William J. Gies 157 



ally. The independence of each worker is calculated to facilitate 

 chemical accuracy and to insure scientific reliability beyond question. 

 Freedom to report separately each independent part of the research 

 will assure every other desirable consideration. 



" In this study of the comparative values of available methods 

 f or the determination of aluminium, you would be asked to ascertain 

 particularly whether the method used by Steel {Amcr. Joiir. Physiol., 

 191 1, xxviii, p. 96), and by Kahn (Biochem. Bull., 191 i, i, p. 

 237), was as good as, better than, or inferior to, the method used 

 by Schmidt and Hoagland {Joiir. Biol. Chem., 1912, xi, p. 387). 

 This would involve comparisons of determinations of aluminium in 

 Standard aqueous Solutions and in blood containing known propor- 

 tions of added aluminium. 



" In this memorandum I am suggesting merely the most general 

 outlines of the proposed research. You would be free to ascertain 

 the essential facts in your own way as to details. // you endeavor to 

 do the work with every purpose to make an earncst, faithful, and 

 reliahle, scientific contribution to this important Symposium, you 

 woidd meet every expectation I coidd entertain." 



This particular phase of the general investigation was begun 

 early in 19 15 and has been in continuous progress, in one phase or 

 another, ever since. The original plan has been extended to in- 

 clude a study of several types of baking powders. 



The four succeeding papers of this series (2-5), in this issue, 

 present the results obtained for section A of the research on the 

 foregoing program, with supplementary comment, in a fifth (6), 

 and a sixth (7), on the method found to be the "best" for the de- 

 termination of aluminium in biological materials.'' The four com- 

 parative papers (2-5) are published "in the original," in the order 

 of their presentation, without revision of content or adjustment of 

 form.^'^ 



9 (2) Howe: Biochem. Bull., 1916, v, p. 158; (3) Curtman and Gross: Ibid., 

 p. i6s; (4) Steel: Ibid., p. 173; (S) Smith and Hawk: Ibid., p. 183; (6) Gies: 

 Ibid., p. 189; (7) Balls: Ibid., p. IQS- 



10 Some of the conventional revisions, on a typographical basis, to which 

 manuscripts for the Biochemical Bulletin are usually subjected, were also 

 withheld. 



