434 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 
anyone pretend that intellectual discipline without utilitarian object, without 
the possibility of using it for the betterment of society, is a worthy pursuit? 
I think not. But, in any case, none of us have devoted ourselves to chemistry 
merely for the sharpening of our wits. Again, someone suggests that chemistry 
and learning generally should be pursued for their own sake. In a recent most 
interesting and inspiring academic address’ Professor Sir Walter Raleigh com- 
mends ‘those who seek nothing from knowledge but the pleasure of understand- 
ing.’ If such a statement bears its most obvious meaning, then I venture to 
think that, in common with intellectual discipline without the intention of 
applying to a useful object the intellect so trained, such a reason is selfish, 
inadequate, and unworthy, and does not justify the pursuit of anything. No: 
research in chemistry apart from the possibility of applying it to the advantage 
of humanity cannot be defended. The mastery of the seemingly unlimited 
resources of Nature which chemistry achieves more and more and its use to 
alleviate the misery and add to the happiness of mankind is the only worthy and 
effective defence. And that this is the underlying ideal, in point of fact, that 
leads the chemist onward, not necessarily that he is always conscious of it, but 
always when he reflects, I think cannot be doubted. But, of course, no narrow 
idea of utility must be aimed at. Practically any chemical inquiry may lead to 
results of material advantage. Certainly nothing could be more mischievous than 
to make a narrow immediate utility the test. It would be easy to illustrate all 
this from the records of science, but instances in point are so well known that it 
is unnecessary. 
On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that in making use of the 
manifold advantages derived from the growth of science, humanity, on its part, 
owes a great debt to scientific inquirers, and ought to feel it a sacred duty to do 
in return all in its power by support and encouragement to further scientific 
research. As Sir Walter Raleigh, in the address already referred to, says: ‘It 
is so easy to use the resources of civilisation that we fall into the habit of 
regarding them as if they were ours by right. They are not ours by right; 
they come to us by free gift from the thinkers.’ 
That this advantage to civilisation has been, and is, the result of the pursuit 
and consequent advance of chemistry is happily a truth that is well known. 
There is scarcely an industry or a profession that has not been 
Some con- materially influenced or even created by the discoveries of chemistry, 
crete appli- and therefore the welfare of nations is most intimately concerned 
cations of | in promoting its advancement. Now, it is common knowledge that 
the Science. no country has appreciated this to the same degree as Germany. It 
will, therefore, be worth our while to consider a moment the inau- 
guration in Berlin, a year ago, of an entirely new institution, the Kaiser Wilhelm 
Institut, for the promotion and organisation of chemical research. This research 
is to be effected throughout the German Empire, in the universities, the technical 
high schools, or in works, and it is supported mainly, at least at first, by sub- 
scriptions of the chemical manufacturers. An address of very great importance 
was delivered at its opening by Professor Emil Fischer, than whom, perhaps, no 
one. living has added more to the progress of chemistry. A translation of this 
address appeared in ‘ Nature,’ and, with additions, has since been published in a 
convenient book form.* In this address an authoritative account is given of the 
main contributions of chemistry to the national welfare, which even to those 
familiar with the subject must be astonishing in their importauce, variety, and 
universality. It includes the applications of the science to problems of nourish- 
ment, to agriculture, and food supply; to engineering, metallurgy, cements; to 
clothing, artificial silk, or to colouring—dyes; to indiarubber production, both 
natural and artificial; to perfumery—artificial violet and other artificial floral 
perfumes, even that of the rose; to synthetic camphor; to drugs and synthetic 
materia medica, including the recent arsenic and selenium organic compounds 
which promise so much in the treatment of cancer and other fatal diseases; to 
radio-activity, to therapeutics, to the destruction of pathogenic microbes; to 
methods of sewage disposal; to the preparation of efficient explosives; and to 
* The Meaning of a University. Clarendon Press, 1911. 
* Chemical Research in its Bearings on National Welfare. London, 1912. 
