3 so Biochemical News, Notes and Comment [Dec. 



The Meker burner. The everyday tools of the chemist determine 

 to a large extent the character of his work no less than those of the 

 artisan do his. The success or failure of a great research problem 

 in chemistry may depend as much upon the apparatus at hand as 

 upon the imagination and skill of the worker. Possibly the leading 

 fact in the history of science is this : that great trains of discoveries 

 have depended more upon the invention of new apparatus than upon 

 the development of the human brain. After all it is the attention 

 to the details of equipment as well as the personal Organization in a 

 laboratory which brings about perfect results. And so we sing the 

 praises of the Meker burner. With this burner one can do almost 

 the work of the blast lamp, without the annoyance connected with 

 the use of the latter. The flame is large and intensely hot and the 

 highest temperature, stränge to say, is reached at the base of the 

 flame. For analytical work in crucibles it has no equal, nor is there 

 any other device approaching it in excellence. It has no inner cone 

 and platinum wäre can be made to receive the füll effect of the flame 

 without danger of injury. " There is nothing new in the apparatus 

 — no original idea involved," many a critic would say, "just a Bun- 

 sen burner with an abundant air supply and a piece of Davy safety- 

 lamp ganze at the top." But not every burner so constructed will 

 give a flame free from the destructive inner cone, and intensely hot 

 at the base. Every point in the design must be carefully balanced to 

 produce the perfect result. We do not know the inventor or the 

 history of his invention, but a simple inspection of the burner in 

 action indicates that this is no chance discovery, no day-dream or 

 night-dream suddenlymade concreteand perfect. Carefully thought 

 out and wrought out by trial and experiment and repeated experi- 

 ment is the perfectly simple Meker burner. — W. D. Richardson. 



A new paint-destroying fungus. Mr. George Massee in the 

 Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information of the Royal Botanic Gar- 

 dens, Kew, England (No. 8 of this year), describes a new fungus 

 (Phoma pigmentivora Mass.) which grows on fresh paint. The 

 fungus grows best in hothouses, high temperatures and constant 

 humidity being especially conducive to its development. 



The fungus appears as numerous, small, rose-colored specks in 



