PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 4.77 
developments of great importance to the chemist are being made by experiments on 
quantities of matter of almost inconceivable minuteness. Spectrum analysis of 
course took chemistry beyond the limits of the balance, but the new materials 
which it disclosed could at least be accumulated in palpable quantity. With 
radio-activity we seem, in relation to the ponderable, almost to be creating a 
chemistry of phantoms, and this reduction in the amount of experimental 
materials, associated as it is with an exuberance of mathematical speculation of the 
most bewildering kind concerning the nature, or perhaps I should say the want of 
nature, of matter, is caleulated to perturb a stolid and earthy philosopher whose 
business has been hitherto confined to comparatively gross quantities of materials 
and to a restricted number of crude mechanical ideas. He is tempted to think of 
Falstaff’s reckoning and to exclaim with Prince Henry, ‘Oh, monstrous! but one 
halfpennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack!’ Experimental science 
has latterly been spun to greater and greater fineness, until in the region of the 
N rays the objective element seems to have disappeared altogether. 
I should, however, gravely abuse the position in which I am allowed to speak 
for the moment as a representative of chemists if I failed to express profound ad- 
miration for the masterly work which has been accomplished by the pioneers of 
the science of radio-activity. All that I wish to say beyond that, is in explanation 
of a certain awe or trepidation which chemists of the older school may feel in the 
presence of such bold explorers; and I am the more tempted to say something on 
the subject, because in recent times, before the advent of radium, a good deal has 
happened which has given chemists occasion to ask themselves whether chemistry 
was not beginning, as it were, to drift away from them. 
The most conspicuous development of the science during the past twenty years 
has been, of course, on the physical side, and abundant have been its fruits; but 
it has seemed to demand from chemists habits and endowments which they did 
not normally possess, and which they could not easily acquire. I was much struck 
by a remark made to me a few years ago by a distinguished chemist, who is, 
I think, the most perfect manipulator I have ever seen at work, to the effect that 
he felt himself submerged and perishing in the great tide of physical chemistry 
which was rolling up into our laboratories. Now, it is precisely such men that 
must be preserved to chemistry. Though chemistry and physics meet and blend, 
there is, I believe, an essential difference between the genius of the chemist and 
the genius of the physicist, and I venture to think that some insistence on the 
primary functions of a chemist is not untimely. The chemist’s first qualification 
is that he shall be master of a peculiar craft; his greatest merit that he is a con- 
summate workman ; his distinctive power a nicety of discrimination in questions 
affecting the composition and quantity of materials. He is not given to elaborate 
theories and is usually averse to speculation; nor has he usually an aptitude for 
mathematics. Such the normal chemist is, or was, and such I hope he always may 
be—naked perhaps in some respects, but-unashamed. 
There seems to be a solicitude in some quarters to make a chemist something 
more than a chemist, a solicitude which, if gratified, will, I believe, make him some- 
thing lessthanone, Weare told, for example, that a chemist should be a mathema- 
tician. I do not admit it fora moment. Some mathematics he must of necessity 
have—that has always been admitted—but in proportion as chemistry develops on 
the mathematical side does it become important, not that our chemists should be 
trained in mathematics, but that they should be more than ever carefully trained 
in the art of exact experiment; that their methods of work, their powers of 
observation, and, if possible, their experimental conscience, if I may use the 
expression, should acquire a finer edge. There is never more cause for anxiety 
than when we see a mathematical theory awaiting the delivery of the confirma- 
tory facts, and there is nothing more important for chemistry than the continual 
recruiting of that old guard which will be ever ready to stand to arms on the 
appearance of an eager theorist. 
Ido not for a moment wish to disparage the adventurous spirits within or 
outside our science, still less do I wish to range myself with those who meet 
new ideas with mere objurgation or raillery. We must be content to see new 
