402 
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL 
W. F. Hillebrand, Bureau of Standards. 
M. T. Bogert, Chemical Warfare Service, N. A. 
H. D. Gibbs, U. S. Signal Corps. 
S. A. Tucker, War Industries Board. 
* Willis R. Whitney, Naval Consulting Board. 
* Nominated to membership by American Chemical Society. 
The Division is holding regular meetings lasting for about half an hour on 
Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning of each week, at which matters of 
interest are brought up as theyiarise. 
The Division organized a conference on the whole question of explosives, 
which was attended by representatives of the Army, the Navy, certain civil 
bureaus of the Government, and by representatives of the large explosives 
firms. As a result of this conference, it was arranged that an active com- 
mittee should be appointed to take charge of this whole matter, and ac- 
cordingly a Committee on Explosives Investigations is being organized. 
The constitution of this Committee is: 
Charles E. Munroe, Chairman. 
W. C. Spruance, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel, Ordnance Department. 
L. L. Summers, War Industries Board. 
T. S. Wilkinson Lieutenant Commander, U. S. N. 
E. W. Washburn of the University of Illinois was elected a member of the 
Chemistry Division; he is especially interested in the question of allocating 
research problems to men still at the universities and has already made sub- 
stantial progress in this matter. 
Committee on Gases Used in Warfare. — It seemed to be the opinion of the 
meeting that this Committee may now be discontinued since the present status 
of this whole work and its absorption by the War Department leaves little or 
nothing for the Committee to do; but it was thought that no action should 
be taken in this direction until Mr. Manning's recommendation should be 
received. 
Moved: That the National Research Council express to the Committee on Gases Used in 
Warfare its high appreciation of the work initiated by that Committee and ably carried out 
through the efforts of its Chairman, Mr. Van H. Manning, Director of the Bureau of Mines; 
and thank the Committee for their work. {Adopted.) 
Division of Geology and Geography. — The Chairman of the Division, Mr. 
Merriam, reported that Isaiah Bowman, Director of the American Geographic 
Society, had been elected a member of the Executive Committee, and J. E. 
Spurr, a member of the Division. The following two books have been recom- 
mended for inclusion in the official list of military books: 
W. M. Davis, Handbook of Northern France. 
D. W. Johnson, Topography and Strategy in the War. 
The following subjects have been considered and acted upon by the 
Division : 
