57° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



recognition to sciences other than those 

 commonly called natural and exact, the 

 conditions that prompted the establish- 

 ment in England of a special Academy 

 may lead to a similar undertaking in 

 the United States. The national socie- 

 ties devoted to history, economics, 

 philology, archeology and the like fill 

 most of the important functions that 

 were formerly exercised by a national 

 academy, but there appears to be as 

 much reason for the students of these 

 sciences to unite in a national academy 

 as there is in the case of the natural 

 sciences. There seems also reason to 

 suppose that the societies referred to 

 will form some basis of cooperation as 

 the natural sciences have done by unit- 

 ing in the American Association. 

 Whether all the sciences should unite 

 in one national academy and in one 

 national association or whether they 

 should divide into two separate groups 

 is certainly a question of considerable 

 importance. 



THE GERMICIDAL ACTION OF THE 

 ORGANIC PEROXIDES. 

 Des. F. G. Novy and P. C. Freer, of 

 the University of Michigan, presented at 

 the Chicago meeting of the American 

 Society of Bacteriologists an important 

 paper that has been extensively, but 

 not very accurately, reported in the 

 daily papers. The authors stated that 

 their investigation was begun with the 

 object of finding the correct explana- 

 tion of the action of metals and of sun- 

 light upon bacteria. Certain metals, 

 such as gold and copper, exert a 

 marked inhibiting and even germicidal 

 effect upon some bacteria, but the in- 

 terpretation of the results has not been 

 wholly satisfactory. The fact that 

 various surfaces, such as metals and 

 fabrics, exert a marked effect upon the 

 formation of benzoyl acetyl peroxide 

 was established by the authors and 

 served as a basis for the Adew that 

 metals act upon bacteria by giving rise 

 to energetic peroxides, which, of neces- 

 sity, must be more active than ordi- 



nary peroxides. The action of sunlight 

 has been ascribed by different workers 

 to hydrogen peroxide, but the destruc- 

 tive action observed is greater than 

 that which can be credited to this body. 

 In order to substantiate the theory of 

 the authors regarding the action of 

 metals and of sunlight, it was deemed 

 necessary to investigate the action of a 

 number of known organic peroxides. 

 The results show that some of these 

 bodies, such as aceton peroxide and 

 dibenzoyl peroxide, are wholly inert. 

 On the other hand, solutions of diacetyl, 

 benzoyl acetyl, and of benzoyl hydro- 

 gen peroxides, and of phthalmonoper- 

 acid, exert pronounced and even re- 

 markable germicidal properties. With 

 reference to diacetyl peroxides and 

 benzoyl acetyl peroxide, it was shown 

 that the bodies themselves are chemi- 

 cally and bacterially inert, but on con- 

 tact with water they undergo hydroly- 

 sis and give rise to the extremely 

 energetic acetyl hydrogen and benzoyl 

 hydrogen peroxides. A solution of 

 these peroxides (1: 3,000) is capable 

 of destroying all pathogenic bacteria. 

 Cholera and typhoid germs added to 

 tap water are promptly destroyed by 

 the addition of one part of peroxide to 

 100,000 parts of water. The authors 

 point out the probable value of these 

 peroxides in the prevention and cure 

 of these and allied diseases. The de- 

 struction of bacteria in the mouth and 

 saliva takes place with extraordinary 

 rapidity and the reagents have shown 

 themselves useful in diseases of the 

 mouth. The powerful effects of the 

 organic peroxides is not explainable as 

 due to nascent oxygen, since a solution 

 of hydrogen peroxide, which will pro- 

 duce equal germicidal action, contains 

 one or even two hundred times as much 

 nascent oxygen. The authors incline 

 to the belief that the acetyl and 

 benzoyl ions are the active agents. 



TWILIGHT IN THE TROPICS. 



Professor S. I. Bailey, of the Har- 

 vard College Observatory, presented a 



