150 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



American Chemical Society in cooperation with the Council of 

 National Research was a census of the chemical talent of the 

 country. Since 14,500 of the 17,000 chemists were members 

 of this great organization, the Society was able to furnish the 

 Government with such information that, if a man was needed 

 for a particular work, the Government was able to place its 

 hand on the right man and send him to the right place. It 

 must be said in passing that this did not always please the 

 younger men of the chemical fraternity. Many of them wanted 

 to see the action of real fighting in France. Some of them 

 tried to do so by enlisting in the actual fighting units of the 

 army. While a few succeeded in this, so complete was the 

 information of the War Department that the majority were 

 secured for the more important task of the preparation of 

 chemicals for the use of the men who could not do this because 

 of the lack of training or experience. The value of this was 

 evidenced by the remarks of Secretary Baker at the Phila- 

 delphia meeting (1919) of the American Chemical Society. 



Early Organisation. The first man to recognize the need 

 for a systematic and detailed organization to study chemical 

 warfare was Van H. Manning, the Director of the Bureau of 

 Mines. In February, 1917, when war between the United 

 States and Germany seemed inevitable, Mr. Manning pointed 

 out to the War Department the peculiar manner in which the 

 Bureau could be of value in the study of the gas mask. On 

 April 4th, the first conference was held, with representatives of 

 the army, navy, and Bureau of Mines present. This meeting 

 may be considered the organization of the American University 

 Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines, later to become 

 the Research Division of the Chemical Warfare Service. 

 Mr. (later Colonel) George A. Burrell was called to be in 

 charge of this work. At once the station began to grow ; promi- 

 nent chemists were called from all walks of life to fill the ever 

 growing need of information and more information. The story 

 of the development of this wonderful chemical organization 

 has been vividly described by Colonel Burrell and the other 



