OcrosER 18, 1918] 
unnecessary loss from lack of control of the tools 
and requirements of war. 
We hold that the use of platinum at this time in 
the production of articles of ornament is contrary 
to publie welfare. Therefore, we recommend that 
an appeal be made to the women of the United 
States to discourage the use of platinum in jew- 
elry and that all citizens be urged to avoid its use 
for jewelry, for photographie paper and for any 
purpose whatever save in scientific research and 
in the making of articles for industrial need. 
A committee consisting of Dr. W. H. 
Nichols, Dr. M. T. Bogert, Dr. A. A. Noyes, 
Dr. Julius Stieglitz and Dr. C. L. Parsons 
had, in June, 1917, drawn up and presented a 
report on “ War Service of Chemists” and “ A 
Plan for the Impressment of Chemists and 
for the Preservation of the Supply of Chem- 
ists.” Several important editorials by Dr. 
Chas. H. Herty and communications to the 
chemists of the country advising them as to 
their procedure had appeared in The Journal 
of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. 
That the wisdom of carefully listing the 
chemists of the country more than warranted 
the expenditure and effort has been apparent 
from the first. The war had scarcely begun 
when the growth of the ordnance and other 
partments developed a tremendous demand 
for chemists, first to obtain chemical informa- 
tion from the other side, and soon to develop 
information on this side. <A large part of the 
chemists now in war work were obtained and 
classified from this list. The officers of the 
Bureau of Mines and of the American Chem- 
ical Society were the scene of continual con- 
ferences regarding chemical personnel and the 
development of chemical warfare. Practically 
all of the chemists who early entered the Ord- 
nance Department in a commissioned capacity 
were either obtained through the American 
Chemical Society or passed upon by its officers. 
When the Bureau of Mines began its in- 
vestigation on gas warfare the list was in- 
valuable, and representatives from practically 
all of the bureaus and departments in Wash- 
ington consulted it from time to time as their 
needs increased. 
When the chemists were later drafted into 
the Army this census served as a basis for de- 
SCIENCE 
379 
termining their qualifications, which later, 
through the far-sighted assistance of Assistant 
Secretary Crowell, resulted in chemists being 
withheld for chemical service. 
From the first the chemical personnel of the 
Army and Navy and the civilian bureaus was 
partly civilian and partly military. As the 
war progressed the proportion of chemists in 
uniform naturally increased as the men were 
taken from the Army and assigned to chemical 
duty. The question is still a disputed one— 
to be settled probably only when the war is 
over—as to whether a chemist can serve best in 
a civilian or a military capacity. Certainly in 
both capacities the demand for chemists has 
been unprecedented and the development of 
chemistry in modern warfare to those in touch 
with the advancement made seems almost a 
fairy tale. 
The first requirement for chemists in quan- 
tity in Washington was in connection with gas 
work organized by Director Van. H. Manning 
and carried on by the Bureau of Mines with 
its own funds until July, 1917, after which, 
steadily increasing funds were furnished to it 
by the Army and Navy. The gas research 
work was located at the Bureau of Mines Ex- 
periment Station some four miles from the cen- 
ter of the city of Washington. 
A branch laboratory of the Bureau of Mines 
was also established at the Catholie Univer- 
sity, Washington, and other branch laborato- 
ries and cooperative research work carried on 
at such institutions as Johns Hopkins, Har- 
vard, Yale, Princeton, Ohio State, Wisconsin, 
Washington, Kansas, Michigan, Columbia, 
Cornell, California, Rice Institute, Iowa State 
College, Bryn Mawr, Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, Worcester Polytechnic, ete. 
Also special problems were undertaken by the 
National Carbon Company and the National 
Blectrie Lamp Association, as well as by 
chemists and laboratories of many of our other 
important chemical corporations. 
One of the most interesting features of this 
work was the spirit shown by American chem- 
ists and the immediate response made by prac- 
tically every chemist in America to the call to 
duty. The organization was rapidly built up 
