436 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1135 



we can not rest satisfied with anything less 

 than full recognition of the fact that chem- 

 istry is a profession of fundamental im- 

 portance, and that the chemist is entitled 

 to a position in no respect inferior to that 

 of a member of any of the other learned 

 professions. 



Eeference to the annual reports of the 

 association shows that former presidents of 

 the Section have availed themselves to the 

 full of the latitude permitted in the choice 

 of a subject for their address, and that some 

 have even established the precedent of dis- 

 pensing with an address altogether. On 

 the present occasion a topic for discussion 

 seems to be clearly indicated by the cir- 

 cumstances in which we stand, because, 

 since the outbreak of the war, chemists 

 have been giving more earnest considera- 

 tion than before to the present position 

 and future prospects of the chemical in- 

 dustry of this country. It will, therefore, 

 not be inappropriate if I touch upon some 

 aspects of this question, even although un- 

 able to add much to what is, or ought to be, 

 common knowledge. 



The period which has elapsed since the 

 last meeting of the Section in Newcastle 

 has witnessed truly remarkable progress in 

 every branch of pure and applied chemis- 

 try. For fully fifty years previous to that 

 meeting the attention of the great majority 

 of chemists had been devoted to organic 

 chemistry, but since 1885 or thereabouts, 

 whilst the study of the compounds of car- 

 bon has been pursued with unflagging 

 energy and success, it has no longer so 

 largely monopolized the activities of in- 

 vestigators. Interest in the other elements, 

 which had been to some extent neglected on 

 account of the fascinations of carbon, has 

 been revived with the happiest results, for 

 not only has our knowledge of these ele- 

 ments been greatly extended, but their 

 number also has been notably increased by 

 the discovery of two groups of simple sub- 



stances possessed of new and remarkable 

 properties — the inert gases of the argon 

 family and the radio-active elements. In 

 addition, the bonds between mathematics 

 and physics, on the one hand, and chemis- 

 try, on the other, have been drawn closer, 

 with the effect that the department of our 

 science known as physical chemistry has 

 now assumed a position of first-rate impor- 

 tance. "With the additional light provided 

 by the development and application of 

 physico-chemical theory and methods, we 

 are beginning to gain some insight into 

 such intricate problems as the relation be- 

 tween physical properties and chemical 

 constitution, the structure of molecules and 

 even of atoms, and the mechanics of chem- 

 ical change; our outlook is being widened, 

 and our conceptions rendered more precise. 

 Striking advances have also been made in 

 other directions. The extremely difficult 

 problems which confront the bio-chemist 

 are being gradually overcome, thanks to the 

 indefatigable labors of a band of highly 

 skilled observers, and the department of 

 biological chemistry has been established 

 on a firm footing through the encouraging 

 results obtained within the period under 

 review. Further, within the last few years 

 many of our ideas have been subjected to a 

 revolutionary change through the study of 

 the radio-active elements, those elusive sub- 

 stances which occur in such tantalizingly 

 minute quantities, and of which some ap- 

 pear so reluctant to exist in a free and in- 

 dependent state that they merge their 

 identity in that of another and less retiring 

 relative within an interval of time meas- 

 ured by seconds. In truth, if a Rip Van 

 Winkle among chemists were to awake now 

 after a slumber of thirty years, his amaze- 

 ment on coming into contact with the chem- 

 istry of to-day would be beyond words. 



The more purely scientific side of our sci- 

 ence can claim no monopoly in progress, for 

 applied chemistry, in every department, 



