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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 925 



ordinary feat. Six highly interesting public 

 lectures, by well-known specialists, upon topics 

 of present interest, added to the general at- 

 tractiveness of the congress. Of the 4,500 

 members in various parts of the world, 2,173, 

 coining from thirty different countries, were 

 in attendance. The American Chemical So- 

 ciety, the American Institute of Chemical 

 Engineers, the New York branch of the So- 

 ciety of Chemical Industry, the American 

 branch of the Verein Deutscher Chemiker, 

 the American Institute of Mining Engineers 

 and the American Electrochemical Society 

 joined forces with the congress and held joint 

 meetings with the various sections in which 

 they were particularly interested. Such is, in 

 barest outline, a glance at the statistics of the 

 congress. 



Of social functions and opportunities for 

 personal intercourse, the congress presented 

 an " embarrassment of riches." Received in 

 a most cordial and genial manner by Presi- 

 dent Taft on the lawn of the White House, by 

 the secretary and board of regents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in the new National 

 Museum, by the rarious scientific bureaus 

 and laboratories of Washington; feted to the 

 limit of time and capacity in New York City, 

 given a memorable steamer trip up the 

 glorious Hudson, in perfect weather, and 

 finally winding up with two extensive trips of 

 ten and forty days respectively, through the 

 most interesting parts of the United States — 

 each chemist in attendance had the fullest op- 

 portunity for feeling welcome, for meeting 

 distinguished colleagues and for seeing the 

 best and most wonderful sights of America. 



Of the notable features of the congress, the 

 lecture of Mr. Eyde, the Nestor of the Nor- 

 wegian saltpeter industry, deserves first place. 

 To probably two thousand people, in the great 

 hall of the Natural History Museum, New 

 York, he told the fascinating story of fixing 

 the nitrogen of the air to nitric acid, in the 

 great Norwegian factories where 250,000 horse- 

 power is harnessed and toiling for this great 

 enterprise. A close second was the lecture on 

 sjmthetic or manufactured rubber, by Dr. 

 Perkin, of England, the importance of which 



product is recognized by every one. Dr. 

 Duisberg, of Germany, who claims the honor 

 of the invention for Germany, showed auto- 

 mobile tires of the new product which had 

 given entire satisfaction, but while Germany 

 has done much in developing the invention, 

 the honor of originating it is recognized as 

 belonging to England. But there are honors 

 enough in recent chemical achievements to go 

 all the way around, and no country represented 

 at the congress was without its contributions 

 to chemical successes to which it could point 

 with pride. 



Of the resolutions passed by the congress, 

 one of international significance was the ap- 

 proval of the work of, and the continuance of, 

 the commission to publish annual volumes of 

 newly determined chemical and physical con- 

 stants. The 1910 volume, just issued, is such 

 a splendid and useful volume, that the com- 

 mission was authorized to continue its prepa- 

 ration of the 1911 and 1912 volumes. Another 

 resolution authorized the use until 1915 of the 

 published atomic weights of 1912 as the 

 standard official table for commercial pur- 

 poses, thus putting an end to the confusion 

 caused in chemical industries by the use of 

 atomic weights revised every year. Another 

 resolution aimed at standardizing the strength 

 and purity of pharmaceutical products all over 

 the world; another the establishing of better 

 and standard methods of sampling ores, 

 metals and fuels. Other resolutions of a more 

 technical nature, useful to the chemical in- 

 dustry but hardly interesting to the general 

 scientific public, need not be mentioned. 



Speaking for ourselves, as hosts, the ad- 

 vantages and returns to us have been colossal. 

 Always in danger of becoming insular, in 

 spite of our continental proportions, we have 

 now felt the liberalizing contact with notable 

 men of other lands speaking other languages. 

 We have had forced upon us the various 

 points of view, from which other people see, 

 not only chemical questions, but from which 

 they regard the general problems of economics, 

 legislation, labor, industry, commerce and 

 the general well-being of nations and the ad- 

 vance of civilization. And we are enriched 



