May 11, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



755 



twenty of the more important proteids. Here 

 the methods of purification referred to above 

 have done admirable service, and their appli- 

 cation has thrown much light on the products 

 of the reactions in question. In this part of 

 the work the ' esterification method ' has 

 proved to be of the greatest value. The mix- 

 ture of crude amino acids is treated with alco- 

 hol and dry hydrogen chloride, and the product 

 fractionated under highly reduced pressure 

 (0.5 mm.). 



Experiments on the peptones and albumoses 

 have been made, but the results are not very 

 definite; there is scarcely room for doubt that 

 the substances obtained by the ordinary proc- 

 esses, such as precipitation from saline solu- 

 tions, are not pure, individual compounds, but 

 are mixtures, and new methods will be re- 

 quired for their satisfactory treatment. The 

 peptones are probably complex mixtures of 

 polypeptides. 



Of the structure of these compounds little 

 can be said with certainty at present, and 

 practically nothing of that of albumin, for 

 the fruitful investigation of which entirely 

 novel methods will have to be discovered. 



The number of new compounds which 

 Fischer has obtained is already very large, and 

 the thorough application of his methods will 

 enormously increase it and will require the 

 work of numerous chemists for many years. 

 Of course this only represents a fraction of 

 the actual quantity of work necessary, because 

 new methods of synthesis and new combina- 

 tions will undoubtedly be discovered. The 

 question, therefore, arises, will the probable 

 benefit be worth such a large outlay of time 

 and money? There can be no hesitation in 

 answering this in the affirmative. Only by 

 the painstaking, careful investigation of all 

 possible permutations and combinations of 

 the polypeptides and their cogeners, can a 

 firm foundation be laid for a real knowledge 

 of the proteids and related compounds such 

 as enzymes, toxins, etc., the importance of 

 which to the biologist it is difficult to over- 

 estimate. The point may be put in another 

 way: Suppose a true proteid were to be syn- 

 -thesized immediately, in some such simple — 



and brutal — way as the heating of an amino 

 acid in presence of a dehydrating agent, what 

 would be gained? The answer is, practically 

 nothing for biology and hardly anything more 

 for chemistry. 



All interested in science will join in the 

 hope that Professor Fischer's restoration to 

 health may be sufficiently permanent to enable 

 him to continue, for many years, his wonder- 

 ful and valuable investigations. 



J. Bishop Tingle. 



JoHKS Hopkins University. 



THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL 

 ENGINEERS AND THE METRIC SYSTEM. 



The following preamble and resolutions 

 concerning the ' metric system ' were favor- 

 ably reported to the board of directors of the 

 institute by the standardization committee at 

 the directors' meeting of March 23, 1906 : 



Whereas, The Metric System of Weights and 

 Measures offers very great advantages by its sim- 

 plicity, consistency, and convenience in every-day 

 use, as well as in engineering and scientific calcu- 

 lations and computations; and 



Whereas, These advantages have already been 

 demonstrated by the universal adoption and en- 

 tirely successful use of the metric system in all 

 civilized countries, except Great Britain and the 

 United States; and 



Whereas, All the electrical units in universal 

 use, such as the volt, ampere, ohm, watt, etc., are 

 metric units; and 



Whereas, The industrial use of these electrical 

 units would be much facilitated by the general 

 adoption of the metric system. 



Resolved, That this committee unanimously 

 recommends the introduction of the metric system 

 into general use in the United States at as early 

 a date as possible without undue hardship to the 

 industrial interests involved. 



Resolved, That this committee favors such 

 legislation by Congress as shall secure the adop- 

 tion of the metric system by each department of 

 the national government as speedily as may be 

 consistent with the public welfare. 



The board subsequently submitted the mat- 

 ter to the membership for a letter ballot. Of 

 the 3,300 associates and members residing in 

 the United States, replies were received from 

 1,747 up to May 5. Of these 1,569 voted in 

 favor of the resolutions and 178 against them. 



