August 10, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



235 



could present a long list of valuable contri- 

 butions to chemical science from American 

 laboratories but it was a regrettable fact that 

 many of their teaching chemists were so over- 

 burdened with the duties of instruction and 

 the business of managing large laboratories 

 that they could find but little time for original 

 work. 



The president next gave an account of the 

 many important investigations in agricultural 

 chemistry which had been conducted by the 

 chemical division of the United States Agricul- 

 tural Department, among those mentioned being 

 the practical determination of the number and 

 activity of the nitrifying organisms in soil, the 

 influence of a soil rich in nitrogen on the nitro- 

 gen content of a crop, the manufacture of sugar 

 from the sorghum plant, and the comparative 

 study of typical soils of the United States. Of 

 agricultural experiment stations there were 

 now 59, and the 148 chemists connected with 

 them had done a large amount of original in- 

 vestigation in subjects more or less closely 

 allied to agricultural and physiological chem- 

 istry. One of the most important purposes of 

 these stations was the protection of the farmer 

 from the cupidity of the dealers in artificial 

 manures, every fertilizer sold being now sub- 

 jected to careful analysis, of which the results 

 were published from time to time. Many other 

 researches in this branch of chemistry were 

 enumerated in the address, which went on to 

 refer to the work of the United States Geolog- 

 ical Survey and to the progress of sanitary 

 chemistry in America. Professor Chandler 

 next gave a long and comprehensive account of 

 the chemical industries of the United States. 

 Beginning with a statement of the i-aw materials 

 produced by the country, he passed on to speak 

 of the various ways in which they were util- 

 ized, and gave an immense amount of informa- 

 tion respecting the manufacturing processes in 

 use. 



In particular he referred to the progress 

 made in electro-chemistry, and described the 

 methods now adopted for the reduction of 

 aluminium at Niagara and also for the manu- 

 facture of carborundum and artificial graphite. 

 Speaking of water gas he described the opposi. 

 tion which had been brought to bear against its 



introduction for illuminating purposes. The 

 question came before the Health Department 

 of New York, of which he was at the time 

 president, and after careful investigation the 

 department decided that the gas was such an 

 improvement in quality and price while the in- 

 creased danger as compared with that from old- 

 fashioned coal gas was so slight, that it was not 

 wise to interfere with it. The water gas in- 

 dustry had now taken almost complete posses- 

 sion of the whole country. It seemed safe to 

 say that there were at least 500 gas companies 

 using water gas wholly or in part, and it was 

 estimated that in 1899 three-quarters of the en- 

 tire consumption, or 52,500 million cubic feet, 

 consisted of carburetted water gas. The price 

 of this was reduced ultimately to %1 per lOOO 

 cubic feet, the average quality being between 

 26 and 27 candle power, as against bituminous 

 coal gas at $3. 75 per 1000, with an illuminat- 

 ing power of 16 or 17 candles. 



THE JESUP NORTH PACIFIC EXPEDITION* 

 Messes. Waldemak Jochelson and "Wal- 

 DEMAE BoGOEAS, of the Jesup North Pacific Ex- 

 pedition of the American Museum, have recently 

 started for the northeastern part of Asia, by 

 way of San Francisco and Vladivostok, to con- 

 tinue the work of the Expedition in Siberia. 



The region which Messrs. Jochelson and 

 Bogoras are about to visit is situated northeast 

 of the Amoor River. They will study the rela- 

 tions of the native tribes of that area to the in- 

 habitants of the extreme northwestern part of 

 America, and also to the Asiatic races visited 

 by Dr. Laufer, under the auspices of the Mu- 

 seum, and to those living farther west. It is 

 expected that in this manner they will succeed 

 in clearing up much of the racial history of 

 these peoples, and it is hoped that the question 

 as to the relations between the aborigines of 

 America and Asia will be definitely settled. 

 Thus the work of these explorers is part of the 

 general plan of the Jesup North Pacific Ex- 

 pedition, which was organized for the investi- 

 gation of the relations between the tribes of 

 Asia and America. It is fortunate that this in- 

 quiry has been taken up at the present time, 

 since the gold discoveries along the coast of 

 * From the American Museum Journal. 



