( 207 ) 
THE BORDERLAND OF CHEMISTRY 
AND ELECTRICITY. 
BY 
W. WEBSTER, ESQ., P.C.S. 
(A Lecture delivered at the Royal Artillery Institution, Woolwich, Thursday 24th Nov., 1898) 
Colonel H. S. S. Watkxf, c.b. R.A., if the chaib. 
T HE Chairman :—-Ladies and Gentlemen, I need hardly introduce 
the Lecturer, for I feel sure that most of you present here this 
evening were at his last lecture, in which he brought us, by showing 
us the most unique experiments, quite up-to-date in the “ X Rays ”. 
To-night we are going to be brought into contact, not only with Elec¬ 
tricity but with Chemistry, which, according to Sir William Crookes, 
we shall be most indebted to in future; and I feel sure we shall have 
a most interesting and instructive lecture (applause). 
Mr. Webster :■—Colonel Watkin, Ladies and Gentlemen, the title 
of my lecture The Borderland of Chemistry and Electricity * is one 
that is ambiguous. The subject itself cannot be condensed, nor would 
twenty lectures suffice to exhaust this wonderful f Borderland \ So 
many theoretical and practical demonstrations are connected ev£n with 
one section of it that I very much doubt whether any audience would 
listen to the various theories that have been advanced within the last 
few years. The a Borderland” of these two sections of science means 
the results obtained first by chemical action, or the combination of 
two or more bodies forming an entirely new body, and which in the 
process of the combination develops a force called electricity; and the 
action of the force called electricity, which produces a combination of 
bodies so as to form entirely new bodies. Between these two forces, 
electricity and chemical action—there is something else, which “ some¬ 
thing else ” is purely theoretical at present, but undoubtedly it points 
to certain actions which may in the future lead us to form opinions 
and find proofs of what “ life ” is. 
Chemistry was originally practised as alchemy, which was really the 
artificial production of the noble metals. From all sources obtainable 
Egypt seems to have been the country in which it was first practised, 
the old name of this country being “ 0hernia,” which means in all 
probability mysterious or secret knowledge. Now anything that is 
4. VOL. XXVI. 
