Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
December,  1919.  J 
Correspondence. 
817 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
SPECIFICATIONS  FOR  CHEMICALS  AND  REAGENTS. 
American  Journal  of  Pharmacy, 
Gentlemen:  The  attached  notes  which  are  to  be  published  in  the 
Journal  of  Industrial  and  Engineering  Chemistry  for  December  re- 
late to  some  work  which  is  being  undertaken  for  the  benefit  of 
analytical  chemistry. 
Although  it  is  probable  that  nearly  every  chemist  who  would  be 
interested  in  the  subject  will  see  these  articles  in  the  Industrial  Jour- 
nal, the  material  is  being  sent  to  a  number  of  journals  like  your  own 
which  reach  a  certain  class  of  readers  who  may  have  an  interest  in 
the  question  of  specifications  for  chemical  reagents,  although  they 
are  not  directly  engaged  in  chemical  work.  The  committee  is  not 
able  to  judge  as  to  the  desirability  of  publication  or  reference  to  this 
material  in  your  journal,  but  is  submitting  it  to  you  for  any  use  you 
may  desire  to  make  of  it. 
Very  truly  yours, 
W.  D.  Collins, 
Secretary, 
Committee  on  Guaranteed  Reagents 
and  Standard  Apparatus. 
Specifications  for  Reagents.1 
In  the  belief  that  a  valuable  service  can  be  rendered  both  to  the 
manufacturers  and  users  of  reagents  and  apparatus,  through  stand- 
ardization, the  American  Chemical  Society  appointed  a  committee 
which  is  now  organized  and  at  present  is  collecting  data  regarding 
the  quality  of  reagents  on  the  market. 
It  seems  that  in  general  the  experience  of  users  agrees  with  that 
of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  as  reported  by  H.  E.  Buc  in  the  Decem- 
ber number  of  the  Journal  of  Industrial  and  Engineering  Chemistry. 
The  chief  complaints  appear  to  be  in  regard  to  the  lack  of  reliability 
of  the  analyses  rather  than  unsatisfactory  purity  of  the  reagents 
themselves.  It  is  also  evident  that  in  many  instances  impurities 
which  have  caused  dissatisfaction  could  have  been  removed  by  exer- 
cising sufficient  care  in  production. 
1  Published  in  the  Journal  of  Industrial  and  Engineering  Chemistry,  De- 
cember, 1919. 
