54 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



In tlie foregoing description of the activities of the new laboratory I 

 have endeavoured to speak as historian rather than as advocate, but if 

 any justification is to be included I would take as the two leading points 

 of my case : First, the scientific and industrial importance of the researches 

 completed and in progress ; secondly, the significant fact that of the 

 sixteen members of the laboratory staff who have resigned during the 

 five years, fourteen have gone into chemical industry to occupy positions 

 of considerable importance and responsibility. The appreciation of 

 chemical talent is a valuable function of this State laboratory. 



Anticipations and Current Tendencies. 



Those who feel sufficiently interested in the realisation of Prof. Vernoui 

 Harcourt's vision should not fail to visit the exhibit of laboratory products 

 now on view in an adjacent room, for these specimens, diagrams, models 

 and photographs furnish a record of the researches of this youthful organisa- 

 tion which is far more realistic and appealing than any words of mine 

 can be. 



Certain of these investigations have an immediate practical objective ; 

 others represent the long view. It is, however, impossible to draw a 

 definite distinction between these contrasted types. The aim of a State 

 laboratory should rather be to encourage a judicious blend of the two. 



The chemical preparations now selected for exhibition as representing 

 the work of the first five years are only the more distinctive specimens of 

 a much larger collection which is continually being accumulated and 

 classified. In a similar orderly manner chemical" knowledge is being 

 collected and systematised in the files and card-indexes compiled by 

 members of each exploring party. So soon as any particular research is 

 sufficiently complete it is contributed to the appropriate learned society. 

 Occasionally publication takes the form of patent specifications. By such 

 concerted efforts the laboratory must come to be recognised as a store- 

 house of chemical information at least for those branches of the science 

 which are included in the scope of its researches. 



Is it desirable that this scope should be extended, and if so in what 

 directions 1 This is not the occasion to discuss matters of departmental 

 policy, but, in my present capacity, I may, like my predecessor of fifty-five 

 years ago, indulge in anticipations of how future developments might be 

 of advantage to chemical science in general and to British chemistry in 

 particular. 



Inorganic and Mineral Chemistry. 



An eminent authority has recently enquired what has become of 

 inorganic chemistry, and this question is frequently repeated. The 

 present answer is that, so far as this country is concerned, the subject 

 is no longer investigated systematically. British chemists are now 

 for the most part content to leave this work of exploration to their 

 contemporaries in other lands. Yet the British Empire is endowed 

 with mineral resources to an extent unsurpassed by any other nation 

 or empire under the sun. It can scarcely be contended that in this 

 respect we are rendering an adequate account of our stewardship. 

 Although there are a few meritorious exceptions, one may say broadly 

 that there is no sustained British attempt to study the rare earths, the less 



