GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



American Chemical Society's Series of 

 Chemical Monographs 



By arrangement with the Interallied Conference of Pure and Applied 

 Chemistry, which met in London and Brussels in July, 1919, the American 

 Chemical Society was to undertake the production and publication of 

 Scientific and Technologic Monographs on chemical subjects. At the same 

 time it was agreed that the National Research Council, in cooperation with 

 the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society, should 

 undertake the production and publication of Critical Tables of Chemical 

 and Physical Constants. The American Chemical Society and the National 

 Research Council mutually agreed to care for these two fields of chemical 

 progress. The American Chemical Society named as Trustees, to make 

 the necessary arrangements for the publication of the Monographs, 

 Charles L. Parsons, secretary of the Society, Washington, D. C; the late 

 John E. Teeple, then treasurer of the Society, New York; and the late 

 Professor Gellert Alleman of Swarthmore College. The Trustees arranged 

 for the publication of the ACS Series of (a) Scientific and (b) Techno- 

 logical Monographs by the Chemical Catalog Company, Inc. (Reinhold 

 Publishing Corporation, successor) of New York. 



The Council of the American Chemical Society, acting through its Com- 

 mittee on National Policy, appointed editors (the present list of whom 

 appears at the close of this sketch) to select authors of competent 

 authority in their respective fields and to consider critically the manu- 

 scripts submitted. 



The first Monograph of the Series appeared in 1921. After twenty-three 

 years of experience certain modifications of general policy were indicated. 

 In the beginning there still remained from the preceding five decades a 

 distinct though arbitrary differentiation between so-called "pure science" 

 publications and technologic or applied science literature. By 1944 this 

 differentiation was fast becoming nebulous. Research in private enterprise 

 had grown apace and not a little of it was pursued on the frontiers of 

 knowledge. Furthermore, most workers in the sciences were coming to 

 see the artificiality of the separation. The methods of both groups of 

 workers are the same. They employ the same instrumentalities, and 

 frankly recognize that their objectives are common, namely, the search 

 for new knowledge for the service of man. The officers of the Society 

 therefore combined the two editorial Boards in a single Board of twelve 

 representative members. 



Also in the beginning of the Series, it seemed expedient to construe 

 rather broadly the definition of a Monograph. Needs of workers had to be 



