598 REPORT— 1891. 



by siicli men as Bauschinger, Jenny, and Tetmajer. Perliaps tbe most important 

 recent work is that described by Prof. Martens, of Berlin, on the influence of heat 

 on the strength of iron. 



I might have dwelt at length on all these matters without doing half the 

 service to metallurgy that I hope to render by earnestly pleading for the more 

 extended teaching of the subject throughout the country, and for better laboratories, 

 arranged on the model of engineering laboratories, in which the teaching is con- 

 ducted with tbe aid of complete, though small, ' plant.' The Science and Art 

 Department has done great and lasting service by directing that metallurgy shall 

 be taught practically, but much remains to be done. With regard to laboratories 

 in works, which are too often mere sheds, placed, saj', behind tbe boiler-house, wben 

 may we hope to rival the German chemical firm which has recently spent 19,000/. 

 upon its laboratories, in which research will be vigorously conducted ? There is 

 hardly any branch of inorganic chemistry which the metallurgist can afford to 

 neglect, while many branches both of physics and mechanics are of utmost 

 importance to him. 



The wide range of study upon which a metallurgical student is rightly expected 

 to enter is leading, it is to be feared, to diminution in the time devoted to analytical 

 chemistry, and this most serious question sliould be pressed upon the attention of 

 all who are responsible for the training of our future chemists. There can be no 

 question that sufficient importance is not attached to the estimation of ' traces,' an 

 analysis being considered to be satisfactory if the constituents found add up to 

 99'!), although a knowledge as to what elements represent the missing O'l may be 

 more useful in affording an explanation of the defects in a material than all the 

 rest of the analysis. This matter is of growing interest to practical men, and may 

 explain their marked preference for chemists who have been trained in works, to 

 those who have been educated in a college laboratory. 



The necessity for affording public instruction in mining and metallurgy, with a 

 view to the full development of the mineral wealth of a nation, is well known. 

 The issues at stake are so vast, that in this country it was considered desirable to 

 provide a centre of instruction in which the teaching of mining and metallurgy 

 should not be left to private enterprise or even entrusted to a corporation, but 

 should be under the direct control of tbe Government. With this end in view, the 

 Boyal School of Mines was fovmded in 1851, and has supplied a body of well- 

 trained men who have done excellent service for the country and her colonies. 

 The Government has recently taken a step in advance, and has further recognised 

 the national importance of the teaching of mining and metallurgy by directing that 

 the School of Mines shall be incorporated with the Royal College of Science, 

 which is, 1 believe, destined to lead tbe scientific education of tbe nation. 



It is to be feared that as regards metalliferous mining, other tlian that relating 

 to iron, our country has seen its best days, but tbe extraordinary mineral wealth 

 of our colonies has recently been admirably described by my colleague. Professor 

 Le Neve Foster, in the inaugural lecture he delivered early in the present year 

 on his appointment to the chair so long held by Sir Warington Smyth. We 

 shall, however, be able to rightly estimate tbe value of our birthright when tbe 

 Imperial Institute is opened next year, and tbe nation will have reason to be 

 grateful to Sir Frederick Abel for the care be is devoting to tbe development of 

 this great institution, which will become the visible exponent of the splendours 

 of our Indian and colonial resources, as well as a centre of information. 



Tbe rapid growth of technical literature renders it unnecessary for a president of 

 a Section to devote his address to recording the progress of the subject be represents. 

 As regards the most important part of our national metallurgy, this has, moreover, 

 been admirably done by successive Presidents of tbe Iron and Steel Institute, but 

 it may have been expected that references would have been mnde to the main pro- 

 cesses which have been adopted since Percy occupied this chair in 1849. I have 

 not done so, because an enumeration of tbe processes would have been wholly in- 

 adequate, and a description of them impossible in the time at my disposal. Never- 

 theless, it may be well to remind the Section of a few of the more prominent 



