otm SOCIETY 153 



VI. A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF METHODS AND MATERIALS 



Valuable work has been done by committees of the Society who 

 have given their labor and time ungrudgingly in order to work 

 out methods or examine materials. I mention this here because 

 I believe that a more comprehensive survey of methods and 

 material would be of great value. In biological problems we 

 cannot hope for the minute exactness of the chemist, but the 

 chemist has his standard and authorised methods, which he 

 dare not depart from. When a method is being improved or 

 a new one instituted a committee and official referee is appointed, 

 and a thorough test, often extending over years, is given. It 

 seems that such methods would be helpful in bacteriological 

 technique and help to ward aside many criticisms that are at 

 present levelled at us. The Society might add to the committees 

 already at work, and assign more problems to be worked out for 

 the common good. 



VII. BITREAU OF EMPLOYMENT 



The Chemists Club of New York city has managed an em- 

 ployment agency since 1913 with marked success. I have fre- 

 quently availed myself of its services with satisfaction to all 

 concerned, and I suggest that our society might organize and run 

 a similar bureau. If this employment bureau were incorporated 

 as a "membership corporation" no person could benefit by the 

 profits but any such accruing would go to the Society. Such an 

 organization, if carefully organized and conservatively run, should 

 be of great service to those in administrative positions, or heads 

 of departments desiring to obtain assistance, not to mention 

 those aspirants to bacteriological fame who desire to place a foot 

 on the first rung of the ladder of employment opportunity. 

 Certain large employers of trained bacteriologists, such as the 

 health departments of large cities, could fiJe their specific needs 

 with the bureau, and these organizations could be kept informed 

 of any men coming on the list who were specially fitted for their 

 particular line of work. 



