February 17, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



273 



resulting from the manufacture of sugar and 

 syrup from sugar cane. The importance of 

 the supply of tanning materials and of the 

 study of leathers in regard to strength, ap- 

 pearance and durability is also growing, and 

 constant demands are made upon the Bureau 

 of Chemistry for information on these points. 



Most important of the new work which was 

 undertaken during the past year is the in- 

 spection of imported food products. Prob- 

 lems connected with the use of artificial colors, 

 glucoses and preservatives have also been 

 studied with a view of making the law more 

 efficient. In the food laboratory important 

 studies have been made during the year on 

 the composition of tropical fruits and fruit 

 products. 



In the road material laboratory extensive 

 tests have been made of all the materials used 

 in road construction, both physical and chem- 

 ical. The relations of colloidal structure to 

 plasticity have been made the subject of espe- 

 cial research, the results of which were com- 

 municated to the society at the Philadelphia 

 meeting by Dr. Cushman. 



In the insecticide and agricultural water 

 laboratory investigations of insecticides and 

 fungicides, in connection with the Division of 

 Entomology and the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 have been continued and an elaborate investi- 

 gation of the character of mineral waters 

 offered for sale has been partially completed. 

 The work on the arsenic content of papers 

 and fabrics sold on the American market has 

 been completed and published as Bulletin No. 

 8G. F. H. PouGH, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



' BERYLLIUJI ' OR ' GLUCINUM.' 



There is apparently little difference of 

 opinion between Dr. Howe and myself as to 

 the facts upon which a claim to priority of 

 ' beryllium ' over ' glucinum ' as a name for 

 the element under discussion is based, and I 

 am willing to leave the interpretation of those 

 facts to chemists at large. 



It has, I think, been supposed, by those of 

 the profession who have not personally looked 

 into the matter, that the oxide was named 



' glucine ' by Vauquelin himself. I under- 

 stand that Dr. Howe in his reply to me in 

 SciEN'CE, for January 6, admits that Vauquelin 

 did not name the element or the oxide; that 

 he in fact would probably have liked to name 

 it ' beryllia,' really adopting glucine in his 

 fourth publication under virtual protest, and 

 that the clause ' la terre du Bcril ' used by 

 Vauquelin in place of a name was literally 

 translated into German as ' Berylerde,' be- 

 coming a definite name, used to this day, before 

 Vauquelin consented to the use of ' glucine.' 

 I think also that he will not question the fact 

 that when it came to the actual use of the 

 terms themselves Wohler separated and de- 

 scribed ' beryllium '* before Bussy prepared 

 ' glucinium 'f although they were but a few 

 weeks apart. With this summary I am per- 

 fectly willing to leave the question of priority 

 to the ' ninety and nine ' who are already 

 using the more preferable term. 



As to usage, it is quite evident that Dr. 

 Howe's closing remarks are intended as a 

 pleasantry, as I hardly think he wishes to 

 give the impression that kalzium, kolunibium, 

 etc., are the custom in German chemical lit- 

 erature. He does not question that the major 

 part of the literature is German nor that the 

 Germans, Swedes, Danes, Russians, Dutch 

 and Italians use ' beryllium ' exclusively. 

 Next to the Germans the French have the 

 most articles to their credit and use ' glu- 

 cinium ' exclusively, but the impression which 

 Dr. Howe seems to wish to convey, that this is 

 the customary term in England and America, 

 is not correct. He made a lucky find in the 

 index of the Journal of the Chemical Society 

 (London) for 1903, which does read ' Beryl- 

 lium, .see Glucinum,' for some unknovm reason, 

 for the one abstract to which it refers uses 

 ' beryllium ' solely both in title and in sub- 

 ject matter, and ' glucinum ' does not appear 

 in this journal in index or abstracts on the 

 subject for several years previously, although 

 the abstracts are frequently from the French. 

 This journal apparently leaves the matter to 

 the wishes of the author, for Pollock in 1904 

 uses again 'glucinum.' For at least five years 



* Ann. der Phys., 13, 577. 



t Journal de chim. medical, 4, 453. 



