692 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 829 



ished it will contain fire-proof apartments 

 for the great reference library which it is 

 hoped will be collected, and to which I 

 trust any surplus arising from the expenses 

 of the congress will be devoted. 



The congress will be upon us in less than 

 two years. All of these preparations will 

 have to be made in the meantime, and the 

 officers and committee of the congress are 

 looking with entire confidence to the mem- 

 bership of this society for such active and 

 earnest support as will make the eighth 

 congress greater than any which has pre- 

 ceded it. 



William H. Nichols 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY AND 

 THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CON- 

 GRESS OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY 



First of all permit me to present the 

 thought to your minds that the utility of 

 the eighth International Congress of Ap- 

 plied Chemistry will be judged, deter- 

 mined and measured largely by the 

 printed record of its deliberations and con- 

 clusions. The position that the eighth 

 congress will occupy in the series of in- 

 ternational congresses will also be judged 

 largely by that printed record. 



It is essential that the printed record 

 shall truthfully and accurately refiect the 

 activities of the eighth congress. 



That these activities of the congress shall 

 properly and completely represent the 

 then condition of applied chemistry over 

 the whole world is perhaps the main task 

 of the eighth congress. 



That the then conditions of applied 

 chemistry in the United States be correctly 

 reflected and portrayed in those activities 

 must be the object of particular solicitude 

 on the part of all American chemists and 

 in particular of the American Chemical 

 Society and that this may be accomplished 

 it is necessary that everything pertaining 



to applied chemistry in the United States 

 which can be properly reported at that 

 congress should be so reported. 



The American Chemical Society and all 

 of its sections and divisions should there- 

 fore assist greatly in making the eighth 

 congress a proper measure of the condition 

 of applied chemistry in the United States 

 in 1912. It can also assist materially in 

 the making up of the printed record, 

 which is to present in permanent form for 

 use and for reference the activities of this 

 congress, so that these may be properly re- 

 corded and one of the principal objects of 

 the eighth congress may be achieved. 



The American Chemical Society, through 

 its executive officers, has already taken 

 great interest in the advancement of the 

 congress, and they have cheerfully given 

 valuable help. The American Chemical 

 Society with its membership of more than 

 fifty-one hundred members, its nine divi- 

 sions and its thirty-four local sections con- 

 stitutes a most powerful instrument by 

 means of which American chemists can get 

 hold of much, if not all, of the material 

 which is properly presented to such a con- 

 gress. If the local sections and if the di- 

 visions of the American Chemical Society 

 and all of their members will make it a 

 special point to search through their re- 

 spective divisions and their respective sec- 

 tions for material whose communication to 

 the congress would aid in bringing before 

 that congress a correct idea of what the 

 chemists of the United States are doing for 

 the furtherance of applied chemistry, not 

 in general terms, but in as concrete state- 

 ments as conditions will permit, then the 

 American Chemical Society can feel that 

 whatever that printed record may show it 

 certainly and correctly reflects the then 

 status of applied chemistry in the United 

 States. In this manner effective means 

 will have been used fully to represent all 



