38 REPORT — 1866. 



of similar lengths and depths. As regards, the presence of ice,_ it is only at 

 certain seasons of the year that the south-west coast of Greenland is closed. At 

 other times this ice breaks up, and the coast is accessible to the Danish and other 

 tradino- vessels frequenting the port and harbovu- of Jidianshaab, the proposed 

 station and landing-place of the cables, and at such times the cables will be laid. 

 Reference to the depth of the soundings up the Juliaushaab Fjord will at once in- 

 dicate the security of the shore-ends of the cables from interference_ by_ ice when 

 submerged. The landing-places of the cables in Iceland are likewise in no way 

 liable to be disturbed by ice of such a nature as to cause damage to the cable ; and 

 on the Labrador coast the risk of injury to the cable cannot be considered greater 

 than that to which the Anglo-American telegraph shore-ends are exposed in the 

 "v-icinity of the Newfoundland bank^ 



On a Defect in the Demonstrating Polariscope, with a simple and effective 

 Remedy. Bi/ J.T. Taylor. 



CHEMISTET. 



Address by H. Bence Jones, A.M., M.D., F.R.S., President of the Section. 

 From the foundation of the British Association in 1831, I believe no practising 

 physician has been President of the Chemical Section ; and I cannot take this 

 chair, when I know there are so many around me much better qualified than I am 

 to lead and to direct the discussions that will take place on various papers that will 

 be read, without asking your extreme indulgence for my shortcomings when sub- 

 jects are before you which will be far above the direction of my inquiries. 



When, however, I consider that my presence here may be regarded as a slight 

 evidence of the relationship that exists between chemistrj^ and medicine, I am 

 encourao'ed in my undertaking by the thought, that whatever sets forth the union 

 of chemistry and medicine tends to promote not only the good of science but also 

 the welfare of mankind. 



For centuries this nnion has been at one time admitted and at another disal- 

 lowed ; but in the last half-century the discovery of Dr. Bright has proved that 

 chemistry is absolutely requisite for the detection of a large class of diseases, and 

 that without chemistry the nature of these diseases cannot be imderstood. 



Moreover, since this gi-eat discovery the action of different chemical substances 

 on the different forces in the ditierent living textures, as, for example, in the 

 muscles and nerves, has been so far investigated by chemists, that it is daily 

 becoming more and more certain that not only must every medical man become a 

 chemist if he wishes to have any clear idea of the action of air, food, and medicine, 

 but that the chemist who has most knowledge of the different forces that act in 

 the body will require to learn the forms of matter in which those forces reside, and 

 then -vsath tentative skill he will quickly be able to regulate the qualitative and 

 quantitative errors which constitute disease. In other words, when the union of 

 chemistrv and medicine is perfect, then science will show us how to keep or to 

 regain the greatest of blessings, health. 



The past year has not for chemistry been a year of great progress, though the 

 harvest of new truths has been quite equal to the average. 



That o-rand field for discovery, the synthesis of organic substances, furnishes as 

 usual the most important fruit ; and, as in duty bound, let me first mention the 

 results that have been obtained by Professor Frankland at the Royal Institution. 



His svnthetical researches on ethers have partly been published in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions. He has succeeded in replacing all three atoms of hydrogen 

 in the methyl of acetic acid by alcohol radicals ; and thus he has obtained a third 



kind of butjTic acid, namely, di-nieth-acetic acid, I ^X jj , and a new valerianic 



acid, namely, tri-meth-acetic acid, | co Ho ' ^^*° iso-lamic acid, < ^q J^^ *. 

 The same reaction has also been extended to the replacement of the hydrogen of 

 * For a full explanation of these formula, vide Journ. Chem. Soc. 1866, pp. 372 et seq. 



