The position and prospects of chemical research in Great Britain : presidential address delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the Chemical Society, March 22nd, 1907 / by Raphael Meldola.

  • Meldola, Raphael, 1849-1915.
Date:
[1907]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The position and prospects of chemical research in Great Britain : presidential address delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the Chemical Society, March 22nd, 1907 / by Raphael Meldola. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    pleasing duty last month to announce a further contribution of £1,000 from the Goldsmiths’ Company for the promotion, through our Society, of research in Inorganic and Metallurgical Chemistry. I will venture in conclusion to dwell upon another aspect of the work of our Research Fund which must, I am afraid, in the present state of affairs be regarded as purely hypothetical. At some future period the hypothesis might possibly become practically verified— it is entirely a question of means, and, unfortunately, of very large means; but I am most anxious to bequeath to my successors in this chair at least the tradition of the desirability of realising the views which I have long held on this subject, and so I take advantage of this last opportunity of addressing the Society in the capacity of President to formulate these views with some emphasis. Let us consider, in the first place, the actual resources at our disposal for the promotion of research. With the additional capital by which our fund has been increased the total income available for grants will be about £330 per annum. In view of the demands upon that income it is obvious that even now we are possessed of but very limited means, and that the Research Fund Committee will still be compelled, as has hitherto been the practice, to allot the grants for the purchase of materials or special apparatus. This mode of allotment has been recognised as a principle by the Committee for many years, and in view of our slender resources no other course is possible. Administered on this principle the fund has been, as I have already stated, of enormous value in the past, and it is to me a matter of the greatest satisfac- tion in retiring from the Presidency to know that during my period of office the substantial increase of our resources will enable us to extend the sphere of usefulness of the fund in the future. But, in addition to the promotion of research by the means indi- cated, there is another, and, according to my view, an equally valuable method for assisting our workers in the prosecution of their researches, and that is the allotment of personal grants tc enable the grantees to secure skilled assistance—to purchase, in fact, the services of human material as well as chemicals and apparatus. It is only want of sufficient income that has hitherto debarred the use of our fund in this way; the Government Grants administered by the Royal Society are, as you ai'e aware, allotted to applicants in certain cases for such personal assistance, and the great desideratum of our Research Fund is a sufficient augmenta- tion of capital to enable us to do the same kind of work. I am so confident that an extension of our means towards this end would be productive of a most notable increase, both in the