448 REPORT—1883. 
Section B.—CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 
PRESIDENT OF THE Suction—J. H. Guapsronz, Ph.D., F.R.S., V.P.C.S. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20. 
The Presrpenr delivered the following Address :— 
A SECTIONAL address usually consists either of a review of the work done in the 
particular science during the past year, or of an exposition of some branch of 
that science to which the speaker has given more especial attention. I propose to 
follow the latter of these practices, and shall ask the indulgence of my brother 
chemists while I endeavour to place before them some thoughts on the subject of 
Elements. 
Though theoretical and practical chemistry are now intertwined, with manifest 
advantage ‘to each, they appear to have been far apart in their origin. Practical 
chemistry arose from the arts of life, the knowledge empirically and laboriously 
acquired by the miner and metallurgist, the potter and the glass-worker, the cook 
and the perfumer. Theoretical chemistry derived its origin from cosmogony. In 
the childhood of the human race the question was eagerly put, ‘ By what process 
were all things made?’ and some of the answers given started the doctrine of 
elements. The earliest documentary evidence of the idea is probably contained in 
the Shoo King, the most esteemed of the Chinese classics for its antiquity. It is an 
historical work, and comprises a document of still more venerable age, called ‘The 
Great Plan, with its Nine Divisions,’ which purports to have been given by Heaven 
to the Great Yu, to teach him his royal duty and ‘the proper virtues of the 
various relations.’ Ofcourse there are wide diflerences of opinion as to its date, 
but we can scarcely be wrong in considering it as older than Solomon's writings. 
The First Division of the Great Plan relates to the Five Elements. ‘The first is 
named Water; the second, Fire; the third, Wood; the fourth, Metal; the fifth, 
Earth. The nature of water is to soak and descend; of fire, to blaze and ascend ; 
of wood, to be crooked and to be straight ; of metal, to obey and to change; while 
the virtue of the earth is seen in seed-sowing and ingathering. That which soaks 
and descends becomes salt; that which blazes and ascends becomes bitter; that 
which is crooked and straight becomes sour; that which obeys and changes 
becomes acrid; and from seed-sowing and ingathering comes sweetness.’ * 
A similar idea of five elements was also common among the Indian races, 
and is stated by Mr. Rodwell to have been in existence before the fifteenth 
century B.C., but, though the number is the same, the elements themselves are not 
jdentical with those of the ancient Chinese classic ; thus, inthe Institutes of Menu, 
the ‘subtle ether’ is spoken of as being the first created, from which, by trans- 
mutation, springs air, whence, by the operation of a change, rises light or fire ; 
from this comes water, and from water is deposited earth. These five are curiously 
correlated with the five senses, and it is very evident that they are not looked upon 
as five independent material existences, but as derived from one another. This 
philosophy was accepted alike by Hindoos and Buddhists. It was largely extended 
1 Quoted from the translation by the Rev. Dr. Legge. In that most obscure: 
classic, the Yi-King, fire and water, wind and thunder, the ocean and the mountains, 
appear to be recognised as the elements. 
