SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Chemical Society of Washington, the local section of the Ameri- 

 can Chemical Society, gave a reception at the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion on February 28, 1918, to visiting chemists on war duty. The 

 guests were received by Dr. F. B. Power, President of the local society; 

 Dr. George P. Merrill, representing the Secretary and Regents of 

 the Smithsonian* Institution; Prof. F. W. Clarke, of the Geological 

 Survey; Prof. Charles L. Parsons, Secretary of the American Chemical 

 Society; Dr. W. F. Hillebrand, of the Bureau of Standards; and Dr. 

 C. O. Johns, of the Bureau of Chemistry. Short talks were giv^tn later 

 in the evening by Messrs. Merrill, Clarke, and Parsons, and by 

 Major S. J. M. Auld, of the British Mission, Dr. Samuel Avery, of 

 the National Research Comicil, and Prof. W. D. Bancroft, of the 

 Bureau of Mines Experiment Station. 



About 550 invitations were sent to visiting chemists, while the 

 membership of the local section is over 400. The number of chemists 

 now in Washmgton is thus in the neighborhood of 1000. 



Over two-thirds of the scientific staff of the Geophysical Laboratory 

 are absent from Washington on work connected with the m^ufacture 

 of optical glass. F. E. Wright is in charge of the optical glass plant 

 of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. in Rochester, New York, and is 

 assisted by J. B. Ferguson and R. H. Lombard. C. N. Fenner is 

 in charge at the glass plant of the Spencer Lens Co., near Buffalo, New 

 York, and E. T. Allen, E. G. Zies, and N. L. Bowen have assisted at 

 different times at this plant. At the request of the Pittsburgh Plate 

 Glass Co. a party under the direction of J. C. Hostetter and in- 

 cluding L. H. Adams, G. W. Morey, H. S. Roberts, and E. D. Wil- 

 liamson, was sent in December to the optical glass plant of that com- 

 pany at Charleroi, Pennsylvania. 



The Geological Society of London has awarded the Wollas.ton medal 

 to Dr. Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, in recognition of his contributions to geology and Cambrian paleon- 

 tology. The Wollaston medal was established "to promote researches 

 concerning the mineral structure of the earth and to enable the coun- 

 cil of the Geological Society to reward those individuals of any country 

 by whom such researches may hereafter be made." The list of eighty- 

 seven men of science who have received this medal since its establish- 

 ment in 1831 contains the names of five other Americans who have 

 been so honored — Louis Agassiz, James Hall, James D. Dana, Grove 

 Karl Gilbert, and W. B. Scott. It is an interesting circumstance to note 



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