20 K. GKEIG-SMITH. 



research work. The Society might well have been a nucleus 

 around which the research part of the scheme might have 

 been built. I cannot understand how its claims have been 

 ignored. 



The scientific flame has been and will continue to be kept 

 alight by the existing scientific societies of which our own 

 society is by no means the least important. They have 

 done much for science, and it would have been courteous 

 for the members of the Conference convened by the Prime 

 Minister, who organised the formation of the Committee, 

 to have asked the Australian Scientific Societies to nomin- 

 ate at least one representative. 



Recently formed Associations. 



Since the commencement of the war, several associations 

 or committees of scientists and industrialists have been 

 formed, and these, as well as certain existing societies, have 

 undertaken investigations into the means of improving the 

 conditions necessitated by the war or likely to occur when 

 the war is over. 



Some scientific workers have banded themselves together, 

 under the title of the Australasian Chemical Association, 

 with the object of compelling the public to recognise the 

 value of analytical work by having to pay higher fees, and 

 of obtaining legislation to hall-mark the importance of 

 chemical analysis. This is a step in the right direction, 

 for the higher the fee a man can command, the more impor- 

 tant he is considered to be. I should suggest that one of 

 the first matters this association should deliberate upon, is 

 the question of restricting the name of chemist to one who 

 works with chemicals, and, by legislation, compelling the 

 retailer of drugs to confine himself to the designation of 

 pharmacist. The status of chemical science has suffered, 

 and is suffering, from the inability of the public to dis- 

 tinguish between the scientific chemist and the pharmacist. 



