PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 782nd meeting was held at the Cosmos Club, January 20, 1917. 

 President Buckingham in the chair; 88 persons present. The min- 

 utes of the 781st meeting were read in abstract and approved. 



The evening was devoted to hearing the address of the retiring 

 President, Mr. Lyman J. Briggs, on The living plant as a physical 

 system. The address is published in this Journal, 7: 89-111. 1917. 



Donald H. Sweet, Secretary. 



THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 260th meeting of the society was held at the Cosmos Club, 

 April 13, 1916. Dr. C. L. Parsons, Secretary of the American Chemi- 

 cal Society, presented announcements in relation to the Spring Meeting 

 of the society at Urbana, 111. and the projected work of the Naval 

 Advisory Board in its attempt to inventory the resources of the coun- 

 try. Dr. Parsons represents the Chemical Society in this work in the 

 District of Columbia. The following program was presented: 



H. W. Daudt, Bureau of Chemistry: Investigations of the Kjeldahl 

 method of determining nitrogen. 



The proper conditions for the complete decomposition of refrac- 

 tory compounds of nitrogen with acid ammonium sulphate were dis- 

 cussed. Mercuric oxide cannot be replaced by other catalysts, or 

 potassium sulphate by sodium sulphate. The results of analyses of 

 compounds of various constitutions were discussed. 



A new aeration apparatus is devised for this determination. 

 Folin's method for determining ammonia is adapted to the Kjeldahl 

 method. All the operation, including the measurement and addition 

 of the sodium hydroxide, the passing of air through the resulting alka- 

 line solution, and the absorption of the ammonia in standard acid solu- 

 tion, are carried on by means of air pressure or suction. The advan- 

 tages over the more commonly used distillation method were discussed. 

 (Author's abstract.) 



J. M. Johnson, Bureau of Chemistry: A fourth pentacetate of galac- 

 tose. 



In continuation of the work on the preparation of the various iso- 

 meric acetates of the sugars, carried out in conjunction with Hudson, 

 a fourth crystalline pentacetate of galactose, having properties quite 

 distinct from those of the three known isomers, has been isolated. 

 An account of the method of preparation and properties was presented. 



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