28 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 
He claimed that this doctrine is the product of the mind itself, 
and that the reason of our strong belief in the law is our inabil- - 
ity to conceive of matter being destroyed. He says it takes an 
educated mind to appreciate this, but that the real foundation 
of the law is the impossibility of a trained intellect to conceive 
of the process by which something is transformed into nothing 
or of the process by which nothing is evolved into something. 
Now, while this seems to me sound and logical, the discoveries of 
chemists during the last few years have thrown some doubt on 
our most cherished ideas, and have led some of our foremost men 
to think that when our minds become more highly trained the 
things which nuw seem inconceivable may prove to be real and 
tangible facts. Prof. Ramsay has said recently in an interview 
that all previous calculations of science are likely to be upset 
by radium. We may soon be compelled to revise some of the 
scientific theories which are now regarded as cardinal. One ex- 
traordinary quality of radium salts is that the evolution of heat 
and energy goes on continuously apparently without combus- 
tion without chemical change of any kind and without adulter- 
ation of its molecular structure. At the expiration of a month 
of activity the salt is quite as great as it was in the beginning of 
the experiment. Such phenomena as these seem very difficult to 
reconcile with the laws of the conservation of matter and en- 
ergy. 
TI have made these references to chemistry, past and present, 
in order to show you that while chemistry lays claim to eredit 
for a large share of the advance in modern industry, it is still too 
young to be without some unsolved problems. But I think it 
will be agreed that having started so late the science of chemis- 
try has made wonderful progress and has been of inestimable 
advantage to nearly every industry. 
There is a peculiar virtue in the application of chemistry to 
manufacture that is characteristic of nearly every branch in 
which it is introduced. Nearly every commodity that is made 
for human needs has its beginning in the hands of ‘‘practical’’ 
workmen, men without scientific training, who have some special 
aptitude for the work chosen. There is no disputing the value 
