July 31, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



155 



for the advancement of the science. What- 

 ever is published in Russian or Roumanian 

 or some other little-known language is read 

 only by a comparatively small circle and 

 a translation into some more familiar lan- 

 guage is necessary to add such articles, 

 sometimes of very great value, to our stores 

 of knowledge. In a paper which appeared 

 in January in the Zeitschrift fuer physika- 

 lische Chemie^ I worked out an international 

 chemic nomenclature, founded on the world 

 language Ido. I showed that a chemic 

 nomenclature in a plastic, artificial lan- 

 guage is better, more consistent and more 

 comprehensible than in any natural lan- 

 guage. With the comparatively limited 

 range of terms and conceptions used in a 

 special science like chemistry, the forma- 

 tion of an artificial language is a compara- 

 tively easy task. The attempts at the con- 

 struction of some such universal means of 

 communication, which have been made with 

 increasing zeal during the last forty years 

 have undoubtedly shown its practicability. 

 Such an artificial language is far better 

 suited to our purposes than any natural 

 language. These facts are not so well 

 known as they deserve to be. They are 

 none the less true and will be confirmed by 

 well-known members of our science. 



So it is possible for us to make the intel- 

 lectual treasures of our science equally 

 accessible to all the chemists of the world 

 through a common language. We need 

 only choose one of the artificial systems 

 already at hand. Because Ido is the only 

 one in which a systematic chemic nomen- 

 clature has been worked out, we should turn 

 our attention first to that scientifically per- 

 fected idiom. 



THE COLLECTION OP CHEMICALS 



The departments already described cover 

 the literary side of science. Provision must 

 2 Vol. 76, p. 1-20. 



also be made for the experimental practical 

 side in such an international institute. 

 Here the first essential is a complete col- 

 lection of all existing chemicals of absolute 

 purity and reliability. Such a collection 

 would be made not only for systematic and 

 didactic reasons. The chemist who happened 

 in his experimenting to prepare a substance 

 possibly never prepared by him before, 

 could secure samples from the institute for 

 comparison. Further, such samples would 

 be of service when a determination of any 

 physical properties of the substances was 

 to be made. Every one who has done such 

 work knows that the most arduous part is 

 the preparation of the materials for the 

 experiment while the actual determination 

 of the properties is comparatively easy and 

 rapid. Instead of preparing the same sub- 

 stance in one laboratory for the determina- 

 tion of the refraction coefficients, in an- 

 other laboratory for the magnetic rotation 

 of the plane of polarized light, and in 

 a third for its absorption of ultra-violet or 

 ultra-red light and so on, the collections 

 of the International Institute could be used 

 everywhere for the determination of all 

 possible properties. The objection has been 

 raised to this plan that there are numer- 

 ous substances which can not be kept in- 

 definitely without deterioration, and could 

 not therefore be used satisfactorily for such 

 purposes. The answer to this objection is 

 that naturally a laboratory would be con- 

 nected with this department where new 

 substances could be prepared and where 

 fresh materials could be produced and the 

 purity of substances which were to serve in 

 standardizing operations could be tested. 

 It must again be emphasized that the 

 aim is far less to undertake pioneer inves- 

 tigations than to rationally support enter- 

 prises already mentioned, with the means 

 at the disposal of the institute. This is to 

 be done according to the fundamental prin- 



