June 9, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



883 



Chandler somethiug of that splendid power 

 of applying chemical methods to the sub- 

 ject at hand which has long since gained 

 for him the reputation of being the fore- 

 most authority on technical chemistry in 

 the United States. Wherever gold or 

 silver is determined, the little assay ton 

 weights— their conception was a stroke of 

 genius— claim him as their inventor. The 

 brilliant series of articles on technical 

 chemistry— the best in the English lan- 

 guage—that appeared in Johnson's Cyclo- 

 pedia were written by him. The first 

 museum of applied chemistry in the 

 United States where the crude material 

 may be studied in its course of develop- 

 ment to a finished product was established 

 by him. Masterly, indeed, are the prac- 

 tical contributions to chemistry which 

 marked the years during which he had 

 charge of the public health in New York 

 city. It resulted in enormous benefits to 

 the community, and in 1883 it was well 

 said: 'There is no other city in the world 

 which has so complete a sanitary organiza- 

 tion as New York'; for all of which credit 

 is due to Chandler.* In 1889 he was 

 chosen president of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry, the first American upon whom 

 that honor was conferred, and a year later, 

 on June 18, 1900, in the lecture theatre of 

 the Koyal Institution founded by Count 

 Rumford, to whom reference has already 

 been made, he delivered his presidential 

 address on 'Chemistry in America,' in the 

 course of which he elaborated most fully 

 the achievements of those who have distin- 

 guished themselves in that branch of sci- 

 ence in the United States, f 



* See the sketcli of Charles Frederick Chandler 

 by the present writer in the Scientific American, 

 LVn., July 16, 1887, p. 39, and 'President 

 Chandler and the New York City Health Depart- 

 ment, 1800-1883,' in the Sanitary Engineer, May 

 17, 1883. 



t Journal of Societi/ of Chemical Industry, 

 XTX., 1000, p. 591. 



It is worth while, I think, to mention 

 very briefly three branches of our national 

 government that have had much to do with 

 the development of chemical technology in 

 this country. The first of these and also 

 the oldest, for it celebrated its centenary 

 in 1891, is the patent office,* where invent- 

 ors receive the protection of the govern- 

 ment for their discoveries. By thus rec- 

 ognizing worthy inventions a valuable 

 stimulus is given to invention which has 

 not been without value to the comnuiuity. 

 Of exceptional interest to chemists is the 

 system of indexing chemical literature now 

 in use in the classification division of the 

 patent office, f 



I will also call your attention to the ex- 

 cellent work done in the Division of Min- 

 eral Resources in the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, where under the efficient direction of 

 David Talbot Day (1859- ) valuable in- 

 formation and statistics are gathered con- 

 cerning native minerals and ores from 

 which are obtained the products of so 

 many of the leading chemical processes. J 



Finally the bureau of chemistry of the 

 Department of Agriculture has been a 

 potent factor in the development of chem- 

 ical industries. It was this bureau that 

 first called the attention of the public to 

 the possibility of establishing the beet 

 sugar industry in the United States. As a 

 result of the investigations carried on by 

 chemists in this branch of the government 

 service the average yield of cane sugar to 



Patent Centennial Celebration, 1891: Pro- 

 ceedings and Addresses,' 554 pp. (Washington, 

 1892). 



t See ' On a System of Indexing Chemical Lit- 

 erature; Adopted by the Classification Division 

 of the United States Patent Office,' by E. C. Hill, 

 Journal of the American Chemical Society, XXII., 

 1900, pp. 478^98; also Scientific American, 

 LXXXVI., June 14, 1902, p. 411. 



J Beginning with the year 1882. annual volumes 

 of the Mineral Resources of the United States have 

 been published. 



