VIU PROCEEDINGS. 



effective if we had unlimited resources to draw upon. But what 

 concerns us most at present is, not what we might do if we liad 

 the means but what we can do with the means we have. The 

 Institute is able to look back upon a past of solid achievement; it 

 finds itself at j^resent in a more favourable condition as regards 

 material applianoes than it has ever before been. May it not, 

 therefore, look forward with confidence to a future that will be 

 worthy not merely of the achievements, but of the hopes and 

 aspirations of the past? 



Some Achievements of Chemical Synthesis. 



In addressing you a year ago, I attempted to trace the develop- 

 ment of the atomic theory, and to show how its fundamental 

 conception had received striking and unexpected confirmation from 

 recent physical research. This evening I propose inviting your 

 attention to a few achievements of Chemistry in the synthesis of 

 organic compounds. It is a subject which opens up a vast, almost 

 illimitable, field, in which one might wander indefinitely. But in 

 the time at my disposal it will only be possible to glance briefly 

 at a few out of very many notable results obtained; and if, in 

 addition, I succeed in presenting such a general conception of the 

 nature of synthetic problems as may be possible without introducing 

 technicalities, my object will have been attained. 



Numerous as the different kinds of substances we meet in 

 Nature may seem to us, they form but a small portion of the vast 

 array of substances known to Chemistry. In other words, by far 

 the greater proportion of existing substances are manufactured. 

 Some of these, like phosphorus or sodium, are elementary sub- 

 stances, and hence their preparation involves the splittirug, up of 

 the compounds used as raw material. Others, like sulphuric acid, 

 or white lead, or rosaniline are compounds, and so have to be built 

 up from the constituents of the raw materials used in their manu- 

 facture. This building up process is chemical s5Tithesis, and it is 

 in this direction that Chemistry has achieved some of its most 

 notable triumphs. 



The Chemical elements vary greatly in their capacity for form- 

 ing compounds. Argon and helium, which cannot combine with 



