694 



SCIENCE 



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



the same end. If the local sections should 

 also be available to the organizing com- 

 mittee of the eighth congress as sources of 

 information to be supplied upon request 

 of the organizing committee another source 

 of usefulness and help will have been 

 opened up and made available. 



It is, of course, only natural that there 

 will be some of us not in a position to do 

 efiEeetive work along the lines above sug- 

 gested, but in the direction of making the 

 printed record correctly reflect the activi- 

 ties of the eighth congress there is a great 

 deal that almost every one, of course, can 

 do that will be of material assistance. This 

 is particularly true of those of us residing 

 in the neighborhood of New York City. 



In order to facilitate the actual working 

 of the congress and to' enable it to do its 

 vast amount of work with the least delay, 

 friction and annoyance possible, and with 

 the greatest possible accuracy and despatch 

 we shall need a large number of interpreters 

 who have considerable chemical knowledge. 

 There are four ofScial languages vised in 

 the proceedings and transactions of the 

 congress, namely, English, French, Ger- 

 man and Italian. It is reasonable to ex- 

 pect that the eighth congress will have at 

 least twenty-five sections and subsections, 

 and in each of these any one or all of these 

 four languages will or may be used. It is 

 obviously impossible to select American 

 presidents and vice-presidents of sections 

 and subsections whose command of all four 

 languages is such as to enable them to con- 

 duet the meetings in each or all of the 

 languages. It is desirable to have each 

 section and subsection provided with chem- 

 ists who would act as interpreters between 

 the presiding officer and any of our foreign 

 friends and guests when they do not speak 

 a language in common. Those who act in 

 that capacity would be rendering a great 

 service to the congress by so doing, for we 



all know the difficulties and the uncertain- 

 ties encountered at such international 

 gatherings in obtaining good interpreters 

 at such times from the audience. To have 

 in attendance chemists who would under- 

 take such work of their own motion, we 

 must all see, would greatly expedite the 

 proceedings and would add to the accuracy 

 of the secretarial reports of such meetings. 



Further, at the information bureau we 

 should have need of just such linguistic 

 accomplishment and ability to enable our 

 foreign friends to find expeditiously any 

 section or department or committeeman of 

 the congress. 



If all who are capable of acting as such 

 interpreters will make themselves known 

 to the officers of the eighth congress, then 

 these latter will have at their command the 

 means and the material whereby and 

 wherefrom they can create the best and 

 most efficient body of interpreters the cir- 

 cumstances will permit. 



Should the plan be carried out to have 

 a bureau of information where men inter- 

 ested in specific branches of chemistry 

 could make themselves known and thus 

 meet others in the same branches, compe- 

 tent interpreters with chemical knowledge 

 would be of almost invaluable assistance 

 and would become all the more necessary. 



The experience that young men in par- 

 ticular would gain by acting as such in- 

 terpreters would almost certainly more 

 than balance the time and effort expended 

 and would present to them in concrete and 

 actual form the diversity of chemical in- 

 terests and the ramifications of chemical 

 industry. 



Further, should it be feasible to print, 

 the papers in advance of the convening of 

 the congress, we should need a large num-. 

 ber of proof-readers and in this work, 

 tedious and arduous as it is, chemical 

 knowledge on the part of those doing that 



