14 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1123 



Denny, appeared on November 15, 1814, 

 and on December 14, 1814, the following 

 notice appeared: 



A special meeting will be held at the Society 

 Hall next Thursday at half past six. 



Harmae Denny, Secretary 



Why a special meeting so soon after the 

 election? Did Messrs. Troost and Trevor 

 resent the fact that they were not reelected 

 to their former positions, or had interest in 

 things scientific declined in the borough? 

 Perhaps it was the pressure of business, for 

 less than a month after this notice the newly 

 organized firm of Trevor, Pettigrew and 

 Troost announced that the "Western Eagle 

 Lead Factory was in complete operation. 

 The members of this firm later advertised 

 that ' ' they also manufacture, at their chem- 

 ical laboratory, alcohol, ether, sweet spirits 

 of nitre, aqua f ortis, muriatic acid, red pre- 

 cipitate, calomel and chemical preparations 

 generally. ' ' 



At least one member of this firm, Dr. 

 Troost, did not lose his interest in pure 

 chemistry, for in 1827 he was elected lec- 

 turer in chemistry for the Pittsburgh Philo- 

 sophical and Philological Society, of which 

 Rev. Robert Bruce, the first chancellor of 

 the University of Pittsburgh, was president. 



But, to come back to the Chemical Soci- 

 ety, it is almost certain that the Society was 

 disbanded at the special meeting of Decem- 

 ber 14, 1814, for no other notices of meet- 

 ings appeared in the newspapers. 



It is interesting to know that the Pitts- 

 burgh Chemical Society was undoubtedly 

 the third in the United States. It was pre- 

 ceded by two Philadelphia societies, the 

 Chemical Society of Philadelphia, founded 

 by James Woodhouse in 1792, and the Co- 

 lumbian Society of Philadelphia, founded 

 in 1S11. 2 



Pittsburghers have every reason to be 



2 Smith, Edgar Fahs, ' ' Chemistry in America, ' ' 

 D. Appleton and Company, 1914. 



proud of the fact that so early in the history 

 of the city, which was then a frontier town, 

 away on the other side of the mountains, 

 there was a live interest in science, and, 

 especially, in that branch of science which 

 has contributed so much to the industrial 

 progress of the city. 



John O'Connor, Je. 

 Mellon Institute, 

 University op Pittsburgh 



THE SAN DIEGO MEETING OF THE 

 PACIFIC DIVISION OF THE AMER- 

 ICAN ASSOCIATION 



astronomical society of the pacific 

 The Astronomical Society of the Pacific will 

 hold sessions in San Diego on Thursday and 

 Friday, August 10 and 11, at the time of the 

 meeting of the Pacific Division of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence. In these sessions the Astronomical So- 

 ciety of Pomona College will participate. 



The opening paper of the program will be 

 presented by Professor S. D. Towuley, of 

 Stanford University, president of the society. 

 A number of other papers have been promised 

 by astronomers of the Pacific Coast, and an 

 interesting program is assured. A special fea- 

 ture of the program will be discussion of 

 problems presented by the nebulae. Attention 

 is also called to the fact that the address on 

 August 9 by the president of the Pacific Di- 

 vision A. A. A. S., Dr. W. W. Campbell, will 

 be on the subject " What we know about 

 Comets." 



The titles of papers offered by members of 

 the Society or of the Pacific Division for this 

 meeting should be in the hands of the chair- 

 man of the program committee, R. G. Aitken, 

 Mount Hamilton, California, before July 10, 

 and abstracts should be submitted before July 

 29. It is especially requested that these ab- 

 stracts be worded in popular language, as it is 

 planned to print them in the daily press. 



CORDILLEEAN SECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 OF AMERICA 



A meeting of the Cordilleran Section of the 

 Geological Society of America has been ap- 



