94 MORRIS LOEB 



session of The Chemists' Club, called for the purpose of 

 settling a question vitally affecting the interests of New 

 York chemists. 



Eighteen years ago, when the men who had carried the 

 American Chemical Society through so many vicissitudes 

 organized this section, in order that the general society 

 might become a truly national one, I had the honor, rather 

 than the duty, of being the first local secretary. The meetings 

 were so poorly attended, the original papers so scarce, and 

 the general business so unimportant, that no heavy work 

 devolved upon its officers. We met in the chapel of the old 

 university building, where Professor Hall and I had our primi- 

 tive laboratories, out of which we carved, with some difficulty, 

 shelf -room for the fragmentary society library. When we felt 

 in need of a little variety, we sat in Professor Chandler's 

 lecture-room in 49th Street and listened to the passing trains; 

 or in East 23d Street, peered at the chairman ensconced 

 behind batteries of Professor Doremus's bell-jars and air- 

 pumps. An attendance of forty members, I believe, was a 

 record-breaking event. 



I need hardly expatiate upon the wonderful changes that 

 have been wrought since 1891. Our three colleges have moved 

 far uptown, and the splendid Havemeyer laboratories of 

 Columbia and New York University, and the beautiful new 

 chemistry building on St. Nicholas Terrace, make us glad 

 to miss the dingy and crowded places where chemistry was 

 taught an academic generation ago. Our own section and 

 kindred societies have been meeting in this hall of The Chem- 

 ists' Club for the past ten seasons, and no one can estimate 

 what share a fixed and commodious meeting-place has borne 

 in the marvelous increase in membership and attendance. 

 The other important factor is, of course, the growth of chem- 

 ical industry in this vicinity. 



