630 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 538. 



halides there are formed organometallic com- 

 pounds. 



A special meeting of the Chemical Society 

 of Washington was held Wednesday, March 

 29, 1905, in the chemical lecture hall of the 

 George Washington University. At this meet- 

 ing an illustrated lecture upon ' The Chem- 

 istry of Electrochemistry ' was delivered by 

 Professor W. D. Bancroft, of Cornell Uni- 

 versity. 



A. Seidell, 

 Secretary. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 

 CORNELL SECTION. 



At the November meeting of the Cornell 

 Section of the American Chemical Society, 

 Mr. E. S. Shepherd spoke on ' The Importance 

 of Physical Chemistry in the Study of the 

 Strength of Metals.' After a brief introduc- 

 tion, the speaker traced the development of 

 the pyrometric study of alloys and pointed out 

 how inexplicable were the results obtained. 

 The subject of metallography was discussed 

 and it was shown how neither metallography 

 nor pyrometry could, unaided, solve the prob- 

 lem of the constitution of alloys. It was then 

 shown that physical chemistry furnished a 

 simple explanation of all the facts observed. 

 The equilibrium diagrams for iron-carbon, 

 copper-tin and copper-zinc were discussed. 

 The theory of hardening steel and tempering 

 was briefly explained. By means of the tensile 

 strength curves the si)eaker showed what a 

 great change in the physical properties of the 

 bronzes can be induced by suitable heat treat- 

 ment. Quoting results obtained by Shepherd 

 and Upton working on a grant to W. D. Ban- 

 croft from the Carnegie Institution, it was 

 shown that certain bronzes could have their 

 tensile strength doubled by heat treatment. 

 Thus a bronze containing 81 per cent, of cop- 

 per would show a strength of 73,000 pounds 

 jjer square inch if quenched from above 500° 

 C. and only about 30,000 pounds per square 

 inch when annealed. It was shown how the 

 elongation of the 97 per cent, copper bronze 

 was 30 per cent, for a quenched bronze and 

 only 3 per cent, for the annealed. From these 

 and the similar changes in iron and steel the 



speaker pointed out the very great need for 

 equilibrium diagrams as a basis for further 

 investigations of the mechanical properties 

 of metals. The speaker mentioned the great 

 value of metallography, pointed out its limita- 

 tions and was of the opinion that it was only 

 one of the several essential methods of in- 

 vestigation. 



In closing, the speaker discussed the work 

 of Beiltry on the surface flow, and hard and 

 soft states of metals. The lecture was illus- 

 trated by a large number of lantern slides. 



W. S. Lenk, 

 Secretary. 



the oxondaga academy of science. 

 At its regular meeting, February 17, the 

 academy elected the following officers : 

 P>TSiVZe)i<— Professor T. C. Hopkins. 

 Vice-President — J. D. Wilson. 

 According Secretary — Philip F. Schneider. 

 Corresponding Secretary — J. E. Kirkwood. 

 Treasurer — Mrs. L. W. Roberts. 

 Councilors— A. M. Eeese and E. N. Pattee. 



Professor W. M. Smallwood presented the 

 following facts concerning a tumor in the 

 kidney of a frog: 



During the past semester in one of the 

 elementary courses in the university while 

 dissecting the frog it was noticed that the 

 kidneys of one were abnormally large and ir- 

 regular in shape. They were at once fixed in 

 Carney's fluid and subsequently studied with 

 some care. The kidneys were about four 

 times as large as the normal kidneys and 

 showed no evidence of the presence of the 

 adrenal in its normal position. A study of 

 the cytology revealed the presence of a tumor 

 resulting from the abnormal growth of the 

 adrenal tissue. A comparison of these con- 

 ditions with available human adrenal tumors 

 showed a very striking agreement not only 

 in the general arrangement of tumor tissue 

 to the kidney tissue, but also in the finer de- 

 tails of structure. This agreement is so 

 striking as to leave no doubt but that the 

 pathological conditions in the frog are to be 

 characterized as an adrenal tumor. It is 

 interesting to note that similar results obtain 

 in such widely different animals as the frog 



