ANNOUNCEMENT OF MEETINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED SOCIETIES Saturday, January 26: The Biological Society, at the Cosmos Club, at 8 p. m. Tuesday, January 29: The Anthropological Society, at the Public Library, at 8 p. m. Program: Dr. LEO FRACHTENBERG: Poland and the Polish question. Saturday, February 2: The Philosophical Society, at the Cosmos Club, at 8.15 p. m. Program: W. S. GORTON: Investigations of X-ray protective materials. P. T. WEEKS: The efficiency of production of X-rays. 1 The programs of the meetings of the affiliated Societies will appear on this page if sent to the editors by the thirteenth and the twenty-seventh day of each month. This JOURNAL, the official organ of the Washington Academy of Sciences, aims to present a brief record of current scientific work in Washington. To this end it publishes: (1) short original papers, written or communicated by members of the Academy; (2) a complete list of references to current scientific articles published in or emanating from Washington; (3) short abstracts of certain of these articles; (4) proceedings and programs of meetings of the Academy and affiliated Societies; (5) notes of events connected with the scientific life of Washington. The JOURNAL is issued semi-monthly, on the fourth and nineteenth of each month, except during the summer when it appears on the nineteenth only. Volumes correspond to calendar years. Prompt publication is an essential feature; a manuscript reaching the editors on the second or the seventeenth of the month will ordinarily appear, on request from the author. in the next issue of the JOURNAL. Manuscripts may be sent to any member of the Board of Editors; they should be clearly typewritten and in suitable form for printing without essential changes. 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European Agents: William Wesley & Son, 28 Essex St., Strand, London, and Mayer and Muller, Prinz Louis-Ferdinand Str., Berlin. Exchanges.-The JOURNAL does not exchange with other publications. Missing Numbers will be replaced without charge, provided that claim is made within thirty days after date of the following issue. Volume I, however, from July 19, 1911, to December 19, 1911, will be sent for $3.00. Special rates re given;o members of scientific societies affiliated with the Academy. THE WAVERLY PRESS CHEMISTRY.-Methods of gas warfare. S. J. M. AULD, British Military Mission. (Communicated by L. J. Briggs). All I can do in the short time available is to give you, if I can, a general idea of what gas warfare really means on the Western Front at the present time. Some of you may have gotten the idea that gas is just an incident, and that there is not as much attention being paid to it as there was two years ago. That idea is entirely wrong. Gas is used to a tremendous extent, and the amount that has been and is being hurled back and forth in shells and clouds is almost unbelievable. I will try to give you a general idea of what is occurring and make the lecture rather a popular than a technical description. I shall also, for obvious reasons, have to confine myself to describing what the Germans have been doing, and will say nothing about what we are doing. Possibly the best plan would be to state more or less chronologically what occurred. I happened to be present at the first gas attack and saw the whole gas business from the beginning. The first attack was made in April, 1915. A deserter had come into the Ypres salient a week before the attack was made, and had told us the whole story. They were preparing to poison us with gas, and had cylinders installed in their trenches. No one believed him at all, and no notice was taken of it. 1Report of a lecture delivered before the Washington Academy of Sciences on January 17, 1918. |