January 3, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



29 



action as offered by Bearing was insufficient, 

 and that there was good reason for believing 

 that such metals exerted a surface action re- 

 sulting in the formation of peroxides which 

 clearly possessed a greater germicidal action 

 than hydrogen peroxide. The action of light 

 upon bacteria, especially of sunlight, was dis- 

 cussed, and although the studies of Richard- 

 son, Dieudonne and others rendered it certain 

 that hydrogen peroxide was formed under 

 these conditions, nevertheless it was by no 

 means demonstrated that this substance was 

 the active germicidal agent. These considera- 

 tions led the authors to the belief that the ger- 

 micidal effect of metals and of sunlight was 

 due to higher and more active peroxides. Ac- 

 cordingly a number of organic peroxides were 

 prepared and their action on bacteria was 

 studied. Several of these were found to be 

 wholly inert. This was the case with aceton 

 peroxide and dibenzoyl peroxide. On the other 

 hand, the diacetyl and the benzoyl acetyl per- 

 oxides were found to be extremely germicidal. 

 It was pointed out, however, that these bodies 

 were not germicidal as such, but that in aque- 

 ous solution hydrolysis took place, resulting in 

 the formation of acetyl hydrogen peroxide and 

 benzoyl hydrogen peroxide respectively. The 

 intense germicidal as well as oxidizing power 

 of such solutions was therefore due to the pro- 

 ducts of hydrolysis. 



It was pointed out that these last mentioned 

 peroxides were capable of destroying the most 

 resistant spores usually inside of a minute. A 

 comparison with hydrogen peroxide showed 

 that this substance was much more feeble in 

 its action. In order to obtain approximately 

 the same germicidal effects it was necessary to 

 prepare solutions of hydrogen peroxide which 

 contained eighty times as much active oxygen 

 as that contained in a solution of benzoyl hy- 

 drogen peroxide. This fact was interpreted as 

 showing that the organic peroxides exerted 

 their germicidal action not through nascent 

 oxygen, as is commonly held in the case of 

 ozone and hydrogen peroxide, but rather 

 through other means, possibly through ions. 

 In the subsequent discussion it was pointed 

 out that other interpretations were possible; 

 that the oxygen liberated might possess a 



higher potential energy than that from hydro- 

 gen peroxide; or that the organic peroxides 

 might be dissociated, as in the case of alcohol, 

 not so much into ions as into one or more ac- 

 tive parts. 



Dr. ISTovy also detailed at some length the in- 

 vestigation bearing upon the relation of the 

 surface action of metals to the formation of 

 benzoyl acetyl peroxide. Metals, paper and 

 fabrics, as well as sand, originally employed 

 by Erlenmeyer and by ISTef, exert a marked 

 favoring action which may be interpreted as 

 due to occlusion and partial dissociation of 

 oxygen. 



Frederick C. Newcombe, 



Secretary. 



THE academy of science OF ST. LOUIS. 



At the meeting of the Academy of Science 

 of St. Louis on the evening of December 2, 

 1901, the following subjects were presented: 



Mr. J. Arthur Harris presented in abstract 

 a paper on 'Normal and Teratological Thorns 

 of Gleditschia triacanthos L.' 



Professor A. S. Chessin, of Washington Uni- 

 versity, delivered an address on 'The har- 

 mony of Tone and Color.' The speaker said 

 that although the idea is not new that colors, 

 like tones, are subject to laws of harmony, he 

 did not know that any systematic theory con- 

 cerning this had thus far been presented, and 

 the object of the paper was to establish such 

 a theory. A color-scale was constructed and 

 the properties of the intervals corresponding 

 to those appearing in the musical scale were 

 discussed, and the conclusion was reached that 

 within the limit of an octave the laws of har- 

 mony in tone and color are identical. 



A paper by Professor A. S. Chessin, on ' The 

 true Potential of the Force of Gravity,' was 

 presented and read by title, the author remark- 

 ing that this was the first of a series of de- 

 tailed papers bearing upon the general sub- 

 ject, the broad conclusions concerning which 

 he had presented in synopsis at a recent meet- 

 ing of the Academy. 



A committee was elected to nominate officers 

 for the year 1902. 



WlLLUM TrELEASE, 



Recording Secretary. 



