Abstract
IN asking myself what subject I could bring before you on the present occasion, I thought I could not do better than point out by one example what a chemist may do for mankind. And in choosing this theme for my discourse I found myself in no want of material, for amongst the various aspects of scientific activity there is surely none which, whether in its most recondite forms or in those most easily understood, have done more to benefit humanity than those which have their origin in my own special study of chemistry. I desired to show what one chemist may accomplish, a man devoted heart and soul to the investigation of Nature, a type of the ideal man of science—whose example may stimulate even the feeblest amongst us to walk in his footsteps if only for a short distance, whose life is a consistent endeavour to seek after truth if haply he may find it, whose watchwords are simplicity, faithfulness, and industry, and whose sole ambition is to succeed in widening the pathway of knowledge so that following generations of wayfarers may find their journeys lightened and their dangers lessened.
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The Life-Work of a Chemist1. Nature 40, 578–583 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040578b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040578b0