Septembeb 17, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



375 



matic representatives of the various governments 

 at the Court of St. James, who formed a pic- 

 turesque background for the royal patrons, and 

 the hundreds of distinguished men of chemical 

 science gathered around and in front from more 

 than twenty of the civilized nations of the world. 

 Sir Henry Roscoe, the honorary president, of- 

 fered an English welcome to his colleagues 

 assembled from all parts of the world and thanked 

 the royal patrons for the felicitous manner in 

 which they had inaugurated the conference. 



Sir William Ramsay, the acting president, wel- 

 comed the foreign representatives in the official 

 languages of the congress, English, French, Ger- 

 man and Italian. He emphasized the close rela- 

 tionship between pure and applied chemistry as 

 observed upon the Continent, and the especial 

 need of a fuller realization of the fact in Great 

 Britain and America. He complimented the 

 Italian organization committee of the sixth con- 

 gress for applying the surplus of the funds to 

 defraying the expenses of a band of Italian stu- 

 dents in attendance on the London congress. He 

 concluded his remarks by quoting the motto, 

 "Philadelphia Maneto! " — "Let brotherly love 

 continue! " 



These addresses of welcome were responded to 

 significantly in complimentary terms in the fol- 

 lowing order: 



Speaking for America Dr. H. W. Wiley (in 

 " Ustatian ") called attention to the fact that, but 

 for what chemistry had done, teeming millions of 

 our globe would be unclad and unfed; the prin- 

 ciples of prophylaxis in medical science were 

 mainly due to the services of chemistry; sanita- 

 tion is applied chemistry; pure food, pure air, 

 pure drink meant pure minds and bodies, pro- 

 longation of life and more effective endeavor; 

 and more important than all, chemistry had ele- 

 vated the morals of man by detecting and ex- 

 posing fraud. 



Professor Armand Gautier (in French) called 

 attention to the rivalry — always friendly and not 

 hostile — of the men of science in France and 

 England, and that in spite of past differences 

 due to political causes, the mutual appreciation 

 of the men of science in the two countries had 

 annihilated those differences and brought them 

 in closer communion than possible through any 

 formal treaties. 



Professor Dr. O. N. Witt (in German) antici- 

 pated that the present congress would mark a 

 further " advance in the path of international 

 discussion and understanding trodden by our 



science " and every country was interested in 

 some degree in the subjects of the congress. 



Professor E. PatrnO (in Italian) referring to 

 the enthusiasm shown in Rome to accept the invi- 

 tation to hold the seventh congress in that country 

 which produced Boyle, Black, Cavendish, Priestley, 

 Wollaston, Dalton, Davy, Faraday and Graham. 

 " Even in the busy, noisy, bewildering rush of 

 London life men of science yet know how to find 

 the tranquility and quiet necessary for the inves- 

 tigation and discussion of the most abstruse prob- 

 lems of philosophy and science." 



Professor Arrhenius (in English), speaking for 

 the other foreign countries, referred to England 

 as the classical land of applied chemistry and of 

 the application of improved hygiene in London 

 so that it had the lowest death rate among the 

 large cities of the world. 



Sir Frederick Bridge, organist to Westminster 

 Abbey, gave a preliminary organ recital and the 

 national anthem was played and sung as the for- 

 mal inaugural meeting concluded. 



The congress was divided into seventeen sec- 

 tions. The titles of the papers presented are of 

 interest, but are omitted on account of lack of 

 space. 



It may be remarked here that more or less con- 

 fusion resulted in some instances when joint meet- 

 ings of sections were announced. This should be 

 avoided. It also appears to your representative 

 that four days are too few for the best results 

 from such a large congress. It was quite im- 

 possible to determine the exact hour at which 

 many important papers were to be presented and 

 only too frequently extremely interesting sub- 

 jects, more or less allied, were under discussion 

 in different sections. 



The social features of the congress were undoubt- 

 edly of equal if not greater importance than the 

 papers presented. The English homes were hos- 

 pitably wide open. Numerous delightful private 

 dinner parties, followed by more numerous recep- 

 tions, charming garden parties such as only the 

 English know how to give, gave every chance for 

 intimate exchange of ideas. Of the private garden 

 parties reference can only be made to one given by 

 Dr. and Mrs. Ludwig Mond and Mr. Robert Mond 

 on Sunday afternoon. May 30, to which 1,700 tickets 

 were issued. These included the entire Italian 

 delegation, which took advantage of the occasion 

 to present Dr. Mond with a noble bronze in appre- 

 ciation of his numerous gifts to the art and 

 science of Rome. The garden party was not only 

 complete in the most elaborate detail for the 



