—except after severe compulsion ; the organic kingdom—both 
animal and vegetable—stands ever ready before us: little wonder, then, if problems 
directly bearing upon life prove the more attractive to the living. The physio- 
logist complains that probably 95 per cent. of the solid matters of living struc- 
tures are pure unknowns to us, and that the fundamental chemical changes 
which occur during life are entirely enshrouded in mystery. It is in order 
that this may no longer be the case that the study of carbon compounds is being so 
vigorously prosecuted : our weapons—the knowledye of synthetical processes and 
of chemical function—are now rapidly being sharpened, but we are yet far from 
ready for the attack. As to the value of the work, I believe that every fact 
honestly recorded is of value; an infinite number of examples might be quoted to 
prove this. No unprejudiced reader can but be struck also with the improvement 
in quality which is manifest in the majority of the investigations now published ; 
at no time was more attention given to the discovery of all the products of the re- 
actions studied, and to the determination of the influence of changes in the condi- 
tions. As regards our formule, those who look upon the outward visible form with- 
out proper knowledge of the facts symbolised, and who take no pains to appreciate 
the spirit in which they are conceived, are undoubtedly misled by them. The 
great outcome of the labours of carbon-chemists has been, however, the establish- 
ment of the doctrine of structure ;1 that doctrine has received the most powerful 
support from the investigation of physical properties, and it may almost, without 
exaggeration, be said to haye been rendered visible in Abney and Festing’s infra- 
red spectrum photographs. Some of us look forward to the extension of the 
doctrine of structure not only to compounds generally, but even to the ‘elements.’ 
The relationships between these are in so many cases so exactly similar to those 
which obtain between carbon compounds, which we are persuaded differ merely in 
structure, that it is almost impossible to avoid such a conclusion, even in the absence 
of all laboratory evidence.? 
As the field of view opens out before us, so does the vastness of the work to be 
accomplished become more and more apparent ; and Faraday’s words of 1834 may 
be quoted as even more appropriate than a half-century ago: 
‘ Indeed, it is the great beauty of our science, CHEMISTRY, that advancement in it, 
whether in a degree great or small, instead of exhausting the subjects of research, 
opens the doors to further and more abundant knowledge, overflowing with beauty 
and utility, to those who will be at the easy personal pains of undertaking its ex- 
perimental investigation.’ 
1 I yenture here to direct attention to an extension of the acknowledged theory of 
structure suggested (by myself, I may say) at the close of the discussion of the 
van’t Hoff-La Bel hypothesis of isomerism in Miller's Chemistry, vol. iii. 1880 
edition, p. 993. The same view was soon afterwards independently put forward by 
Dr. Perkin. 
2 #. Exner in a recent paper (Monatshefte fiir Chemie, 1885, p. 249) ‘On a New 
Method of Determining the Size of Molecules,’ actually put forward an hypothesis as 
to the structure of elements. 
