62 



SCIENCE. 



lN. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 524. 



As is well known for a number of years such 

 bibliographies as have been recommended by their 

 committee have been accepted by the Smithsonian 

 Institution for publication in its 'Miscellaneous 

 Collections.' It has thus been possible to put into 

 the hands of specialists and others valuable in- 

 dexes which could not otherwise be rendered ac- 

 cessible. 



That it is not deemed possible for the Smithso- 

 nian Institution to continue this work appears 

 from the following extracts from correspondence 

 with Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Institu- 

 tion : 



" The institution has found it necessary to dis- 

 continue for the present the publication of sepa- 

 rate indices to the literature of the various chem- 

 ical elements. 



" The resources of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 as is well known, are limited, and must be dis- 

 tributed over a very considerable variety of in- 

 terests. When, failing congressional aid, it 

 seemed that the project of the International Cata- 

 logue of Scientific Literature could not proceed 

 without the establishment of an American re- 

 gional bureau, I decided to assume this on the 

 part of the Smithsonian Institution, and the allot- 

 ment made for this purpose is practically all that 

 can be spared for any current indexing work. 



'■ The various bibliographies to chemical ele- 

 ments and other chemical indexes could not, ap- 

 parently, have ueen projected upon a plan that 

 would fall in with this catalogue, since at the time 

 they were begun no one had the catalogue in mind. 

 Accordingly, I find that the earlier ones come down 

 to 1887, 1893, 1896 and 1900, and a more recent one, 

 thorium, down to 1902. This brings up the entire 

 question of retrospective indexing and bibliog- 

 raphy previous to the date 1901, designed to cover 

 the period prior to the beginning of the interna- 

 tional catalogue. Such a project for all science 

 should, of course, only be taken up after mature 

 (lclil)eration, and could only be carried through by 

 international cooperation. Meanwhile it seems 

 I)ru(lent for the institution to await a careful 

 consideration on the part of all interested in the 

 whole subject, chemistry, being of course, but one 

 of the large group of sciences whose workers must 

 be considered. In view of these considerations, 

 the importance of which you will, I am sure, rec- 

 ognize, I am constrained to leave the entire matter 

 in abeyance for the present." 



In view of the above it may be questionable 

 whether the work of this committee has not been 

 completed as far as it is possible to carry out the 

 oflices for which it was originally constituted. It 



may, however, be wise to continue it for another 

 year, to await developments. 



In conclusion, references should be made to the 

 great loss sustained by the ' committee, the sec- 

 tion and the association, in the death on November 

 19, 1903, of Dr. Henry Carrington Bolton, who 

 from the first appointment of this committee has 

 been its chairman. The work of Dr. Bolton in the 

 field of chemical and alchemical bibliography 

 needs no encomium ; it is invaluable to all work- 

 ers in these fields. 



Jas. Lewis Howe, Chairman, 



F. W. Clarke, 



H. W. Wiley. 



On Electrochemistry. 



A pure iridium electrode was purchased, and 

 some rhodium powder. It was deemed advisable 

 to precede the electrochemical portion of the in- 

 vestigation by a study of the chemical phenomena 

 caused by these metals when no current passed. 

 \^■ith this in view experiments have been made on 

 the action of these metals on formic acid. These 

 have confirmed the qualitative results of Deville 

 and Debi'ay, that the decomposition products are 

 essentially carbon dioxid and hydrogen under 

 these circumstances and not carbon monoxide and 

 water. The reaction starts at a higher tempera- 

 ture than one would have supposed from the 

 statement of Deville and Debray as to ' gentle 

 heating.' The rate of decomposition of liquid 

 formic acid is constant when the decomposition 

 products are allowed to pass off, but there is need 

 of the further study of the behavior of the acid 

 in a closed space. This will be taken up next, and 

 after that the electrolysis. The effect of the iri- 

 dium on the chemical and electrochemical equi- 

 librium between chlorine and water will also be 

 studied. For this work your committee asks for a 

 grant of an additional sixty dollars. 



The committee begs leave to report progress. 



Respectfully, 

 Wilder D. Bancroft, 

 Edgar F. Smith. 



On Grants. 



The committee on grants recommended that the 

 following grants be made for the year 1905: 



To the Committee on Anthropometry, $50. 



To the Committee on Electrochemistry, $G0. 



To the Committee on Cave Fauna, .$100. 



To the Concilium Bibliographicum, $100. 



To W. H. Dall, to assist in republishing a rare 

 work on mollusks, the amount to be repaid in the 

 printed volumes, $50. L. 0. Howard, 



Chairman. 



