NOTES. 103 



dent, B. W. Kilgore, of North Carolina; vice-president, E. E. Kauffman, of North 

 Dakota; secretary-treasurer, G. C. Creehiian, of Toronto, Canada; executive com- 

 mittee, Geo. [NIcKerrow, of Wisconsin; H. G. Easterly, of Illinois; and J. C. Hardy, 

 of ^lississippi, in addition to the president and the secretary-treasurer, ex oliieio. 



American Chemical Society. — The twenty-eighth general meeting of the American 

 Chemical Society was held at Cleveland, Ohio, June 29 and 30. About 100 members 

 were present. A brief address of welcome was delivered by Prof. E. W. Morley, of 

 Western Reserve University, to which the president of the Society, Dr. J. 11. Long 

 of Northwestern University responded. While the programme was of the usual 

 length for the summer meetings, few papers of direct agricultural interest were 

 presented. A paper by G. B. Frankforter, of the University of Nebraska, showing 

 that 42 percent of pitch, containing 21 per cent of turpentine, besides a large amount 

 of good charcoal, can be obtained from the butts of the Douglass lir which are now 

 discarded by lumbermen, was of especial interest as pointing a way to a better 

 utilizatioii of our forest products. Dr. F. K. Cameron of this Department discussed 

 the toxic limits of various acids and salts, singly and combined, for seedlings of corn, 

 wheat, and clover, showing the acids to be, as a rule, more toxic than the salts and 

 single salts more so than mixtures. The results, however, are not uniform with the 

 different j^lants and do not always bear out the dissociation theory. The possibility 

 of breeding plants of high resistant power was referred to. 



In a pajier on cereal foods, by E. Gudeman, it was shown that as a rule these 

 differ very slightly in composition from the grains from which they are prepared. 

 The carbohydrates have probably been rendered somewhat more digestible by the 

 cooking processes through which the cereal foods have gone. 



A. A. Noyes and R. B. Arnold discussed the rate and conditions of hydrolysis of 

 starch, and the precautions to be observed in determining this substance by means 

 of Fehling's solution. It was shown that the acid solution should not be completely 

 neutralized before the Fehling's solution is added. 



A paper by A. P. Sanders on the analysis of sea water from Woods Hole led to a 

 discussion of the possibility of sympathetically preparing sea water in which marine 

 flora and fauna would thrive. Dr. J. S. Chamberlain of this Department, pointed 

 out that this had been successfully done in some experiments conducted in the 

 Department. 



The afternoon of each day was devoted to excursions through the city and to the 

 chief industrial centers and manufacturing plants of Cleveland. The city contains 

 an unusual number of establishments of this sort in which chemistry find-j important 

 application. 



New Hydrographic Committee in Russia. — The past spring a law was promulgated 

 for the estaljlishment, in the Russian ministry of agriculture and imperial estates, 

 of a hydrographic committee to deal with scientific, technical, and legal questions 

 relating to the conservation and regulation of the water supply of the country. The 

 committee is to be composed of representatives from the different branches of the 

 government, especially from the ministry of agriculture and imperial estates, and 

 from the Imperial Academy of Sciences, as well as experts in hydraulics, geology, 

 agriculture and water rights. The subjects under the jurisdiction of the committee 

 are measures relating to the conservation, increase, and regulation of the water 

 supply and the laws relating thereto; a survey of the data available with reference 

 to drafting a general water law; questions relating to the management of water by 

 private parties; technical questions involving the interests of landed properties of 

 the state, town, or private persons; and the settlement of disputes arising under the 

 law relating to the construction nf irrigation and drainage ditches through a 

 neighbor's land. 



4678— No. 1—03 8 



