ENCE 



Friday, September 5, 1919 



CONTENTS 



The American Chemical Society: — 

 Research and Application: Dr. Wm. H. 

 Nichols. 217 



The Interallied Chemical Conference 224 



The Brussels Meeting of the International 

 Besearch Council 226 



Scientific Events: — 



The Galton Laboratory ; The Potato Disease 

 Conference; Mr. Cairnegie's Will 226 



Scientific Notes and News 228 



University and Educational News 'j29 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 Direct Photography of Colonies of Bac- 

 teria : A. A. Cope. Shell-slioclc in the Battle 

 of Marathon: Dean A. Worcester. The 



, Aurora of August 11 : Jean Dickinson. 

 Will there he another Aurora about Septem- 

 ber 7-8 : Dr. Charles F. Brooks 229 



Quotations : — 

 Labor and Science 230 



Scientific Books: — 



The Schrammen Collection of Cretaceous 



Professor A. W. Grabau. 231 



Organization of the American Section of tlie 

 Proposed International Geophysical Union: 

 Dr. Harry O. Wood 233 



Special Articles: — 



Bacterium solanacearum in Beans: Dr. 

 Erwin F. Smith Lucia McColloch 238 



MSS. intended for 'publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review Bhould be aent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



RESEARCH AND APPLICATION^ 



Tor nearly half a century, it has been the 

 custom in this society to give its president 

 every year " his day in court," and in con- 

 formity therewith many brilliant addresses 

 have been delivered, and almost every con- 

 ceivable subject has been discussed. It is 

 therefore becoming more and more difficult 

 for the incumbent to select a theme which 

 shall have the merit of novelty, unless, per- 

 chance, he is himself working in the labora- 

 tory, and can bring forth some new and 

 shining example of the progress of his science. 

 I have not the good fortune to be so situated, 

 and I must perforce satisfy myself with some 

 other line of procedure in the hope that even 

 in a discussion of old and well-known facts, 

 some new light may be thrown, which will not 

 be altogether without value. I have therefore 

 selected for my subject, " Research and Appli- 

 cation," knowing that many of my hearers 

 have been spending their lives in considering 

 and teaching it, and are far better prepared to 

 instruct me than I am to reciprocate. I would 

 remind such that there is at last a large and 

 growing number of people who are intensely 

 interested in what the chemist has done and is 

 doing- and still more in what he will accom- 

 plish in the future. It is therefore rather to 

 that public, many representatives of which are 

 present to-night, than to the chemists in this 

 gathering that I would address myself. 



Research in the distant past was the priv- 

 ilege of the few. In chemistry, during the 

 middle ages, the alchemists were practically 

 the only ones pursuing it, and they in secret, 

 and not always from the highest of motives. 

 Working by themselves, as they did, they had 

 not the great advantage of meeting and dis- 

 cussing with others similarly engaged, and 

 using their progress and mistakes to intensify 



1 Address of the president of the American 

 Chemieal Society, Philadelphia, September 4, 1919. 



