624 REPORT— 1887. 



Section B.— CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 

 Peesideitt of the Sectiox — Edward Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.C.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



The following Reports and Papers were read : — 



1. Report of the Committee for preparing a neic series of Wave-length Tables 

 of the Spectra of the Elements. 



2. Report of the Committee for investigating the Influence of Silicon on the 

 Properties of Steel. — See Reports, p. 43. 



5. Third Report of the Committee for investigating certain Physical Constants 

 of Solution, esjiecially the Expansion of Saline Solutions. — See Reports, 

 p. 48. ■ 



4. Report of the Committee for investigating the Nature of Solution. — See 

 Reports, p. 55. 



Report of the Committee on the Bihliograplnj of Solution. — See Reports, 



p. 57. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is, I can assure yon, with a feeling of extreme diffi- 

 dence that I take the chair to-day as President of the Chemical Section at this 

 meeting of the British Association. When I look round me and see the many dis- 

 tinguished men who are prepared to take part in our proceedings I cannot but very 

 strongly feel that the Council's choice might have fallen on a worthier representa- 

 tive of chemical science than myself. Having in the course of my career devoted 

 more time and attention to technical matters than to purely scientific suhjects, and 

 having moreover arrived at a time of life when active participation in work of any 

 kind must necessarily be drawing to a close, you must not expect from me the accurate 

 knowledge of the present state of chemical science and the questions that are at this 

 moment presenting themselves for solution such as would naturally be required from 

 anyone occupying the post which I have on this occasion the honour to hold. The 

 marvellously rapid progress of chemistry during the last twenty years has made it 

 difficult for the most industrious cultivator of the science to keep abreast of the 

 knowledge of the day, and for a dilettante like myself one may say it is next to im- 

 possible. I confess myself painfully conscious of my defects in this respect, and I 

 shall therefore have to claim the indulgence of the Section should questions arise 

 OK which I am unable to speak with authority, or to discuss with advantage. 



