Mabch 22, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



475 



fore he had also demonstrated in the prepara- 

 tion of titanium carbide and other compounds 

 that chemical combination took place at the 

 highest temperatures at our command. What 

 a technique! It is as if some master of the 

 piano began at the base notes and swept up 

 majestically to the highest treble! 



Ifoissan studied particularly the chemistry 

 of the elements. His isolation of calcium is 

 a further example of new methods of attack- 

 ing his favorite problem. At the Inter- 

 national Congress at Berlin, he gave a lecture 

 which charmed his audience and elicited the 

 highest admiration. He presented his results 

 on the hydrides of the alkalies and the alkali- 

 earth metals. He added with these a further 

 demonstration that hydrogen is not a metal, 

 by showing that potassium and sodiimi 

 hydrides, KH and NaH, do not conduct elec- 

 tricity, and are therefore not alloys. 



We find him passing readily from the realm 

 of inorganic to that of organic chemistry, pro- 

 ducing potassium formiate, HCOOK by the 

 direct union of KH and CO^. 



One can never read many pages of his 

 memoirs without being struck with the fact 

 that he made no sharp line of demarcation 

 between the inorganic and the organic ; to him 

 they were but one chemistry. 



With a host of collaborators Moissan was 

 engaged to the last on a great work, ' Chimie 

 Minerale.' A discourse given at the convo- 

 cation of scientists at the St. Louis Exhibi- 

 tion in 1904, delivered at the invitation of 

 the government, was a resume of his intro- 

 duction of this important treatise. 



During the last few years Moissan had 

 forged ahead. He was the president of the 

 International Congress of Applied Chemistry 

 in Paris in 1900. He had previously been ap- 

 pointed to Friedel's professorship at the Sor- 

 bonne, and with highest inspiration he was 

 devoting his irrepressible energies to many 

 problems. These were indeed multitudinous. 

 His strictly scientific work was always par- 

 alleled with important applications for the 

 well being of the human race. His originality 

 showed him as a leader of thought and also 

 a worker for his fellow beings, inaugurating 

 new industries, planning new manufactures. 



Few chemists have had wider influence. A 

 medal struck in honor of the twentieth anni- 

 versary of the isolation of fluorine was only 

 recently given him by his students and 

 friends. 



The recognition of all this was freely given 

 to him not only at home, for France is loyal 

 to her sons, but also abroad; the last highest 

 honor conferred on him was the Nobel Prize, 

 for chemistry, in 1906. 



But to those who came within the subtle in- 

 fluence of his personality the fact that an 

 operation for appendicitis, which resulted 

 fatally on February 20, 1907, has severed a 

 friendship with one whose charm of manner 

 endeared him to students, associates and 

 friends alike, has come as a blow so sudden 

 and unexpected that it is difficult to fully 

 realize it. Our sympathy goes out to his 

 noble wife, that faithful amanuensis, who has 

 indefatigably taken down the thoughts of the 

 adored husband and preserved them for us, 

 and to the young man, his only child, who is 

 devoting himself to the same profession. 



Resolved, That the New York Section of the 

 American Chemical Society respectfully re- 

 quest the council of the society to fully recog- 

 nize the esteem in which our honorary mem- 

 ber, Henri Moissan, was held by the members 

 and associates of the society, and that appro- 

 priate resolutions be sent to his widow and 

 son. Charles G. Doremus 



JOHN KBOM BEES 



It is the custom to mark the passing of a 

 well-known man with a short notice of biog- 

 raphy; and it is not difficult to recite a list 

 of services, enumerate honors and distinctions 

 conferred by public bodies, or recapitulate 

 scientific researches and publications. But to 

 the writer these things are cold and hard 

 when said of Eees; to him Eees was known 

 best as a friend — that rarest friendship whose 

 beginning is outside the grasp of memory; 

 whose end is a green sod. 



Surely, if there exists a relation adapted 

 better than any other to make one acquainted 

 with the good or bad in any man, it is the 

 relation of a subordinate to his chief. Dur- 



