ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR JOHN M. ORDWAY, CHAIRMAN OF THE SUBSECTION OF CHEMISTRY. GENTLEMEN OF THE SUBSECTION OF CHEMISTRY: Ir is well for us to pause sometimes in the midst of our busy and wearisome labors and consider the progress of the past, the wants of the present, and the promise of the future. It is best for us to have both humiliation and encouragement mingled in just proportion, and a clear-eyed outlook is always sure to show room for both. Chemistry as an art and Chemistry as a science jointly occupy fields so extensive and so diversified that we can hope to make but a very partial survey in the time allotted to a discourse, and I trust that no one will feel aggrieved, if, in this imperfect sketch, the fruits of his own "little field well tilled" shall receive a mere glance or even escape notice altogether. The past year has been one of laborious and fruitful activity in various departments of chemistry, but we cannot yet see that the year is marked by any of those epoch-making discoveries that have sometimes startled the world, and sometimes have come almost as silently as the dew of night to refresh the fields of science. Thus in 1807, when Davy, with his magnificent voltaic battery, isolated potassium and closed the record in his note book with the triumphant exclamation "Capital experiment,-proving the de composition of potash!" mankind applauded and reëchoed "Capital experiment!" In 1807, too, friend Dalton's atomic theory was quietly made known to the world and for a time it was quietly received. It was chiefly a theory to be sure, but it had a long leverage and a solid fulcrum, and it moved science to its very foundations. No other chemical theory has borne equally well the test of time. The or, the standing place, has been shifted a little by the discovery of allotropic states and isomerism. Even elementary atoms are not now allowed to exist singly, but must be linked into molecules. Dalton's theory has been expanded and developed; there is, at present, no sign, no prospect of its being superseded. It seems barely possible that Meyer's new method of investigating dissociation may lead to some further step in the evolution of Dalton's theory. Meyer's recent apparent resolution of the chlorine molecule has not, indeed, been verified in the carefully devised experiments of Crafts, but Crafts does seemingly confirm the change of iodine by an intense heat. Further trials are needed, and till they have been made with bromine and chlorine, and have given unquestionable, positive results, we cannot judge whether 1879 and 1880 will rank hereafter as years in which Meyer found means to throw new light on the nature of the haloids. Within the past year Cooke has further discussed the atomic weight of antimony; and his many experiments have been carried out with a patience and thoroughness and skill that will enable them to endure any reasonable criticism. It were well, if some one would study bismuth and tin with the same conscientious exactness. Twenty-four years ago, Perkin sought for artificial quinine and found instead a better than royal purple. Then, by various hands and in rapid succession, red and yellow and black and brown and blue and green were brought out from what proved to be something more than aniline. And now the novelty is past and the announcement of a new dye creates hardly a ripple of excitement, unless it can be shown to have some new and desirable qualities. Yet real and wonderful progress continues to be made in this grand branch of industrial chemistry. The twelve years old synthesis of alizarine has given us colors for cotton goods purer, brighter, faster, and cheaper than those of the now obsolescent madder root. Of late, wool has been provided for, and the extinction of cochineal plantations is threatened by reds of surpassing |