48 
Dr.  Alsberg. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
{  January,^191o. 
DR.  ALSBERG,  THE  NEW  CHIEF  OF  THE  BUREAU  OF 
CHEMISTRY. 
Dr.  Carl  L.  Alsberg,  chemical  biologist  of  the  Bureau  of  Plant 
Industry,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  has  been  appointed 
chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  by  President  Taft  in  succession 
to  Dr.  Harvey  W.  Wiley.  Dr.  Alsberg  was  born  in  New  York 
City  and  is  a  graduate  of  Columbia  University.  He  studied  abroad 
at  a  number  of  the  leading  universities,  including  the  University 
of  Berlin,  where  he  did  considerable  work  under  Professor 
Schmiedeburg,  the  eminent  Pharmacologist.  Upon  his  return  from 
Germany  he  became  head  of  the  Department  of  Biological  Chem- 
istry of  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  and  from  tnat  post  entered 
the  Government  service.  He  is  a  member  and  ex-Secretary  of  the 
Council  of  Boston  Society  of  Medical  Sciences,  councillor  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society,  Chairman  of  a  section  of  Biological 
Chemistry  of  the  American  Chemical  Society,  associate  editor  of 
Chemical  Abstracts,  collaborator  of  the  Journal  of  Pharmacology 
and  Experimental  Therapeutics,  and  is  the  author  of  a  long  list 
of  scientific  papers  in  both  German  and  English. 
In  an  interview  in  the  Public  Ledger  of  December  22,  19 12, 
Dr.  Alsberg,  while  very  modest  and  conservative,  yet  gives  the 
assurance  of  recognizing  the  responsibilities  of  his  position  not 
only  to  the  public  but  to  the  manufacturer.    He  says : 
"  I  believe  that  most  manufacturers  and  handlers  of  foodstuffs 
want  to  do  the  right  thing,  but  most  of  them  don't  know  exactly 
what  is  the  right  thing.  The  whole  subject  of  food  inspection  and 
the  demand  for  pure  foods  is  new.  When  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry 
was  established  there  were  no  standards,  no  guides  of  any  sort. 
Everything  had  to  be  worked  out,  and  it's  been  slow  work.  Only 
a  few  things  definitely  have  been  determined  for  this  analysis  of 
foods.  To  establish  standards  is  not  the  work  of  days,  but  of 
years.  When  we  arrive  at  what  is  the  standard  then  we  must  show 
the  manufacturer  how  to  bring  his  products  up  to  the  standard. 
"If  .we  tell  a  man  who  is  putting  up  dried  fruit  that  he  must 
not  use  certain  preservatives  to  prevent  the  development  of  insect 
life  in  the  product,  we  have  gone  only  half  way  if  we  do  not  show 
him  how  he  can  take  care  of  his  fruit  in  such  way  as  to  dispense 
with  the  forbidden  preservative  and  still  insure  the  keeping  qualities 
of  the  product." 
