482 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 691 



discuss very briefly the nature of the work 

 dene in those laboratories of the various 

 departments of the federal government to 

 which appointments are made with some 

 frequency. I shall consider the subject 

 only from the standpoint of the oppor- 

 tunities of the chemist seeking a position 

 and shall not include those laboratories to 

 which appointments are rarely made. 



In 1885 this subject was discussed by 

 Professor F. W. Clarke in his address as 

 retiring president of the Chemical Society 

 of Washington— now the Washington Sec- 

 tion of the American Chemical Society.^ 

 The following quotation from his address 

 is of much historic interest: 



My first visit to Washington was in the autumn 

 of 1873. At that time chemistry had gained but 

 a precarious foothold in the public work. In the 

 agricultural department, one chemist, McMurtrie, 

 sometimes with and often without an assistant, 

 occupied a small laboratory, and carried forward 

 his investigations with very slender resources. 

 At the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Endlich, then 

 in charge of the mineral collections, attended to 

 general chemistry routine and made occasional 

 assays. Then, as now, the speculative constituent 

 tormented his member of congress and the insti- 

 tution with ores taken from granite bowlders; 

 with fossils to be assayed for silver or tin; with 

 iron pyrites rich in imaginary gold, or with al- 

 leged coal which proved to be nothing but black 

 tourmaline. With such trivialities the time of 

 the chemist was often frittered away, to the detri- 

 ment of science and the benefit of nobody. In a 

 basement room of the Smithsonian, dimly lighted 

 and badly ventilated. Dr. Loew, with few reagents 

 or appliances, made analyses of rocks and ores 

 for the Wheeler Survey. At the Army Medical 

 Museum, Doctors Craig and Mew examined drugs 

 for the War Department. The Patent Oftice, of 

 course) employed a staff of chemists, but they had 

 no laboratory, and their functions were critical 

 rather than productive. In addition, the govern- 

 ment had just started a laboratory connected with 

 the Custom House at New York, and maintained 

 another at Brooklyn for the purposes of the Navy. 

 At West Point and Annapolis, chemistry was 

 taught as an incidental study, but not by labora- 

 tory methods; and at Newport one or two chem- 

 ists were engaged in the torpedo service. 



' Bull. 1, Chemical Society of Washington. 



Professor Clarke then gave a brief ac- 

 count of the progress that had been made 

 in the twelve years following the date 

 mentioned. 



At the present time, of the nine depart- 

 ments, only three have no chemical labora- 

 tories—the Department of State, the De- 

 partment of Justice, and the Post-Office 

 Department. 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT 



The laboratory of the supervising archi- 

 tect's office is charged with the examina- 

 tion of metals, alloys, cements and miscel- 

 laneous structural materials. Its work is 

 largely of a routine nature resembling in 

 a general way that of a railroad testing 

 laboratory. 



The division of chemistry of the Bureau 

 of Internal Revenue is charged with the 

 analysis of all samples submitted under 

 internal revenue laws. These include the 

 determination of alcohol in distilled bever- 

 ages, the examination of remedies contain- 

 ing alcohol to determine whether their 

 medicinal principles are sufficient to ex- 

 empt them from internal revenue tax, the 

 examination of oleomargarine and adulter- 

 ated butter and of such samples of mixed 

 flour and filled cheese as are taken in con- 

 nection with the laws regarding the taxa- 

 tion of those products. The laboratory 

 also examines supplies furnished other 

 branches of the department under contract 

 and supervises the work of subordinate 

 laboratories at collectors' or agents' offices. 



The scientific work of the Public Health 

 and Marine Hospital Service is concen- 

 trated in the hygienic laboratory. The 

 chemical division of this laboratory was 

 organized in 1905. Its principal object is 

 to cooperate with the other divisions of 

 the laboratory in the solution of problems 

 pertaining to the public health, and to 

 undertake such routine chemical work as 

 may be required by the United States 



