Pebeuabt 27, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



209 



ammonia is cheaper than any other so far 

 known, that the production of cheap nitric 

 fertilizers is of a imiversal importance to the 

 increase of food production, and that con- 

 sequently the Haber invention was of the 

 greatest value to the world at large. 



3. The Haber method was invented and 

 published several years before the outbreak 

 of the great war. At the International Con- 

 gress for Applied Chemistry held in the United 

 States in 1912, it was described by Professor 

 Bernthsen. The method was consequently 

 known to all nations before the war and avail- 

 able to them to the same extent. It seems 

 to have been put into practise in the United 

 States. 



4. Ammonia, the product of the Haber 

 method, must be converted into nitric acid 

 in order to give rise to explosives or to cor- 

 rosive gases. As a matter of fact, the Haber 

 plants in Germany were erected with a view 

 to producing agricialtural fertilizers. 



5. As far as I know, no gas masks have 

 ever been manufactured in Sweden. In all 

 events, there existed in Sweden during the 

 whole war an export prohibition on all sorts 

 of war material. That prohibition has been 

 rigorously upheld. 



6. The iN'obel Prizes are paid in one single 

 I)Ost and not in monthly installments. 



DYE SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL 

 SOCIETY 



Tpie second meeting of the Dye Section 

 will be held in St. Louis, beginning "Wednes- 

 day, April 14. At this meeting the com- 

 mittee on permanent organization will submit 

 " By-Laws " for the consideration of the Sec- 

 tion, the approval of which by the Section 

 and by the Cotmcil, will be the necessary 

 steps to the permanent organization of the 

 Dye Chemists of the United States, as the 

 Dye Division of the American Chemical 

 Society. 



The secretary asks all scientific workers in 

 the field of dyes to present the results of their 

 researches and experiences at these meetings 

 of the dye chemists. Papers on the manufac- 

 ture, properties or application of dyes, both 

 of coal tar or natural origin, will be of timely 



interest. Any chemist having any such sci- 

 entific information ready for presentation is 

 asked to communicate at once with the secre- 

 tary, giving subject and time for presentation. 



As is usual, full details of the final pro- 

 gram, time and place of meeting can be ob- 

 tained by addressing Dr. C. L. Parsons, 1709 

 G. Street, IST. W., Washington, D. C, or the 

 undersigned. E. ISToreis Shreve, 



Secretary 



43 Fifth Avenue, 

 New Yobk City 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



Eear AoMmAL Egbert Edwin Peary, re- 

 tired, the distinguished arctic explorer, died 

 at his home in Washington, on February 20, 

 from pernicious anemia, aged sixty-three 



years. 



Professor E. G. Conklin, of Princeton 

 University, and Professor T. H. Morgan, of 

 Columbia University, have been elected hon- 

 orary members of the Belgian Society of 

 Zoology and Malacology. 



Dr. John E. Swanton, of the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, and Dr. Truman Michel- 

 son, of the Bureau of American Ethnology 

 and professor in George Washington Univer- 

 sity, have been elected corresponding members 

 of the Societe des Americanistes de Paris. 



The Bulletin of the Johns HopMns Hos- 

 pital for December contains a record by Dr. 

 Thomas S. Cullen, of the work and writings 

 of Dr. Henry Mills Hurd, Baltimore, who was 

 the first superintendent of the hospital. 



Dr. James Harris Eogers, of Hyattsville, 

 Maryland, has received from the Maryland 

 Academy of Sciences, Baltimore, its in- 

 ventor's medal for his work on " underground 

 and sub-sea wireless." 



It is stated in Nature that the council of 

 the Glass Eesearch Association has appointed 

 Mr. E. L. Frink, Lancaster, Ohio, director of 

 research. The secretary of the association 

 says : " Mr. Frink has a lifelong experience of 

 the American glass trade and glass research, 

 is well known to the foremost English glass 



