5 
had been built up which depended upon the accidentally discovered, 
unsystematised and limited knowledge of the chemistry of certain 
mineral compounds. 
It is unfortunately, however, a fact that in spite of the im- 
portance of the mineral industry and the large number of people 
employed in it, the science of geochemistry has not advanced t.o 
anything like the extent that its sister sciences have done. Miner- 
alogists have concentrated their attention too greatly upon physical 
characters, which are rarely of importance in the practical utilisation 
of minerals. The chemical properties of minerals have been the 
subject of comparatively little research, such work as has been 
done in this field being for the most part the mere piling up of 
innumerable analyses of simple minerals, and of those common 
mineral aggregates which we know as rocks and metallic ores. I t 
is only in recent years and in a minority of cases that these analyses 
have been done with that completeness and exactitude which 
modern theoretical science demands as the basis of its generalis- 
ations, and modern industry demands as a basis of its processes. 
Now whilst it is very necessary to make and record mineral analyses 
and rock analyses, particularly from new regions, these are after 
all only the rough unshapen stones of which the edifice of this 
science is to be built. If the science is to be of any direct benefit 
to mankind, as it can and must be in ways which I hope in some 
measure to indicate to you, something very much more is required 
of its devotees than the mere multiplication of rock and mineral 
analyses. 
The subject of mineral, genesis including the origin of ore 
deposits in which term are included those natural concentra- 
tions of all minerals of economic value to civilised man- requires 
the closest attention of the scientific world at the present juncture. 
These problems involve the application of certain physical and 
mechanical principles, but are essentially chemical ones, and ones 
the solution of which are likely to lead to the most valuable 
economic application, besides enlarging the boundaries of our 
knowledge of pure science. The discovery of the exact cause of 
a disease is a big step in the direction of combating it, and similarly 
the discovery of the exact source and mode of formation of a mineral 
must prove a big step in the direction of finding and following work- 
able deposits of it. This is one way in which the study of geo- 
chemistry should yield a rich reward to the successful investigator, 
and galvanise the mineral industry into fresh vigour. 
What are the origins of the many, but by no means innumer- 
able, storehouses of nature’s chemical concentrates ? When we have 
exhausted the more obvious of these, where are we to search for 
others that our civilisation may not be brought to a standstill ? 
The answers to these two questions will be found in the main by the 
application of chemical principles. In the earliest days of his 
