Abstract
AT the fifty-ninth annual general meeting of the Institute of Chemistry, held on March 1, the president, Dr. R. H. Pickard, stated that the membership now includes a roll of nearly 6,800 members and 800 registered students. This year, on October 2, the Institute will attain the sixtieth anniversary of its original incorporation. The ideals of its founders have been steadily pursued. Chemistry, Dr. Pickard said, has established its place among the learned professions, and its practitioners are to be found in industry and commerce, in the Government and other public services. Chemists, by the very nature of their calling, have been for the most part of a retiring and modest disposition. Happily, there are also among them not a few who have developed a measure of business acumen. That is a matter of very great significance and importance. Everything possible should be done to encourage in the profession a continuous supply of men of that type. There are, in the profession, young men, many as yet little known, who have courage and initiative to come forward with new work, to read papers, and to make useful and sensible contributions to discussions. To be able to express themselves clearly and with assurance on matters on which they can claim to know something is a valuable asset in itself. He would suggest to the younger members that much could be done to acquire this ability by good reading, by cultivating the habit of mixing with men of other professions, and by taking an active interest, not only in the proceedings of the societies devoted to their science, but also in the world of affairs generally. The supply of men and women for administrative posts is a difficult problem. There is another side of the question, however, namely, that in attaining an administrative post with the responsibility that it entails, there is a danger of the chemist losing touch with his science, so that it becomes more and more difficult for him to encourage the workers in the laboratories. Dr. Pickard was re-elected president of the Institute for the ensuing year.
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Institute of Chemistry. Nature 139, 404–405 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139404c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139404c0