March 2, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



323 



During the year 197 papers were submitted 

 for publication, only 33 of whieb were un- 

 suitable for the Journal. Reviews on dif- 

 ferent branches of chemistry were pub- 

 lished. The total number of pages in the 

 Journal, including the 'Review of Amer- 

 ican Chemical Research,' was 2,361. 



The treasurer's report showed the finan- 

 cial affairs of the society to be in a satis- 

 factory condition. 



The officers for 1906 are: 



President — W. F. Hillebrand. 

 Vice-Presidents — The presiding officers of the 

 local sections. 



Secretary — Wm. A. Noyes. 

 Treasurer — ^A. P. Hallock. 

 Librarian — E. G. Love. 



The report of the librarian was followed 

 by the report of the committee on uni- 

 formity of technical analysis. This will 

 appear in the February number of the 

 Journal of the society. 



At the meetings of the different sections 

 the following papers were presented on 

 Saturday : 



PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY. 



Louis Kahlenberg, chairman. 



The Antimony-Tin Alloys: W. D. Ban- 

 croft. 



Reinders thought that antimony and tin 

 formed two series of solid solutions and 

 two compounds. It is now found that no 

 compounds occur and that there are four 

 series of solid solutions. The (3 crystals, 

 counting from the antimony end, are un- 

 stable below 309°. The paper will be 

 published in the Joiirnal of Physical 

 Chemistry. 



Amorphous Sulphur: Alexander Smith 

 and R. H. Brownlee. (By title.) 



The Thermochemistry of Chemical Com- 

 bination: J. W. Richards. 

 The paper discussed the real heat rep- 

 resenting chemical combining energy, and 



one conclusion was that in order to elimi- 

 nate from the measured heat of combina- 

 tion all physical heat effects, the reaction 

 should take place from solid constituents 

 to the gaseous products; because if liquid 

 or gaseous constituents are brought to- 

 gether, the heat evolved will contain their 

 latent heats of fusion or vaporization, 

 and if the product condenses to the liquid 

 or solid state, the heat evolved will contain 

 its latent heat of vaporization or sublima- 

 tion. The real chemical heat of reaction 

 is that of solid constituents to gaseous 

 products at the absolute zero. The heat 

 of reaction at any other temperature is 

 then equal to 



Qr = Q„ -f r {Sm constituents — & products), 



where Qr is the heat of the reaction at 

 any absolute temperature T, Qo the true 

 heat of chemical combination at the abso- 

 lute zero, Sm the mean specific heat from 

 absolute zero to T. Another way of ex- 

 pressing this is the well-known Helmholtz 

 formula 



2t=Qo + T 



dQ, 



where the differential coefficient repre- 

 sents the mean variation of Q with chang- 

 ing temperature between absolute zero 

 and T. 



The paper further discussed the great 

 thermoehemical generalization that the heat 

 of formation of salts taken to dilute solution 

 is additive, and concluded therefrom that 



(1) a salt in dilute solution is in a condi- 

 tion closely analogous to the gaseous state, 



(2) that the phenomena of osmotic pres- 

 sure also substantiate this view, (3) that 

 since for this condition the first great gen- 

 eralization of the thermochemistry of 

 chemical combination has been discovered, 

 and applies with exactness, that, therefore, 

 the state of being in dilute solution is with- 

 out question the most uniform and com- 

 plete state of chemical combination knoAvn, 



