16 KEPORT or NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1920. 



LOEB BEQUEST. 



Prof. Morris Loeb, the eminent chemist, who died on October 8^ 

 1912, left a bequest of $25,000 to the American Chemical Society, 

 to be held as a special fund, the income of which should be used for 

 the establishment or maintenance of a chemical type museimi, either 

 in connection with the Chemists' Club of New York City, or the 

 National IMuseum in Washington, or the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History in New York City, preference to be given in the order 

 named. The chief object of the museum was to be the preservation 

 of all new substances described as the result of chemical research, 

 either by obtaining the same by gift or purchase from the discoverer 

 or by causing the same to be prepared in sufficient quantity accord- 

 ing to the discoverer's published directions; all for the purpose of 

 facilitating comparison by subsequent observers. The Chemists' 

 Chib of New York accepted the trust. 



In the autumn of 1919, the Secretarv of tlie American Chemical 

 Society notified the Smithsonian Institution that the Chemists' Club 

 being unable to comply with the conditions in the Loeb will, had 

 offered to give up their right to the Chemical Tjq^e Museum and to 

 refund money in hand, there being over $5,000 accumulated interest. 

 The Institution indicated its Avillingness to accept the responsibility, 

 through the National Museum, of building up the collection (mu- 

 seum) proposed by Doctor Loeb. There had been an impairment of 

 tlie Morris Loeb Fund, OAving to the inability of the Brooklyn Rapid 

 Transit Notes to pay interest for a j^ear or two, and the Directors of 

 the Chemical Society took advantage of this opportunity to transfer 

 about $5,000 of accumulated interest into the fund to replace deple- 

 tion, leaving a balance of $909.44 of unexpended income to December 

 31, 1919, which was delivered to the Institution. The fund should 

 hereafter yield an annual income of about $1,155, though the amount 

 for the calendar j^ear 1920 will be slightly less. 



By means of this income from the Morris Loeb Fund, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution proposes to build up in the National Museum 

 " The Loeb Collection of Chemical Types," a permanent reference 

 or study collection of new substances and original material resulting 

 from chemical research, the main purpose of this collection to be the 

 preservation of specimens and chemical material which might other- 

 wise, though of high scientific value, be lost or neglected, and to 

 make such material accessible and available to scientific investigators 

 under proper restrictions. The control or ownership of the speci- 

 mens is placed in the Institution rather than the ISIuseum to avoid 

 the usual goAernmental restrictions as to sale and other disposal of 

 materials and to permit the carrying out of the intent of Doctor 

 Loeb in regard to the use of the collection. Steps will be taken to 



