428 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 402. 



that was uot based upon a large number of 

 tests carried out under similar conditions so 

 as to obtain an average that could be relied 

 on. The immensity of the task may be un- 

 derstood when it is stated that 88,000 sat- 

 urations and fire tests with complete attend- 

 ing records have been made of different 

 thicknesses of 19 diff'erent varieties of wood 

 and 46 chemical f ormulffi, requiring the con- 

 stant application of the inventor and his 

 assistants and running through a period of 

 over six years. 



One remaining question and a very im- 

 portant one is what effect has the fire- 

 proofing treatment upon the structural 

 strength of the wood. "When the older 

 methods of saturation whereby the wood 

 was steamed and then subjected to pressure 

 for long periods was the only one available, 

 it was recognized that a compression of the 

 cellular structure of the exterior layers of 

 the wood took place so that the wood was 

 distinctly weakened and the results for 

 tensile strength and bending and break- 

 ing tests were accepted as necessarily lower 

 than for the same wood untreated. With 

 the superior method of impregnation now 

 adopted, however, no stich allowance is 

 necessary and the treated wood is in no way 

 inferior in strength to the untreated. Pro- 

 fessors Mason and Bliss, of the University 

 of New York, have made a large number of 

 physical tests upon the wood treated by the 

 Ferrell process and have established this 

 important fact very fully. The whole mat- 

 ter however of the fire-resistant properties 

 of wood treated by different processes to- 

 gether with physical tests iipon the same is 

 now under investigation by a Commission 

 appointed by the 'Bureau of Building Con- 

 struction of the City of New York' and I 

 have no doiibt that its report when pub- 

 lished will throw much additional light 

 upon this most important subject. 



Samuel P. Sadtler. 



Philadelphia, July, 1902. 



AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD- 

 VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



TWENTIETH ANNUAL KEPOET OF THE COMMITTEE 

 ON INDEXING CHEMICAL LITEEATURE. 



The Committee on Indexing Chemical Lit- 

 erature, appointed by your body in 1882, re- 

 spectfully presents to the Chemical Section 

 its Twentieth Annual Report, covering the ten 

 months ending June 1, 1902. 



WORKS PUBLISHED. 



A Bibliography of the Analytical Chemistry 

 of Manganese, 1785-1900. By Henry P. 

 Talbot and John W. Brown. City of 

 Washington, published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 1902. 8vo. Pp. viii + 124. 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 

 XLI. (Number 1313.) 



Index to the Literature of the Spectroscope 

 (1887-1900, both dates inclusive) [continua- 

 tion of the previous index by the same au- 

 thor published in 1888]. By Alfred Tuck- 

 erman. Washington City, published by the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 1902. Svo. Pp. 

 iii -f 373. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 

 XLI. (Number 1312.) 



Chemical Societies of the Nineteenth Century. 

 By Henry Caekington Bolton. City of 

 Washington, published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 1902. Svo. Pp. 15. 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 

 XLI. (Number 1314.) 

 This contains a list of the serials published 



by the societies, fifty-six in number, statistics 



of membership for 1900, etc. 



On a System of Indexing Chemical Literature, 

 adopted by the Classification Division of the 

 U. S. Patent Office, by Edwin A. Hill. J. 

 Am. Ghem. Soc, XXII., No. 8; also Ghem. 

 News, Vol. 84, 202 et seq. Oct.-Nov., 1901. 



A Bihliography of Photography. By Miss 

 Adelaide M. Chase, was begun in the 

 February number of the Photo Era, pub- 

 lished at Boston. It is confined to literature 

 in English and does not include articles in 

 photographic and chemical journals. 



