262 
American  Chemical  Society. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
June,  1907. 
Among  our  plans  for  programmes  for  next  year's  meetings  is  the 
proposition  to  have  a  number  of  symposiums  on  subjects  of  general 
interest  to  chemists.  During  the  last  winter,  the  New  York  Section 
of  the  Society  of  Chemical  Industry,  which,  by  the  way,  operates 
under  an  organization  quite  similar  to  ours,  held  a  number  of  such 
symposiums,  among  them  being  those  on  Camphor  and  on  Soap 
Making.  The  idea  is  a  good  one,  and  might  well  be  emulated  by  our 
local  A.  Ph.  A.  branch. 
One  little  feature  of  our  local  section  meetings  that  has  proved 
to  be  a  good  thing  during  the  past  year  has  been  our  informal  dinner 
at  6.30  p.m.  on  the  evening  of  our  monthly  meeting.  The  idea 
originated  from  the  fact  that  many  of  the  members  whose  work  is 
in  the  city  could  not  conveniently  get  home  to  dinner  and  back 
again  in  time  for  the  8  o'clock  meeting.  These  men  thought  of  the 
desirability  of  meeting  at  some  pre-arranged  hotel  or  cafe  and  din- 
ing together,  as  they  had  to  remain  "  down  town  "  for  their  dinners 
anyway.  From  this  start,  it  was  only  a  step  to  have  the  secretary 
send  out  reply-postal  card  notices  to  the  membership  generally,  and 
now  not  only  do  most  of  the  men  located  in  the  central  part  of  the 
city  come  to  the  dinners,  but  many  whose  work  is  near  their  resi- 
dences forego  the  pleasure  of  dinner  at  home  to  meet  with  us. 
Of  course,  all  difficulties  and  differences  have  not  been  eliminated 
in  the  American  Chemical  Society.  The  principal  bone  of  conten- 
tion has  been  the  preponderance  in  management,  and  in  the  author- 
ship and  nature  of  the  contributed  papers,  of  the  ultra-scientific 
research  and  college  men  over  those  of  the  technical  or  works 
chemists — a  partial  counterpart  of  which  is  not  entirely  absent  in  our 
own  Pharmaceutical  Association.  Indeed,  this  feeling  in  the  society 
a  year  or  so  ago-was  so  pronounced  that  the  retiring  president,  W. 
F.  Hillebrand,  in  his  presidential  address,  saw  fit  to  devote  consider- 
able attention  to  the  subject. 
I  have  every  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  this  feeling  has 
largely  abated  since  the  advent  of  the  new  Abstract  Journal. 
After  all  is  said  and  done,  it  makes  little  difference  how  the 
machinery  of  the  two  organizations  is  constructed.  The  mechanisms 
may  be  nearly  enough  perfect — both  will  run  smoothly  if  given  the 
proper  kind  of  force  back  of  them.  A  locomotive  of  perfect  design 
and  construction  will  not  run  well  on  inferior  fuel,  nor  will  it  work 
