Apbil 15, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



573 



United States when you have asked me to 

 treat of those of America. I have, how- 

 ever, limited myself not because I consider 

 our country America, but because of the 

 limited amount of information that I have 

 been able to secure relative to the other 

 countries in North and South America. 

 Such as is available for Canada is found 

 in a paper by Dr. W. R. Lang, published 

 in the Transactions of the Canadian Insti- 

 tute for 1904, from which it appears that, 

 in 1903, salt was produced in the Dominion 

 to the value of $334,000, and arsenic, in 

 1901, to the extent of 1,347,000 pounds. 

 Sulphuric acid was produced in Quebec, 

 Ontario and British Columbia, but neither 

 the number of factories, nor the extent of 

 the output is given. However, in treat- 

 ing of the plant at Ontario, which produced 

 about 15 tons of acid per day, it is stated 

 that imported brimstone was used as the 

 raw material, and this in the face of the 

 fact that Canada abounds in pyrites. The 

 wood-distillation industry flourishes in that 

 country, the plant of the Lake Superior 

 Power Company being, it is said, the 

 largest retort plant in the world, but 

 no statistics of production are supplied. 

 Ammonia liquor was produced to the ex- 

 tent of 235,000 pounds of 28° B. strength, 

 a larger part of it being exported. Soap 

 was produced by some 15 concerns em- 

 ploying about 2,000 hands, the value of the 

 product in 1902 being approximately $3,- 

 000,000. Glycerine was obtained from the 

 soap lyes, one works being capable of treat- 

 ing 10,000,000 pounds of lye annually. 

 Petroleum refining was carried on at Sar- 

 nia, the factory being able to treat 60,000 

 barrels of crude oil per month. Calcium 

 carbide was made in two works, carborun- 

 dum and graphite in one. There was a 

 limited manufacture of fine and heavy 

 chemicals. This about completes the tale 

 for Canada. 



My efforts to obtain information relative 

 to the Central American and South Amer- 

 ican states have been less successful, though 

 I have searched the literature and con- 

 sulted ofScials from and to these countries. 

 "The Statistical Abstract of Foreign 

 Countries" recently published by Mr. 0. 

 P. Austin, chief of the U. S. Bureau of 

 Statistics, covers the exports and imports 

 of these countries for a decade, and it 

 appears to be the only authoritative and 

 detailed report concerning them, yet a 

 painstaking search of the tables of exports 

 for each of these Central American and 

 South American countries shows no other 

 chemical items than borate of lime, iodine 

 and nitrate of soda from Chile; charcoal 

 from British Guiana and Argentina; fer- 

 mented and distilled liquors from several 

 of the countries, especially from the West 

 Indian Islands; and dyestuffs and extracts 

 from a number of states. Literature re- 

 lating to the commercial resources and in- 

 dustrial activities of the Pan-American 

 republics, other than the United States, is 

 apparently quite meager, and information 

 regarding their industrial activities ap- 

 pears not to have been collected either by 

 the countries themselves or by students of 

 commerce and industry. It does appear, 

 however, from what information can be 

 obtained, that the resources of these coun- 

 tries are in an undeveloped condition and 

 that these countries present an almost vir- 

 gin field for development by the chemical 

 engineer. 



I have myself attempted to inspire one 

 such development, for at the outset of the 

 undertaking of the construction of the 

 Panama Canal by the United States, I 

 advised that dynamite, which has been 

 consumed in enormous quantities in the 

 excavation work, and the manufactured 

 "raw" materials of its manufacture, be 

 made upon the Isthmus. The easy access 



