7 
1918-19.] Opening Address by the President. 
(2) a limited number of students; (3) the prominence given to research in 
organic chemistry ; (4) the provision of posts for research workers. Pro- 
fessor Irvine, the present occupant of the chair, has supplied me with 
information on these points. 
The laboratories, built and equipped at a cost of £12,000, are so com- 
modious that the part devoted to research work is separate from the 
teaching laboratories. The private endowment, amounting to about £7500, 
was founded by the late Professor. It has secured complete freedom of 
action to the head of the department. It has never been necessary to 
apply to the University Court for help. When an expensive research is 
contemplated it can be begun without delay. I understand that this 
endowment is on the point of being largely increased by means of a private 
bequest. The limited number of students is also an advantage, as more 
time can be spent in personal supervision of the advanced workers. By 
this method, students who seem to be capable of undertaking research work 
are discovered, and, in the event of their deciding to follow this line, special 
preparation for it is enforced. Professor Irvine considers that they have 
been fortunate in selecting the chemistry of sugars in that department, as 
it furnishes a large and consistent scheme of research, readily divisible into 
sections, each of which is within the compass of an individual worker. For 
the pure organic chemist there are plenty of constitutional and synthetical 
problems, while for the physical chemist researches are available in which 
exact determinations such as conductivities are required. The man with a 
biological bent can also find an outlet in studying the natural sources of 
sugar compounds and the action of ferments on the products. Another 
feature of that department concerns the future of the research students. 
Close touch is kept with manufacturing firms requiring research chemists, 
and a list of the workers, with their special qualifications, is forwarded 
each year to firms likely to require such men. Even before the war the 
workers leaving the laboratory obtained suitable research posts. 
These details are given to show how a science department can furnish 
trained research workers, provided it is well equipped and well endowed, 
with a staff sufficient to cope with the limited number of students, and 
with a leader who is bent on establishing a school of research, and, at the 
same time, strives to pass on the workers to industrial posts. 
The science departments of the larger Scottish universities do furnish 
trained research workers, but they labour under considerable disad- 
vantages. In many cases the laboratory accommodation is inadequate, 
the class-rooms are crowded, the staffs are overworked and in some 
instances underpaid. In the report of the Sub-Committee on Research 
