NOVEMBEB 12, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



667 



nine months, and once a month during the 

 summer, thus securing for the New York 

 chemist the same opportunities for the 

 early presentation of a scientific discovery 

 that are possessed bj^ his brethren in Euro- 

 pean centers? There is, of course, another 

 remedy which appeals to me, though I do 

 not express it with any degree of urgency; 

 namely, the consolidation of all local sec- 

 tions into a single organization which would 

 affiliate its members automatically with all 

 the national bodies now in existence, and 

 would turn over the scientific material of 

 its meetings to those journals for which it 

 seemed most suited. As a matter of fact, 

 glancing over the annual lists of our vari- 

 ous local organizations, I find a remark- 

 able interchangeability 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 fortunes 

 of the New York Section of the 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 duplica- 

 tion of work, by issuing their chemical ab- 

 stracts 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 American chemist is at a great 

 disadvantage as compared with the Euro- 

 pean : 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 de- 

 layed 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 preliminary tests, frequently 

 causes weeks of delay, as well as the dispro- 

 portionate custom house and brokerage ex- 



penses 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, accumu- 

 lated in the researches of large numbers of 

 academic investigators, it is comparatively 

 easy to obtain by correspondence research 

 material or typical specimens for compari- 

 son. In this country, on the other hand, 

 laboratories are scattered throughout the 

 numerous colleges and universities, and 

 there are no established rules by which 

 specimens must be deposited with the labo- 

 ratory. In smaller laboratories, especially, 

 the chances of preservation after the de- 

 parture of the investigator are not very 

 good. It would be, consequently, very 

 much more difficult to obtain such speci- 

 mens here. I would suggest, therefore, 

 that a chemical museum be established in 

 New York, to perform for the American 

 chemists the functions that the Smith- 

 sonian Institution so admirably carries on 

 for the benefit of American naturalists. 

 This museum would not attempt to be a 

 popular show-place, but would embody, in 

 the first place, as complete a collection as 

 possible of chemically pure materials of 

 the rarer kinds, so as to supplement, but 

 not in any manner compete with, the stock 

 of commercial supply-houses. Any scien- 

 tific investigator would be entitled to bor- 

 row or purchase material required for im- 

 mediate experimentation, and all used ar- 

 ticles would be replaced as quickly as pos- 

 sible. 



In the second place, it would be the de- 

 pository for specimens of new substances 

 obtained in American research. Every 

 chemist would be invited to send to the 

 museum a small quantity of each substance 

 newly prepared by him, not, indeed, as an 

 evidence of the good faith of his investi- 

 gation, but, rather, to enable future 

 workers to obtain such material, either for 



