PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY 



(Local Section of the American Chemical Society) 



'The 222d meeting was held on January 31, 1913, at the Chamber of 

 Commerce. Resolutions upon the death of Prof. J. W. Mallet, prepared 

 by Professor Dunnington of the University of Virginia, were adopted by 

 a rising vote. The following papers were read, all contributed by mem- 

 bers of the Bureau of Soils: 



Problems in soil fertility: Oswald Schreiner. The essential prob- 

 lem in soil study is that of infertility. Liebig's theory of impoverishment 

 in chemical constituents as a cause of infertility was only temporarily 

 useful, and chemical analysis proved inadequate in predicting fertilit3^ 

 Soil extracts were then found to reflect very closely the degree of fertility 

 of soils, but this fertility did not depend upon the inorganic substances 

 in solution. Finally the cause of infertility was traced to organic poisons 

 in soils. Along with this change in the point of attack have come great 

 changes in the laboratory equipment necessary for soil investigations. 



Recent work on the chemical composition of humus: E. C. Shorey. 

 The organic matter extracted from a soil, is separable into two fractions. 

 From the portion of the organic matter soluble in 2 per cent sodium 

 hydroxide about 35 pure organic compounds have been isolated, of 

 which 11 are nitrogenous; 14 of these compounds are acids, and 10 bases. 

 The portion precipitated by acids contains complex resins and other 

 substances not yet separated. The author described 3 new compounds 

 recently separated: (1) meta-oxytoluic acid, of which 5 grams were 

 obtained from 50 pounds of soil; (2) vanillin, in very small quantity; (3) 

 tetra-carbonimide, perhaps an intermediate compound in the oxidation 

 of uric acid to urea. 



The origin of certain organic soil constituents: M. X. Sullivan. Cer- 

 tain molds found in soils were separated in cultures, grown in consider- 

 able quantities on Rankine's solution, and studied chemically. Fatty 

 acids (such as oleic, stearic, and palmitic), xanthin, hypoxanthine, man- 

 nite, thyurine, pentose sugar, and various other compounds were ob- 

 tained from these molds. Purin bases and fatty acids were also found 

 in the solution in which the molds were grown. The metabohsm of molds 

 and bacteria is an important source of the compounds found in humus. 

 Certain compounds come from the disintegration of plant debris. 



Discussion: In reply to inquiries, Dr. Sullivan stated that the rela- 

 tion between the quantity of the compounds described and the quantity 



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