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]
Catalogue details

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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    ture to point out that the investigations which you are carrying on are of an importance which perhaps even the greatest enthu- siasts in your ranks have hardly yet realised. It is not alone the individual discoveries, it is not only your personal contributions to the great edifice of human knowledge, neither is it the practical applications of your discoveries that constitute the supreme im- portance of this work, the results of which you are giving to the world. We are all labourers in a common cause—the maintenance of the spirit of scientific research—and it is to organisations like this and kindred societies that we look for the preservation and perpetuation of that spirit. Every advance made into the limit- less regions of the unknown, whether by a few humble steps or by the flying leap of a great generalisation, must be regarded as a contribution to the common cause. We must take a broad, an imperial view of original research if we desire, as we all do, to in- fluence the public mind. Every discovery emanating from your laboratories not only helps to extend the boundaries of our science but it helps also to uphold the general principle that original re- seai'ch is in itself and by itself the most powerful weapon that has been or ever can be wielded by mankind in struggling with the great problems which nature offers on all sides for solution. It may appear superfluous for me to sound a paean on behalf of original research before the Fellows of a Society which osten- sibly exists for .the very purpose of promoting research. It is, however, unfortunately only too notorious that in this country the general public attitude towards research is either apathetic or else narrowly practical—narrow to the extent of crippling real pro- gress. Although we may all, individually and collectively, realise the importance of our mission, the nation as a whole cannot be said to have given recognition to the principle that the productive activity of the scientific worker is one of the prime factors con- cerned in all national development, and that the credit of the country in the eyes of the civilised world demands that our rate of progress in the field of scientific discovery should go on increasing from generation to generation. It may be useful, therefore, to take advantage of opportunities such as this to remind the outer world from time to time that in this and in our sister societies, both within and without the precincts of Burlington House, there exist bands of ardent workers who are fighting in this great cause, often in face of adverse influences arising directly or in- directly from public indifference or other causes, some of which I propose dealing with in this address. To all who are familiar with the influence of scientific progress on the evolution of civilisation, that is, to all students of the his-