December 8, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



759 



excursion to Pompton Plains, New Jersey, 

 where Capnoides flavulum was among the rare 

 plants obtained; also on a club excursion to 

 Great Island, New Jersey. Great Island is a 

 hummock of sand surrounded by a salt marsh 

 and lying between Newark and Elizabeth; it 

 has numerous interesting plants, some of them 

 being characteristic of the pine-barren flora of 

 the region further south. 



Professor E. S. Burgess remarked upon his 

 summer's visit to the Pacific Coast. Collec- 

 tions and field studies of asters were made in 

 New Mexico, Arizona, California and Oregon. 

 Mt. Hood, Ore., proved an especially interest- 

 ing field. Asters were found growing there 

 in close proximity to- snow and ice. 



Mrs. Britton alluded briefly to collecting 

 experiences in Bermuda during September. 

 Most of the species of ferns, mosses and hepat- 

 ics are found there only in the ' caves ' or 

 sink-holes. Her collections indicate consid- 

 erable additions to the list of mosses published 

 in the Report of the Challenger Expedition. 



Dr. J. H. Barnhart spoke of the Interna- 

 tional Botanical Congress held at Vienna in 

 June, which he attended as a delegate from 

 the New York Botanical Garden. 



Marshall A. Howe, 

 Secretary pro tern. 



THE NEW YORK SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 

 CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



The second regular meeting of the New 

 York Section, American Chemical Society, 

 was held at the Chemists' Club, 108 West 55th 

 Street, Eriday, November 10, at 8 :30 p.m., 

 with an attendance of 78. The chairman. 

 Dr. F. D, Dodge, presided. 



Chrome Tanning: Otto P. Amend. 



The first really important advance in prac- 

 tical chrome tanning was undoubtedly made 

 by August Schulz in 1884. Schulz treated 

 his skins in a bath containing bichromate of 

 potash plus an acid until they were saturated, 

 and after this they were placed in a second 

 bath containing sulphurous acid or hyposul- 

 phite of soda plus an acid. This process has 

 since been called the two bath process. 



The one bath process consists in treating 

 the skins with a basic solution of a chromic 

 salt. Such a salt can be produced by adding 

 washing soda to a chromium salt until suffi- 

 ciently basic and then heating. 



Differences in basicity have an important 

 bearing on the tanning properties of chrome 

 solutions. Chrome alum, on account of its 

 acid character, penetrates the skin quickly, 

 but fails to tan the skin thoroughly, is easily 

 washed out, and produces leather of a greenish 

 color. When more basic solutions are used, 

 the penetration is slower, the tannage raore 

 complete, the chrome less easily washed out 

 and the leather produced is of a more bluish 

 shade. When the solution becomes very basic, 

 the chromium salt will precipitate on dilution, 

 but remains stable and perfectly dissolved in 

 a concentrated solution. 



Analysis of a number of chrome liquors on 

 the market show that nearly all of them are 

 produced by the reduction of bichromate of 

 potash or soda, by means of glycerin, alcohol 

 or glucose; most of them being sulphates. 



5-Brom-2 Amino -henzoic- Acid and some of its 

 Derivatives: Marston Taylor Bogert and 

 William Elowers Hand. 

 5-Brom-2-acetaminobenzoic acid was pre- 

 pared by direct bromination of acetanthranilic 

 acid, and also by the oxidation of 5-brom-o- 

 acettoluid. On saponification, it gave the 5- 

 brom-2-aminobenzoic acid, while boiling acetic 

 anhydride changed it to 5-brom-2-acetanthra- 

 nil. 5-brora-2-acetaminobenzonitrile was ob- 

 tained by the direct bromination of actean- 

 thranilic nitrile. The above compounds were 

 described, together with certain of their de- 

 rivatives. 



Fischer's Classification of Stereo-Isomers : 



M, A. Eosanoff. 



The author demonstrates that Emil Eischer's 

 subdivision of the sugars and their derivatives 

 into two enantio-morphous families is errone- 

 ous in a number of cases and therefore self- 

 contradictory. He proposes a corrected classi- 

 fication which brings out the family relation- 

 ships, of those compounds with great clearness, 

 settles definitely the controversies that have 

 arisen on the subject, and eliminates much 



