June 30, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



921 



V. Sucli universities as aim to produce tech- 

 nical men should equip them with a working 

 acquaintance with the fundamental types of 

 machinery likely to be used in actual practise. 



VI. In order to increase opportunity for re- 

 search on the part of qualified faculty-mem- 

 bers, relief from routine and administrative 

 work within the university should be encour- 

 aged and executed to its reasonable limit. 



VII. Our universities have a training ca- 

 pacity for branches of industry not now exist- 

 ent in this country; such unexploited training 

 opportunities should be published by the uni- 

 versities to the end that our industrials and 

 others might take up the advisability of cre- 

 ating such non-existent industry. 



VIII. The industries can stimulate research 

 by publishing such specific problems as may be 

 common to the industry and yet not of suffi- 

 cient importance to the industry to undertake 

 their solution directly; such problems would 

 afford valuable training for students and give 

 them live material upon which to work. 



IX. The industries, through associations 

 and otherwise, when submitting problems for 

 research, would facilitate the work if they were 

 to make reasonable provision for the financial 

 reimbursement of the university for its ex- 

 penditure of time, effort and material, and 

 thereafter provide for suitable stimulus and 

 encouragement for expansion of cooperative 

 effort, such as endowments, fellowships and 

 the like. 



RECOMMENDATION 



In view of the foregoing, this committee is 

 unanimous in recommending that the Ameri- 

 can Chemical Society take the initiative in 

 creating the committee suggested in Conclu- 

 sion III. Respectfully submitted, 

 Charles Baskerville, 



Chairman 

 W. S. Allen, 

 Virgil Coblentz, 

 Geo. a. Hulett, 



E. G. Love, 

 Russell W. Moore, 

 Maximilian Toch, 

 J. C. Olsen, 



F. G. "WiECHMANN 



DR. UGO SCHIFF 



The recent death of Dr. Fgo Schiff, pro- 

 fessor of chemistry in the Royal Institute of 

 Florence, recalls to mind that historical meet- 

 ing of chemists which convened in Karlsruhe 

 in 1860. The classical work of Stas on atomic 

 weights published about this date had caused 

 much discussion as to the real significance of 

 these constants. There was, however, no uni- 

 formity in regard to the choice of equiva- 

 lents, with the result that great confusion 

 existed in the selection of formulas of com- 

 pounds. Thus the formula for even so simple 

 a substance as water will be found in the 

 writings of the chemists of this period desig- 

 nated variously as H2O, ILO2 and HO, while the 

 more complex compounds were sometimes rep- 

 resented by a score or more of different form- 

 ulas. In order to discuss this unfortunate 

 situation and with the hope that some system 

 might be brought out of the chaotic condition, 

 Kekule and a few of his associates called a 

 meeting of the great chemists of Europe. This 

 meeting convened in Karlsruhe in 1860. It 

 was here, after much discussion, that Canniz- 

 zaro delivered that now justly renowned ad- 

 dress in which he pointed out that all con- 

 fusion would disappear if we but accept in its 

 entirety the hypothesis advanced by his fellow 

 countrymen, Avogadro and Ampere. The ad- 

 dress was published in pamphlet form and dis- 

 tributed among the chemists present. The 

 effect of the address may be judged from the 

 following quotation^ from Lothar Meyer : 



I too got a copy which I put in my pocket to 

 read on my home journey. I read it again and 

 again and was astonished at the light which the 

 writing threw on the most important points at 

 issue. The scales fell from my eyes, doubt van- 

 ished and a sense of the calmest certainty took 

 its place. 



For a number of years preceding his death 

 Schiff was the only living representative of 

 that remarkable body of men who attended 

 this conference. The mention of his name to 

 any of the chemists in Europe was almost cer- 

 tain to bring the reply that he was the only 



1 Armitage, ' ' A History of Chemistry. ' ' 



