OOTOBES 23, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



555 



The value of the platinum imported in 1906 

 was nearly $4,000,000, or double the value 

 of that imported three years earlier. 



The platinum deposits in this country 

 are to be found in Oregon, California, 

 Washington, Utah and Nevada. 



The separation and the complex com- 

 pounds of the platinum metals continue to 

 offer interesting problems to the chemist, 

 and the able researches of Howe and of 

 Gutbier have added much to our knowledge 

 ef this field. Palladium and iridium have 

 found uses in the construction of fine appa- 

 ratus. Osmium has long been used as a 

 stain in microscopic work, and more re- 

 cently as a filament for incandescent elec- 

 tric lamps. Ruthenium, as already stated, 

 has been mixed with zirconium carbide 

 for the filament used in the zirconium 

 lamp. 



In conclusion, allow me to refer to an 

 address by Dr. H. Landolt given last No- 

 vember at the fortieth anniversary of the 

 founding of the German Chemical Society 

 upon the "Development of Inorganic 

 Chemistry" during the past forty years.^ 

 In this address advancement along four 

 lines was especially noted: (1) The dis- 

 covery of the elements Ga, Sc, Ge, Sm, Gd, 

 Tm, Eu, Nd, Pr, Ar, Xe, Ne, Kr and He; 

 the discovery of radium ; and the study of 

 the phenomena of radioactivity, which has 

 taught us that elements are undecomposed 

 but not undeeomposable bodies. (2) The 

 realization of a compilation of international 

 atomic weights, a work in which Dr. Clarke 

 of the American Chemical Society has had 

 a large and honorable share. (3) The 

 preparation of elementary substances by 

 the electric furnace and by the Gold- 

 schmidt process, and the study of allo- 

 tropic modifications of elementary sub- 

 stances with special references to colloidal 

 forms. (4) The formation of such com- 

 ' Ber., XL., 4627, 1907. 



pounds as the carbides, hydrides, silieides, 

 complex acids and metal ammonium bodies. 

 In all of these lines of chemical progress, 

 I am sure you will agree with me that the 

 rarer elements have played an important 

 role. 



Philip E. Browning 

 Yale Univebsitt 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Geological Society of America has 

 altered the plan of holding its winter meeting 

 at New Haven and will meet at Baltimore in 

 convocation week in conjunction with the 

 American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. 



The fourth annual meeting of the Southern 

 Society for Philosophy and Psychology will 

 be held in Baltimore during convocation week, 

 December 28-January 2, in affiliation with 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, the American Psychological 

 and Philosophical Associations and other so- 

 cieties. 



On the occasion of the seventy-fifth anni- 

 versary of Haverford College, Dr. Theodore 

 W. Eichards, of the class of '85, professor of 

 chemistry at Harvard University, gave an ad- 

 dress entitled " The Relation of Modem Chem- 

 istry to Medicine." Professor Eichards and 

 Dr. James Tyson were among those on whom 

 the honorary degree of doctor of laws was 

 conferred. 



PfiEsmENT Charles R. Van Hise, of the 

 University of Wisconsin, received the degree 

 of doctor of laws from Williams College on 

 the occasion of the inauguration of President 

 Garfield. 



The delegates from the United States to the 

 International Conference on Electrical Units 

 and Standards now in session in London are 

 Dr. Henry S. Carhart, professor of physics at 

 the University of Michigan; Dr. S. W. Strat- 

 ton, director. Bureau of Standards, Washing- 

 ton, and Dr. E. B. Rosa, physicist of the 

 bureau. 



At the general meeting of the German 

 Meteorological Society at Hamburg in Sep- 



