386 
on the nitrate investigations and other prob- 
lems. The high standing of its corps of chem- 
ists is well known to all members of our so- 
ciety. 
VU. THE WAR TRADE BOARD, SHIPPING BOARD, 
FOOD ADMINISTRATION, TARIFF COMMISSION 
These important government departments all 
require chemists and utilize chemists in a con- 
sulting and directing capacity. 
The War Trade Board has a member, Dr. 
Alonzo E. Taylor, who is assisted in passing 
upon chemical matters by Dr. A. S. Mitchell, 
Mr. B. M. Hendrix and Dr. R. P. Noble. 
The chemical work of the Shipping Board 
has been under the direction of Dr. W. B. D. 
Penniman, who, while shutting off the im- 
portation of certain products, has helped pro- 
duce excellent substitutes therefor. 
The Food Administration has been guided 
in chemical matters chiefly by Dr. Alonzo E. 
Taylor and Mr. Charles W. Merrill. 
The chemical work of the Tariff Commis- 
sion is under the direction of Dr. Grinnell 
Jones, who this morning gives you a full de- 
scription of the information being gathered by 
the Tariff Commission on chemical matters to 
guide it in its recommendations to Congress, 
both during and after the war. 
Many departments of the government have 
been in constant communication with our 
allies on research and industrial chemical 
matters. Chemical liaison officers have been 
sent from the Army and Navy and some of the 
civilian bureaus to keep in touch with foreign 
development and practise, and their services 
have been invaluable. In this connection it 
should be particularly pointed out that not all 
of the development of chemistry in this coun- 
try is our own accomplishment, for we have 
obtained information of the highest impor- 
tance through the efforts of these liaison 
officers. On the other hand, chemical infor- 
mation of the highest importance has been 
sent from America to Europe. 
War, the destroyer, has been on the other 
hand the incentive to marvelous chemical de- 
velopment with a speed of accomplishment in- 
comprehensible in normal times. Discoveries 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Von. XLVIII. No. 1242 
made in the search for instruments of destruc- 
tion are already in use for the development of 
chemical industry. Many others, unpublished 
as yet, and to remain unpublished until the 
war is over, will prove of the utmost benefit 
to mankind. The same agencies that add to 
the horror of war to-day, the same reactions 
which are used in the development of explo- 
sives and poisonous gases, on the one hand, 
and in counteracting their effect, on the other, 
will find immediate and useful application in 
the years to come. 
The war has been prolonged by chemistry. 
The German chemist apparently working for 
years with war in view has supplied the Ger- 
man armies with the means for their ruthless 
warfare, but the chemists of America and our 
Allies have met them fully in chemical devel- 
opment, and when the chemical story of the 
war is written where all can read, it will be the 
verdict of history that the chemists of Amer- 
ica were not found wanting. 
The chemical program of the United States 
Army and Navy has been at all times ahead 
of our trained man power and the mechanical 
devices necessary to apply what the chemists 
of America have produced. 
CHARLES L. Parsons, 
Chairman of the Committee on War 
Service for Chemists 
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 
THE CAWTHRON INSTITUTE OF SCIENTIFIC 
RESEARCH 
WE learn from the New Zealand Journal of 
Science and Technology that at a meeting of 
the Cawthron trustees held on May 30, 1918, 
the appointment of the advisory board was con- 
firmed for six years from the date of their ap- 
pointment on September 25, 1916. The ad- 
visory board consists of Sir James G. Wilson 
(chairman), Professor W. B. Benham, Dr. L. 
Cockayne, Professor T. H. Easterfield, Dr. P. 
Marshall and Professor R. P. Worley. 
The advisory board, in conjunction with the 
chairman of the trustees, is to make inquiries 
in regard to the appointment of a director, 
such director to be a chemist with biological 
