270 
LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS’ ASSOCIATION. 
those gentlemen on whom we can so well depend for arranging these entertainments— 
a work of such an anxious and onerous nature, and moreover a labour of pure love, that 
it deserves our highest esteem and best thanks. 
I wish that I could advert with as much pleasure to what I may call the educational 
phase of the Association. With the unusual facilities which it affords our members for the 
study of chemistry and pharmacy, it is matter of surprise and regret that these subjects are 
so neglected. The Chemistry Class is in imminent peril of being given up or of collapsing 
by its own vacuity, unless a reaction in its favour sets in very quickly. I cannot understand 
why these halls of chemical science should be neglected. It is a problem, to resolve which 
no ordinary analytical power seems to be required. Given a town of this magnitude, 
say half a million of inhabitants, an association of two hundred and six members, a 
laboratory, library, and museum under one roof, and two professors ready to teach con 
amove on easy terms, how is it that the students number two ? Verily, 
“ Parturiunt raontes; nascetur lidiculus inus.” 
Is it because chemistry itself is underrated ? Impossible, that the leading science of 
the day which touches nature at all points, whether air, earth, water, plant, or animal, 
should not be attractive. Is it that evening or general enjoyments are so numerous 
that time cannot be spared ? This would be valid ground of excuse in many other cases, 
but in a study lying at the very root and basis of your profession, relative to which 
we may truly say “ knowledge is power,” both to understand, enjoy, and use that pro¬ 
fession, then it is no excuse. It is suicidal indifference to your own evident interest, en¬ 
joyment, and profits. Is it that the cost in money is grudged ? I will not insult this As¬ 
sociation with an attempt to fight such a man of straw as this supposition. I will only 
say that were the cost many times increased, all wbo attentively study this noble science 
will, in their almost certain success, reap an incalculable gain, compared with which the 
prime cost will be lost like a drop in the ocean. I should like, indeed, to see this part of 
our Association placed upon a new and broader basis. I think it is capable of this, and 
the benefits accruing would be great and lasting. A liberal and comprehensive scheme 
would, I have no doubt, meet with a ready response from the various constituent classes 
of this Association. It will give me great pleasure to present, at the close of the session, 
two chemical prizes, of the value of a guinea and half-a-guinea, to the first and second 
best competitors of the Chemistry Class. 
Passing on to another matter rather of explanation than of serious comment,—I mean 
the fact of there having been no “ excursion ” this year, or that our society has not, in 
fact, “gone out of town,” hot as the summer has been,—I may say that this interrup¬ 
tion to the annual sequence of these very pleasant trips has not arisen from any indiffe¬ 
rence of your Council to the gratification of the members, but chiefly from two causes— 
first, there were so many excursions set on foot, and, secondly, it is so extremely difficult 
to fix a spot to visit, wdrich shall combine all the attractions of the country w r ith others 
of a scientific character likely to interest our members. 
One more remark on local topics shall end this review. It is respecting the attendance. 
I am grieved at the extent of wood which is often visible from this chair, and wish very 
much that members would try to hide the benches by occupying them through the 
coming session,—principals as well as juniors appearing,—so that our discussions may not 
be so frequently the reflex merely of one or two minds, but an approximation to the phar¬ 
maceutical opinion of the town, and the scene may prove less suggestive of a certain 
apothecary’s shop, where— 
“ About his shelves 
A beggarly account of empty boxes ; 
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, 
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of roses 
Were thinly scattered to make up a show.” 
Passing now to more general topics, who can fail to be struck, on looking round atten¬ 
tively upon the world, with the amazing activity of mind displayed in every branch of 
human employment and thought. The spirit of enterprise and progress, greatly stimu¬ 
lated perhaps by the introduction of free trade, and fostered by the numerous industrial 
exhibitions in this and other countries, seems now at its height. We have only to con¬ 
sider the rapid strides which are being made in scientific discoveries, in industrial achieve¬ 
ments, in art, in social improvement, in education, and in literature, to feel that our age 
