98 MORRIS LOEB 



our various local organizations, I find a remarkable inter- 

 changeability of officers, and can hardly imagine that the 

 interests of their memberships can be very far apart if the 

 chairman of the New York Section of the American Chemical 

 Society in one year is the next year expected to guide the for- 

 tunes of the New York Section of the American Electro- 

 chemical Society or of the Society of Chemical Industry. If 

 this were done and we could then exert our influence upon 

 the various general societies to avoid duplication of work, 

 by issuing their chemical abstracts jointly, the strain on the 

 purses as well as the shelves of American chemists would be 

 greatly relieved. 



There is still another point, however, in which the Ameri- 

 can chemist is at a great disadvantage as compared with the 

 European: the ease of securing material for his research and 

 of comparing his results with those of others. In Europe, 

 especially in Germany, research is never seriously delayed 

 by lack of a needed preparation, whereas none of our supply 

 houses carry a full stock of chemicals. To obtain a single 

 gram of some particular substance, needed for a few pre- 

 liminary tests, frequently causes weeks of delay, as well as 

 the disproportionate custom house and brokerage expenses 

 involved in the importation of small quantities. Besides, 

 owing to the better centralization of scientific laboratories 

 in Europe, and the existence in each case of a fairly complete 

 set of specimens accumulated in the researches of large num- 

 bers of academic investigators, it is comparatively easy to 

 obtain by correspondence research material or typical speci- 

 mens for comparison. In this country, on the other hand, lab- 

 oratories are scattered throughout the numerous colleges 

 and universities, and there are no established rules by which 

 specimens must be deposited with the laboratory. In smaller 

 laboratories, especially, the chances of preservation after the 



