MARCH 22, 1901.] 
the importance of the better education of 
those who must manage the rapidly grow- 
ing industries. The successful efforts of 
the late Senator Justin S. Morrill and his 
associates, in securing the enactment of the 
law which provided for the establishment 
in each State of an institution for study of 
agriculture and the mechanic arts, is well 
known and will always be gratefully re- 
membered. No less important were the 
efforts of the late Mr. Hatch of Missouri, 
who labored so earnestly and eventually 
so successfully for the establishment of 
the State agricultural experiment stations. 
There can be no question that nothing has 
done more for the promotion of the science 
of chemistry and its applications than the 
acts of these great captains of industry 
and legislation. We shall not forget fur- 
ther the wonderful benefactions of Johns 
Hopkins, Clark, Case, Rose, Rockefeller, 
Stanford, Schermerhorn, Havemeyer, Fay- 
erweather, Carnegie and others, who have 
furnished through splendid munificence the 
magnificent facilities not only for instruc- 
tion in the science but for abstract research 
as well. 
The science received splendid impulse 
-and inspiration in the meeting at the grave 
of Priestley in 1874. It brought the chem- 
ists of the country, then comparatively few 
in number, together and established the 
bond of good fellowship and scientific sym- 
pathy, always so necessary to true progress. 
The most important outcome of this most 
important gathering was the organization 
of our own society. In his address deliv- 
ered at that meeting Professor Benjamin 
Silliman named eighty-five chemists who 
had contributed to the advancement of the 
science in the United States at that time. 
_ In 1876, the American Chemical Society 
was organized and during the year enrolled 
230 members, of which 190 were profes- 
sional chemists. The impulse given in 
Northumberland was effective, the example 
SCIENCE. 
443 
of a few devoted and public spirited men 
was followed, and though a period of al- 
most fifteen years was requisite to the ulti- 
mate firm establishment of the work of the 
organization and the integrity of the Society 
itself, the great aims of its founders to se- 
cure the harmonious and thorough organ- 
ization of all the chemists of the country 
finally prevailed. The Society has con- 
tinued to increase in membership and influ- 
ence, until at the present time thirteen 
local sections have been established in the 
various parts of the country, all actively 
working, and at least six of them holding 
monthly meetings, during all but the sum- 
mer months, for such scientific intercourse 
and discussion as cannot fail to be fruitful 
in the promotion of the science. The roll 
of membership now contains about 1,750 
names, and while this represents but a small 
proportion of the working chemists of the 
country, its growth henceforward must be 
rapid and the hope of the founders fairly 
realized. 
The Journal covers annually nearly one 
thousand pages of matter fairly representa- 
tive of the work of American chemists, and 
it has become necessary, because of in- 
creased demands for it, to publish an edition 
of three thousand copies. Its pages are 
open to communications on all subjects 
relating to chemistry and its applications, 
and it is the hope and expectation that the 
valuable Review of American Chemical Re- 
search may be accompanied in the near 
future by abstracts of papers published in 
the foreign journals, thus furnishing to all 
our members information regarding the 
world’s works in chemical science and 
practise. 
The progress made in the applications 
of chemistry in our country can properly 
and fully be told only in the results of the 
census now in progress and in hands which 
promise results of higher value than have 
ever before been obtained in such work in 
