326 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 193. 



He also reports progress on the Index to the 

 Mineral Waters of the World, the printing of 

 which has been delayed by mechanical diffi- 

 culties. 



Dr. Wilhelm P. Jorissen, of Rotterdam, 

 has undertaken to bring down to date Pro- 

 fessor Albert E. Leeds' Indexes to Ozone and 

 to Hydrogen Peroxide, first issued in 1880, 

 and long since out of print. 



Monsieur Jules Gargon, chemical engi- 

 neer (of 40 bis Rue Fabert, Paris), is about 

 to publish an important contribution to the 

 bibliography of technical chemistry, en- 

 titled : ' Repertoire universel de biblio- 

 graphie des industries tinctoriales et des 

 industries annexes.' It is expected to 

 form three large volumes. In the prepara- 

 tion of this immense undertaking the au- 

 thor has examined 1,800 works and 111 

 sets of periodicals, the latter in 5,000 vol- 

 umes, besides 7,000 other articles and docu- 

 ments. Subscriptions (100 francs) may be 

 sent to the publishers, Gauthier-Villars et 

 fils, Paris. M. Garjon is known as the au- 

 thor of the ' Bibliographic de la technologic 

 chimique des fibres textiles,' Paris, 1893, 

 noted in our Thirteenth Annual Report. 



Two unfinished manuscript indexes are 

 at the disposal of pei-sons willing to under- 

 take their completion : an Index to the Lit- 

 erature of Carbonic Oxid, begun by the late 

 Professor William Ripley Mchols and con- 

 tinued by Professor Augustus H. Gill ; and 

 an Index to the Literature of Milk, begun by 

 Professor Clement W. Andrews. 



As stated in previous reports, this Com- 

 mittee does not attempt to prescribe a fixed 

 plan for volunteer indexers, but leaves 

 method and topic to be chosen by com- 

 pilers; the Committee does not seek to 

 control the productions further than to in- 

 sure work of high merit and to guard the 

 interests of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 which has agreed to publish manuscripts 

 endorsed by the Committee. Chemists 

 willing to undertake the compilation of in- 



dexes are requested to send their names 

 and addresses with a memorandum of the 

 subject chosen to the Chairman of the Com- 

 mittee (Cosmos Club, Washington, D. C), 

 who will furnish sample copies of indexes 

 and other information. 



H. Cakrington Bolton, Chairman, 



F. W. Clarke, 



A. R. Leeds, 



A. B. Prescott, 



Alfred Tuckerman, 



H. W. Wiley, Committee. 



report of the committee on standards 

 of measurement. 



The determination of the mechanical 

 equivalent of heat by the electrical method, 

 as reported by GrifiSths (Phil. Trans., A, 

 1893) and by Schuster and Gannon (Proc. 

 Roy. Soc, Nov., 1894) gave a larger value 

 than Rowland's corrected result. This fact 

 has created a demand for the redetermina- 

 tion of the ampere in terms of the electro- 

 chemical equivalent of silver. At the To- 

 ronto meeting of the British Association 

 last year a grant was made to the B. A. Com- 

 mittee on Electrical Measurements for the 

 purpose of carrying out this investigation. 



At the Detroit meeting of this Association 

 the grant of $50 previously made for the 

 use of this Committee was made available 

 for the past year. Though this appropria- 

 tion was clearly insufficient for the purpose, 

 it was decided that the redetermination of 

 the ampere should be undertaken for the 

 committee of this Association in the phys- 

 ical laboratory at Ann Arbor. The work 

 has been ably carried to completion by Pro- 

 fessor Patterson and Dr. Guthe. The de- 

 tails of the method will be given in a paper 

 by Dr. Guthe before Section B.* 



The discrepancy between Griffiths' results 

 and those of Rowland is about one part in 

 400 at all temperatures between 15° and 

 25° on the nitrogen scale. Those of 



* This paper was duly presented. — Ed. Science. 



