140 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS As we all know, an organization like this would have been inconceiva- ble in the cosmetic industry 25 years ago. Your Soc•.T¾ stands today as an integral part of the structure of the cosmetic industry. It would be my opinion that the future stability and continuance of the advancing growth curve of this field rests, in large measure, upon your shoulders, especially the responsibility for the maintenance and development of healthful, safe, and desirable products for the consumer. The cosmetic chemists and other scientists, through the results of their research, must realize the importance of holding conferences such as this meeting which you are having here today, so that ideas, mutual criticism, and professional eval- uation may benefit your work and keep the field alert and the industry successful. The contributions of science have now reached a point where they can affect the fluctuations of our national economy. Today, therefore, the scientific society has a greater responsibility than yesterday, when a small friendly group constituted its membership. The fundamental concepts of a scientific society are not unlike those of society as a whole. Within the membership of such a society we are always dealing with human beings and their varying attitudes, both con- structive and otherwise. The tenets of every society should maintain a progressive open-minded attitude toward the present and future development of the organization. What was done yesterday may not fit the picture for tomorrow and this is especially important in scientific organizations where the results of research may bring necessary alterations in the organization's own outlook and program. Non-constructive attitudes may bring adverse results to the Soc•.•'¾ and even to research and industry. A society that maintains a membership mainly interested in what the members can do for the organization rather than what the organization can do for the individual has a bright tomorrow for the future of the field or fields represented and for those members who come after. The Soc•.,¾ oF CosM•.,m C•.M•s,s has impressed me tremendously because of the remarkable esprit de corps among its officers and members and the bright horizon toward which its component membership turns its attention. In conclusion, let me say again how pleased I am to be numbered among you and to have received this outstanding honor which you have conferred upon me.

THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS THr, TWO LECTURES given this year before members of the Society are summarized below. The meetings were held at the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, in London. The full texts will be pub- lished in later issues of the JOLTR•r^I,. Colour and Colour Vision* By PROFESSOR W. D. WRmHT THE COLOUR or A surface is determined physically by its spectral reflection, but while the appearance of a surface can be roughly assessed in this way, knowing the colours in the spectrum, account must be taken of the way the eye integrates the different parts of the spectrum reflected by a surface. Colour matching experiments strongly suggest that there are three types of colour sensitive receptors in the retina, and an international system of colour measurement has been established on the basis of three- colour mixture and matching. Colour is thus produced (a) by a light stimulus having some particular spectral composition, (b) by the reaction of the light with the retinal re- ceptors and (c) by the reaction in the brain caused by the signals from the retina. The colour perceived may be modified by changes in the state of adaptation of the observer's eyes or by the contrast conditions, even though the light stimulus is unchanged. Under some conditions, adaptation can largely compensate for changes in quality of illumination, e.g., between tungsten lighting and daylight, so that many familiar objects exhibit a marked degree of colour constancy with change in the lighting. Some coloured materials, however, and especially those with a high reflection band at the far red end of the spectrum, exhibit striking colour changes. The colour rendering of fluorescent lamps poses a special problem on account of the presence of the mercury lines in its spectrum, accompanied, very often, by a deficiency of energy at the red end of the spectrum. The ability to discriminate colours varies to some extent from one ob- server to another and is particularly poor with persons having defective colour vision. The observing conditions, e.g., illumination level, area of * Presented at the February 5, 1954, Meeting, London. 141