590 EEPORT— 1901. 



in several cases yield to none in tlie energy and success with which chemical in- 

 vestigation is being pursued, and that the work of the chemical staff" is being 

 shared in by advanced pupils trained at these universities themselves. In this 

 connection it is quite unnecessary for me to remind you of the contributions to 

 British chemistry within recent years by Crum Brown and his pupils at Edinburgh, 

 by Japp at Aberdeen, by Purdie and James Walker at the duplex university 

 now working so harmoniously north and south of the Tay, by Emerson Reynolds 

 at Dublin, and by Harcourt and Harold Dixon, Liveing and Dewar, Kuhemann, 

 Heycock and Neville, Fenton, Sell, Marsh, and others, who have brought our 

 science into such living prominence on the banks of the Cam and the Isis. 



It is, however, not at home only that British chemists have displayed their 

 devotion to research, for with the world-wide relations of the empire it has 

 naturally fallen to the lot of some of our number to carry the science to the utter- 

 most parts of the earth, but it is surelj' a matter of which we may be justly proud 

 that some of these missionaries, like Mallett, Liversidge, Pedler and Kennie, have 

 in these distant lands carried out a number of most important scientific investiga- 

 tions ; whilst to one of them, Dr. Divers, belongs the great distinction, not only 

 of having carried chemistry to the Far East, but of having reared a most active 

 school of chemical research in that fascinating island empire of the rising sun and 

 the chrysanthemum which has won the iinfeigned admiration of the West. 



The annals of British Chemistry are, however, by no means an exclusive record 

 of the exploits of those engaged in the teaching of our science. I have already 

 referred to the importance of the contributions made by men of leisure, but an 

 equally noteworthy feature of British Chemistry is that its progress has been so 

 often furthered by men who have snatched the time for investigation out of a busy 

 professional or industrial life. Belonging to this category the names of a long line 

 of distinguished chemists of our own time suggest themselves : Warren de la Rue, 

 Hugo Jliiller, Sir John Lawes, Sir William Crookes, Sir William Abney, Peter 

 Griess, Newlands, O'Sullivan, Horace and Adrian Brown, Harris Morris, 

 Cross, and Bevan. To this group of chemists belongs also Dr. Ludwig Mond, 

 whose technical researches have been of such great value to industrial chemistry, 

 whilst his devotion to the pure science is attested by his interesting discovery and 

 investigation of the metallic carbonyl compounds, and by his conception and muni- 

 ficent endowment of the Davy-Faraday Laboratory, in which such unique oppor- 

 tunities for research have been provided by him. 



This would appear to be the most fitting moment also to refer to certain other 

 institutions intended for purposes of research which have been established during 

 the past twenty-five years. Of these the first is the Rothamsted Laboratory, so 

 celebrated during the last half-century for the memorable investigations of Lawes, 

 Gilbert, Pugh, and Warington, but which has more recentl}', through the generosity 

 of the late Sir John Lawes, been rendered a permanent home for the elucidation of 

 agricultural problems both by laboratory experiments and by trials in the field. 

 Secondly, there is the Research Laboratory which the Pharmaceutical Society 

 has established with the view of raising to a higher level the chemical education 

 of its most promising future members. This laboratory has furnished the 

 opportunity for the valuable investigations of its first director. Professor Dun- 

 stan, and of his successor. Dr. Collie. Still more recently a chemical research 

 laboratory has been established in the Imperial Institute. That noble building 

 has within the last few years undergone a process of transverse subdivision, one- 

 half having assumed an independent existence as the nucleus of that still crystal- 

 lising bod}', the University of London ; whilst in the remaining half the work of the 

 Institute is now carried on in such silence that we have almost forgotten its exist- 

 ence. For where is the florid music with which on summer nights the air of 

 South Kensington was wont to reverberate ? Gone. Gone also are the tea-tables, 

 the gardens with their million fairy lights, and the promenading crowds in gay 

 attire. But if the Institute, founded by public subscription to watch over and 

 advance the prosperity of the British dominions, has been impoverished by the 

 discontinuance of these revels, it has become enriched and has gained in dignity by 

 the creation within its wallsof a Research Laboratory in which Professor Dunstan and 



