402 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. VoL.XXVIII. No. 717 



this sort and to answer it, but since the 

 point has come up, a few suggestions may 

 not be out of place. In the purification of 

 sewage, it is true that there are needed 

 well-designed conduits, tanks, filters, hold- 

 ing basins, etc., but it is equally true that 

 the problem is from beginning to end a 

 chemical one, whether precipitation meth- 

 ods or bacterial methods are used. You 

 may say that bacteriology belongs to the 

 biologist, but I think it is true that the 

 problems connected with technical mycol- 

 ogy are so largely chemical in nature that 

 the chemist has at least an equal claim to 

 them with the biologist. In bacterial sew- 

 age purification, we are not dealing with 

 pure cultures; we supply the proper chem- 

 ical conditions of oxidation or reduction, 

 of alkalinity, etc., and assume that if the 

 conditions are right the expected reactions 

 under the influence of microorganisms will 

 take place. If any engineer who is not a 

 thorough chemist has a proper conception 

 of the chemistry of sewage purification, I 

 have not heard of him or read his works. 

 I need not say more except that sewage 

 works are usually constructed under the 

 superintendence of engineers who hire an- 

 alysts to make chemical determinations for 

 them. 



The problems connected with fuels and 

 smoke consumption are chemical through- 

 out, and again it is the exceptional engi- 

 neer who has an adequate understanding 

 of them ; yet it can not be denied that the 

 field belongs to the engineer at the present 

 time by right of possession. The problem 

 of smoke consumption was first adequately 

 treated by an engineer and while we say 

 now, glibly enough, that the solution of the 

 problem lies in bringing the gases and 

 solids in the furnace in contact with a suffi- 

 cient air supply at a sufficiently high tem- 

 perature, the problem was not so simply 

 stated a few years ago. The problem is 



solved now at the cost of fire brick fre- 

 quently renewed, but I am afraid the 

 chemists' contribution to its solution was 

 smaller than it should have been. 



In conclusion, I trust that the future will 

 see a closer contact between the votaries of 

 the pure science of chemistry, the teachers 

 of chemistry, the industrial chemists and 

 the community at large. In that union lies 

 the future successful development of the 

 science and profession of chemistry. 



W. D. ElCHAKDSON 



PRESENTATION TO PROFESSOR GOLD- 

 SCHMIDT 



Professor Victor Goldschmidt, of the Uni- 

 vereity of Heidelberg, to-day the foremost 

 crystallographer, was, on his fifty-fifth birth- 

 day, presented with a silver punch-bowl by his 

 former students in the United States and 

 Canada. It is doubtful if any teacher of 

 mineralogy either in America or Germany has 

 instructed so many Americans who have since 

 occupied positions of prominence having rela- 

 tion to the geological sciences. The following 

 persons, twenty-five in all, contributed to the 

 gift and signed the letter of birthday felicita- 

 tion: M. B. Baker, Queens University (Kings- 

 ton) ; Dr. Florence Baseom, professor of 

 geology, Bryn Mawr College; Eeginald W. 

 Brock, acting director, Geological Survey of 

 Canada ; Dr. Hermon C. Cooper, associate pro- 

 fessor of chemistry, Syracuse University; Dr. 

 Reginald A. Daly, professor of geology, 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology; C. W. 

 Dickson, Queen's University; Dr. William E. 

 Ford, Jr., assistant professor of mineralogy, 

 Sheffield Scientific School; Dr. C. H. Gordon, 

 professor of geology. University of Tennessee ; 

 Dr. W. F. Hillebrand, U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey; Dr. Wm. H. Hobbs, professor of geology. 

 University of Michigan ; Dr. T. A. Jaggar, Jr., 

 professor of geology, Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology; Dr. A. C. Lawson, professor of 

 geology and mineralogy. University of Cali- 

 fornia; Dr. E. B. Mathews, professor of 

 mineralogy, Johns Hopkins University; Dr. 

 W. C. Mendenhall, U. S. Geological Survey; 



