606 
LIVERPOOL CHEMISTS* ASSOCIATION. 
The President, in proposing a vote of thanks to the donors, desired to make special 
mention of the valuable collection presented by the Vice-President, to whom the 
Association were under great obligations for this as well as many other instances of 
his liberality. The vote of thanks was unanimously accorded. 
The Hon. Secretary referred to the account of the fearful and lamentable explosion 
of the £ European ’ at Colon, which had reached them some days before, and by which, 
besides the sudden destruction of a large amount of property, human life had been 
sacrificed to a fearful extent. The alleged cause was stated as glonvin or glonoine 
oil, which he strongly suspected to be nothing else than nitro-glycerine, one of the most 
violently explosive bodies known to chemists ; he then entered into a description of the 
chemical and physical nature of nitro-glycerine, its mode of production, etc.; he con¬ 
sidered that such bodies ought not to be designated as oils at all, as they possessed very 
little of the physical properties, and none of the chemical, of those true oils and fats on 
which the general public was knowledgeable. Unfortunately German chemists led the 
van in this respect, at least that they applied the generic term ol , or oil, to all liquids not 
miscible with water, and English chemists bowed acquiescence to their German teachers, 
although they had quite as much cause for calling ether an oil as nitro-glycerine, or 
rather they had no cause at all. He strongly commented upon the apathy of the press 
in condemning the reprehensible practice of shippers and exporters, who do not scruple, 
in order to cheat to the extent of the difference of freight, to pass such bodies as nitro¬ 
glycerin^ into the hands of thoughtless and rough-handed men, without in the least 
warning them of the dangers any incautiousness in their handling might lead to. The 
President animadverted likewise in very forcible terms on the crime—for he considered 
it nothing less—committed by those who, knowing the nature of those seventy cases of 
so-called “ glonoin oil,” consigned them to the care and handling of sailors, porters, and 
the like, without the slightest note of warning as to the manner in which the lives of 
such were jeopardized by it. He wondered much how those cases ever passed through 
Liverpool as harmless as they did, but that they were spared was cause of thankful¬ 
ness to each and all. He heard that this oil was manufactured in Germany and im¬ 
ported into this country, in which case he thought it was the duty of the Government 
to at once prohibit any further importations of it. Mr. Bedford then delivered his— 
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS, 
in which he said— a A peculiar and almost melancholy interest attaches to our present 
meeting. It is the last of the session, and these pleasant haunts where we have been 
accustomed to congregate through many a winter’s night, are about to be forsaken. 
Such is the character of most human activities—they ebb and flow, rest succeeds to la¬ 
bour, relaxation to energy; they have their summer and winter, their night and day. 
There is a sure progression in the natural world from active life to rest, and back again 
to life. Such is our session of studious toil and vacation leisure, from which again we 
issue forth, as time rolls on, newly equipped for the battle. ‘ Better is the end of a 
thing than the beginning thereof,’ says the wisest of men. And if we, at the end of 
our Session, can take our stand and look back with satisfaction, on a fair amount of 
good accomplished, we may claim to have illustrated and confirmed the sage’s aphorism. 
It is better to accomplish a little than to plan only, better to labour than speculate, 
better to succeed, however moderately, than build castles in the air, make fair promises 
and empty boasts.” He then took a review of the labours of the Session, after which 
he continued :—“As a whole, we may say with truth the Session has passed off well. 
But work is over now; the goal is attained. Myrtle and laurel wreaths alone remain 
for the intellectual athletgc, which we can vote ourselves at leisure. If chemists were 
salamanders—able to toil in the fire—and not mortals, or had they the perennial youth 
and indestructible vitality of their patron bird the phoenix, then perhaps the fabled re¬ 
nown of these creatures might become the prosaic realities of common work-day life, 
by our unceasing visits to these sultry halls through the long summer solstice, while the 
king of day rages in Leo, and baneful Sirius shoots his maddening beams on brutes and 
men alike! But no, we acknowledge the irresistible influence of the expanding year. 
Spring has draped Nature in exquisite loveliness, and philosophers must pay their annual 
tribute at her pleasant shrine, and leave their musty books and halls awhile. The timid 
swallows have ventured back from the sunny south to our sea-girt shores, and the time 
of the singing-birds has come; the blooming of innumerable plants tells the botanist 
