24 , REPORT 1804. 



senting the compounds of carbon, and an entirely different sequence of symbols in 

 representing the more or less analogous compounds of all other elements. Now that 

 organic and mineral chemistry are properly regarded as forming one continiious 

 whole, a conclusion to which in my opinion Kolbe's researches on sulphuretted 

 organic bodies have largely contributed, it is high time that such relics of the ancient 

 superstition that organic and mineral chemistiy were essentially different from one 

 another should be done away with. 



Although, duiing the past year, the direct advance of that crucial organic 

 chemistry, the sjmthesis of natural organic bodies, has not been striking, yet, on 

 the other hand, its indirect advance has, I submit, been very considerable. Several 

 of the artificially produced organic compounds, at first thought to be identical 

 with those of natural origin, have proved to be, as is well known, not identical, 

 but only isomeric therewith. Hence, reader pour mieiLV saiiter, chemists have 

 been stepping back a little to examine more intimately the constitution both of 

 natural organic bodies and of their artificial isomers. The sjntlietic power having 

 been attained of putting the bricks together in almost any desired way, it is yet 

 necessary, in order to construct some particular biological edifice, fii"st to learn 

 the way in which its constituent bricks have been naturally put together. We 

 accordingly find the study of isomerism, or, what comes to the same thing, the 

 study of the intimate constitution of bodies, assuming an importance never before 

 accorded to it. Isomerism is, in fact, the chemical problem of the day, and con- 

 cun-ently with its rapidly advancing solution, through the varied endeavours of 

 many workers, will be the advance in rational organic sjTithesis. It is curious to 

 note" the oscillations of opinion in reference to this subject. Twenty years ago the 

 molecular constitution of bodies was perceived by a special instinct, simultane- 

 ously with, or even prior to, the establishment of their molecular weights. Then 

 came an interval of scepticism, when the intimate constitution of bodies was main- 

 tained to be not only unknown, but unknowable. Now we have a period of tem- 

 perate reaction, not recognizing the desired knowledge as unattainable, but only as 

 difficult of attainment. And in this, as in many other instances, we find evidence 

 of the healthier state of mind in which, now more perhaps than ever, the first 

 principles of chemical philosophy are explored. Speculation, indeed, is not less 

 rife and scarcely less esteemed than formerlj', but is now seldom or never mis- 

 taken for ascertained truth. Scjpticism, indeed, still prevails — not, however, the 

 sterile scepticism of resignation, but the fertile scepticism which aspires to greater 

 and greater certainty of knowkdje. Chemical science is advancing, I believe, not 

 only more rapidlj^, but upon a surer basis than heretofore ; and, while with every 

 advance the prospect widens before our eyes, so that we become almost alarmed 

 at contemplating what those who come after us will have to learn, we console 

 ourselves with the determination that their labour of unlearning shall be as little 

 as possible — far less, we hope, than what we in om* time have had to experience. 



On some Bituminous Substances. By Dr. T. Anderson. 



On the Utilization of Sewage. By Dr. Henry Bird. 



On the Prismatic Formation of Ice in certain Ice-Caves and Glaciers. 

 By the Eev. G. Browne. 

 The ice-caves to which the author referred were found in limestone rocks in 

 various parts of France and Switzerland. The ice was found at depths of from 50 

 to 200 feet below the surface, and at altitudes varying from imder 2000 to nearly 

 GOOO feet above the sea, and appeared in the form of columns with spreading bases 

 fonned by the freezing of water which dropped fi-om the roof ; of ice cascades, 

 supported by the sloping walls, and formed by water running into the cave from 

 lateral fissm-es, and in other forms, which he illustrated by drawings. In visiting 

 these caves he was struck by the columnar appearance presented by the fractured 

 side of the ice ; and, on examining it, he found that the whole mass was composed 

 of a vast number of prisms closely compacted. He sepai-ated the prisms at the 



