September 14, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



403 



SEB3IAN ANDREAS LOOS. 



The death of Dr. Herman Andreas Loos 

 which has ah-eady been noticed in these 

 columns, adds another to the long list of 

 men of science whose lives have been blot- 

 ted out by the scourges of the tropics. 



Dr. Loos, though a very young man, was 

 a chemist of exceptional promise. He was 

 granted the degree of Bachelor of Science 

 by the College of the City of New York in 

 1895. In 1897 he entered the School of 

 Chemistry of Columbia University. When 

 temporary business reverses removed the 

 available funds for the completion of his 

 education, he put his shoulder to the 

 wheel and for two years before he entered 

 Columbia taught in both the day and the 

 night schools of this city. While doing 

 his graduate work in the University he 

 ably filled the instructorship in Chemistry 

 in the East Side Evening High School. As 

 an honor for his ability and perseverance he 

 was awarded the University Fellowship in 

 Chemistry for 1899-1900. 



His principal contributions to the litera- 

 ture of chemistry are : ' The Electrolytic 

 Determination of Zinc in Amalgam ' (the 

 sis for M. A.) ; 'A Study on the Metallic 

 Carbonyls and their Decomposition ( School 

 of Mines Quarterly 21, 182) ; 'The Decom- 

 position of Nickel Carbonyl in Solution ' 

 (^Journal American Chemical Society 22 , 144 ) ; 

 ' A Study on Colophony Resin ' ( thesis 

 for Ph.D.). In the study on Colophony 

 Resin he has decided two controverted 

 points, viz : that abietic acid will form an 

 ^ anhydride on heating, and that it is not an 

 oxidation product of turpentine. He has 

 also developed a new method for the prepa- 

 ration of pure abietic acid and established 

 its formula by a number of analyses. Many 

 new salts were prepared and their decom- 

 position both by water and sunlight, noted. 

 The whole work is of great theoretical and 

 practical interest. 



Immediately after receiving his degree 



Dr. Loos was appointed assistant in analyt- 

 ical chemistry in Columbia Universitj'. He 

 resigned this position, however, to accept a 

 flattering offer from the Copper Corporation 

 of Chili, and it was while en route to Chan- 

 aral that he was stricken with yellow fever, 

 of which he died July 17th. 



At the age of twenty-four, by his own ef- 

 forts, he had earned an education and es- 

 tablished for his name an honorable place 

 in the literature of his profession. No finer 

 tribute can be paid to his energy and ability 

 and ambition. Strange indeed must be 

 one's thoughts when it is realized that the 

 victims of yellow fever on board the steam- 

 ship Chili were Italians or Chinese laborers 

 with the one exception, the brilliant, ener- 

 getic, educated Dr. Loos. 



Milton C. Whitakeb. 



Columbia University, 

 September 1, 1900. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

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 Some two-thirds of the volume are occupied 

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