636 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1088 



THE WILLABD GIBBS PBOFESSOBSHIP OF 

 BESEABCE IN PUBE CEEMISTBY 



In course of the academic year 1914-15, a 

 new department was established on a perma- 

 nent basis in the Mellon Institute of Industrial 

 Research of the University of Pittsburgh, 

 namely, a department of research in pure 

 chemistry. The headship of this department 

 is to be known as the WiUard Gibbs Professor- 

 ship of Research in Pure Chemistry, " to ever 

 proclaim the ideal which the incumbents of the 

 chair and the groups of research workers to be 

 associated with them will be expected to fol- 

 low." It constitutes a chair in the graduate 

 school of the University of Pittsburgh as well 

 as in the Mellon Institute. 



Dr. Martin A. Rosanoff, who had built up 

 and for years headed the graduate department 

 of chemistry in Clark University, was formally 

 inaugurated as the first permanent incumbent 

 of this professorship, at exercises held in the 

 Assembly Hall of the Mellon Institute on 

 October 26. The exercises included addresses 

 by Professors James McKeen Cattell and 

 Marston Taylor Bogert, both of Columbia Uni- 

 versity, and by Dr. Rosanoff, followed by a 

 reception and an inspection of the Mellon 

 Institute. 



Chancellor Samuel Black McCormick pre- 

 sided at the exercises. He explained the cir- 

 cumstances connected with the establishment 

 of the chair and thanked the donors whose 

 generosity had made possible the endowment, 

 of which the income, amounting to $5,000 per 

 annum, is to constitute the salary of the in- 

 cumbent of the chair. He then introduced 

 Dr. Cattell. 



Dr. Cattell spoke on " The Support of Scien- 

 tific Research in a Democracy." 



His argument was that science with its ap- 

 plications had given us democratic institutions 

 by so greatly increasing the productivity of 

 labor and the length of life, that it had become 

 possible to provide for education and equality 

 of opportunity. But scientific research, un- 

 like most services, can not be sold to individ- 

 uals; it is for the benefit of all and must be 

 paid for by all. Hitherto aristocratic institu- 

 tions have been more favorable to scientific 

 research than ours, but we are now beginning 



to equal the leading European nations in our 

 contributions to the advancement of science. 

 We must do much more in the future. Coal is 

 mined in Pennsylvania to the value of some 

 three hundred million dollars a year. In so far 

 as natural resources are consumed, ten per 

 cent, of the proceeds — thirty million dollars a 

 year — might very properly be devoted to dis- 

 covering new ways to obtain energy. The 

 manufactures of the city of Pittsburgh and 

 of Allegheny County are worth more than 

 three hundred million dollars a year. These, 

 like the proceeds of the mines, have been made 

 possible by the applications of science. Ten 

 per cent, of their value — another thirty million 

 dollars a year — might to advantage be spent in 

 this city for the further advancement of sci- 

 ence under the auspices of the University of 

 Pittsburgh. By the Bessemer steel process the 

 world saves, according to the estimates of the 

 late Abram S. Hewitt, each year two billion 

 dollars; by the electro-magnet discovered by 

 Faraday in the only research laboratory then 

 existing, the world earns each year perhaps 

 twice as much. Why should not these six bil- 

 lion dollars a year be set aside as a memorial to 

 the scientific men and workers in technology 

 who have provided the world with its vast 

 wealth, to be used for the further increase of 

 this wealth and for the welfare of all? We 

 could afford to devote one tenth of all labor, 

 one fourth of all wealth, to scientific work, and 

 we should become each year a richer and a 

 greater nation. We need a Mellon Institute 

 for each science and in every city. 



Following Dr. Cattell, Dr. Bogert, who was 

 introduced by Dr. Raymond F. Bacon, director 

 of the Mellon Institute, spoke on " The Espe- 

 cial Value of Research in Pure Chemistry." 



After rapidly reviewing some of the more 

 striking contributions which chemistry has 

 made to civilization, he pointed out that it was 

 research in pure science which laid the deep 

 and abiding foundations upon which applied 

 science has erected all the wonderful structure 

 of modern industrial processes. The nine- 

 teenth century has been called the Age of 

 Physics and Engineering, but the twentieth 

 will surely be the Age of Chemistry. 



Dr. Bogert referred to the great service 



