OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3200, 14 July 1915, Page 4

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

The Otago Institute met in the Museum on the 6th, the president (Mr Gilkison) inthe chair, and a good attendance occupying the benches. Professor J. K. H. Inglis delivered an interesting lecture on “ Modern Problems of Chemistry.” In the opening portion _ie dealt with the early struggles of chemists in research work with a view to showing that the pursuit of the alchemists in search for the philosopher’s stone and the attempts to turn base metals into gold were not without value, leading as they did to ihe discovery of the elements, now estimated at about 80 in number. As time went on the researches took the form of building up these elements into various composite substances, and eventually there _ emerged manufacturing chemistry, by which in recent times it has been made possible to obtain directly and more cheaply substances that previously were obtained by complic&tcd processes from natural products, . took as bis first example the production of soda, and then dealt on the same lines with nitrogenous manures, originally secured from the stable and byre, then from deposits of saltpetre and from the gasworks, and latterly, in Germany, from nitrogen and hvdrogen, Germany prosecuting research that end in order to make herself independent of Chile’s saltpetre deposits and the waste from British gasworks. Later the lecturer dealt at great length, with the manufacture of sugar, and then proceeded to treat of certain dyes, in the case of which the laboratory had proved the instrument of obtaining identical products in a purer state and at less cost than was possible from natural products, the examples taken beinrr chiefly turkey-red and indigo. The lecturer also outlined the advance made in the production of camphor'. He dealt with the rubber industry, and stated that three years ago a statement had boon definitely published that rubber could bo chemically produced, but nothing had yet boon heard of it commercially, and difficulties presented thomsolvos_ in that the chemical substances used did not cover everything that was in the natural product, and it was doubtful how far it might bo to the impurities in the natural products that its properties were_ duo. Modern drugs formed tlie next section of tlie lecture, cocaine and analagous subjects and adrenalin being particularly referred to. Lastly Dr Inglis dealt in interesting stylo with foodstuffs and the possibilities contained in wood. , A hearty vote of thanks was accorded the lecturer.