670 REPORT— 1892. 



from many classes of students. There is no doubt that it is an excellent means oi 

 ■education, teaching a boy to observe and draw conclusions from his observations; 

 but if he makes no observations it is little more than useless cram ; the memory 

 might as well be exercised by learning a novel by heart. 



This imperfect mode of teaching cliemistry arises principally from the difficulty 

 of obtaining properly appointed laboratories in schools, in addition to which the 

 very strong fumes are sometimes disagreeable, making it inconvenient to have 

 them in or near a house, to say nothing of the possible dangers to the clothes and 

 their contents ; but there is no help for it ; the teaching must be accompanied by 

 experimental demonstration, as was indicated in the reports on the teaching of 

 •chemistry which have been presented to this Association in former years. It 

 must be admitted that examinations do not always discover the best student ; 

 many are capable of preparing for examinations with a small knowledge of their 

 subject ; others, with a good knowledge, fail from nervousness or other causes ; but 

 at the present time examination, although far from perfect, is almost the only 

 means we have of j udging the fitness of the candidate. By properly selecting 

 <3uestions the examiner may, to a considerable extent, discourage cram ; he should 

 endeavour to find out what the pupils have actually seen, and to make them draw 

 conclusions from facts which they have either themselves observed, or which have 

 been described to them ; it is only in this manner that chemistry can be used as 

 a means of mental training. 



These remarks do not apply to the education of students intending to make 

 •chemistry their profession, who have many opportunities, in the large laboratories 

 of Great Britain and the Continent, of obtaining all the necessary instruction. 

 The Institute of Chemistry, which was founded to improve the status and also 

 the education of professional chemists, requires that its members should have a 

 thoroughly scientific training. Before a candidate for the associateship is admitted 

 to examination he must bring evidence that he has passed satisfactorily through 

 a systematic course of at least three years' study in the subjects of theoretical and 

 practical chemistry, physics, and elementary mathematics in some recognised 

 college or school ; and before admission to the fellowship he must have passed 

 through three additional years of work in cliemistry. It is to be hoped that an 

 •example of this kind will ultimately have a good effect in improving the modes of 

 teaching the science in its elementary stages. 



There is another cla.ss of workers in cliemistry who must not be forgotten at 

 the present time, as they have much influence on the life of the world, and have 

 been working for ages, but have only recently been recognised. I mean those 

 organisms which are included under the name of microbes. These organisms are 

 capable of producing chemical changes which entirely surpass all the results 

 hitherto obtained by the chemist in his laboratory. That the transformation of 

 sugar into alcohol and carbonic anhydride in the ordinary process of fermentation 

 is due to a living organism has been known for some years ; the important trans- 

 formation of ammonia into nitrous and nitric acids in the soil has been shown to 

 be due to organisms whicli have recently been investigated by many chemists ; it 

 is possible to transform ammonia into these acids in the laboratorj- by oxidation 

 under certain conditions and at a high temperature, whereas the organism does the 

 work quite as efiicaciously at the common temperature. Other organisms have 

 the power of producing complex organic poisons by the alteration of some of the 

 constituents of the animal body, and the relation of these products to the study 

 of diseases is of the highest possible importance. As we hope to liave a discussion 

 on this interesting subject by many eminent authorities, both from the chemical 

 and biological points of view, it will be unnecessary to pursue the subject further, 

 unless it be to urge some of the younger chemists to work at the chemical aspect 

 ■of bacteriology. They must be prepared for hard work and many disappointments, 

 for the subject is undoubtedly a difficult one. 



I cannot conclude this address without reference to the great loss whicli 

 chemistry has sustained by the death of Professor A. W. von Hofmann. I had 

 the good fortune to be under him as student and assistant from 1856 until he left 

 this country in 1865; all who worked with him must have been deeply impressed 



