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distinct forms, which have in the simplest cases the same relations to each other as my right hand bears to my left, and that shortly after, he made the remarkable discovery that living matter discriminates sharply between two such forms, which are identical in every particular except that the one is the optical image of the other. Thus, he found that dextro-tartaric acid is destroyed by ferments, lævo-tartaric acid is not. It is of interest to mention, in passing, that this very discovery, arising out of pure chemical researches, was the fortunate incident in Pasteur's life that drew his attention to fermentation and opened the path to his great work on the germ theory of disease, to which medicine owes its present strength.

The mode of attack used by pure chemistry is to isolate pure compounds and study them exhaustively, both as to structure and as to their chemical activities. In attacking the problem of protoplasm we must isolate such of its components as we can, the materials it uses as food, the materials it excretes, and study each exhaustively. Thus, another great leader in this field, Emil Fischer, has laid the foundation of the chemistry of carbohydrates by his brilliant studies of the monosaccharides. How important these studies are for the science of protoplasmic activity is shown by the fact that of the sixteen stereoisomeric aldehyde-hexoses, differing only in the space arrangements of the atoms in their molecules, only three, d-glucose, d-mannose, d-galactose, are directly fermentable! Fischer, again, in his classical researches on the amino-acids and the polypeptids has been laying another broad and sure foundation for the study of the ultimate chemistry of the proteins. It is characteristic of the greatness and thoroughnessand the slowness-of the methods of pure chemistry that this study of the chemistry of proteins is growing in the same way that a magnificent monument would be erected. It is well-known that any one of the beautiful cathedrals of Europe was constructed as a rule not in one generation and by one architect, but rather slowly grew as the product of the efforts of succeeding generations, of the genius of

successive architects. We see now only the foundations of the monument of the chemistry of the proteins, laid with painstaking accuracy, by workers in all countries. None of us will live to see the completion of the monument in all of its glory, but those who best understand the work have a supreme faith in the ultimate realization of their vision-and with it must come an insight into the nature of protoplasm and of life which no other study can hold out to us in like measure.

What a wealth of problems lies ready for the bold investigator! We may think of the isolation and exhaustive study of the active principles of the secretions of the internal glands, on whose presence in balanced proportions our healthy existence depends in so large a measure. Suprarenin or adrenalin has already been isolated by our American Abel and prepared artificially by the Germans, Stolz and Flaecher. The active principle of the thyroid gland has been isolated by E. C. Kendall of the Mayo Laboratories and found so potent, that an unbelievably minute amount injected into patients makes the difference between disease and health. Dr. McCollum is closing in on the secret of the active principles in our food commonly called the vitamins: should they prove to be organic and not vital mineral components, a study of their chemical nature and the structure of their molecules would follow, and what a triumph for humanity if we could then produce them from waste products like coal-tar and help out the fast decreasing ratio between supply and demand of dairy and similar products in crowded populations! You men of medicine do use organs of animals, ground or extracted, to make good a deficiency in this or that secretion in disease, but how much greater would your confidence in your therapy be if in place of mixtures of uncertain potency, pure chemical products were at your disposal. It is not so long since you used to employ your most important specific alkaloids in the same uncertain way, but what modern doctor would now hesitate in his choice between strychnine and nux vomica, atropin and belladonna, morphine and opium! Moreover, the isolation of

the pure alkaloids by the chemist has put into your hands the swift weapon of intravenous injection and the same promise is held out for the pure isolated principles of glands.

Isolating and investigating pure principles of food, of excretion, of physiological secretion, even to the point of the structure of their molecules, is a great and important task of pure chemistry, but it deals with only half of the great problem. Life is dynamic, it is material in action, and hence there is another great side to the problem of the chemistry of life, namely, the relations of the laws of chemical action to life. Every advance in our studies in physical chemistry, the branch of chemistry in which we study chemical dynamics, has found its important reflection, often its immediate reflection in its applications to life phenomena. Thus, the principle of the conservation of energy in chemical changes forms the basis of a large and vital part of the work on food values and their relation to proper sustenance. Then, we have the applications of the laws of solutions and of the theory of ionization in the use of saline injections, in the problems of fertilization as studied by Loeb, in the study of the regulation of the heart beat. We have the application of the laws of reversibility and equilibrium by Hill and by Emmerling to demonstrate the reversibility of enzymic action and thus to account in some measure for the synthetic processes of protoplasm, without which life would be impossible. The studies of the laws of catalysis or acceleration of action is another study fundamental for the understanding of life, for, as Ostwald has said, our bodies are wonderfully controlled machines in respect to that fundamental factor of nature, the time factor. I need not emphasize the significance of the time factor in medicine, for we all know that health and disease are distinguished in no way more characteristically than by such time factors as heart-beat, respiration, rate of growth, rate of elimination, of decay. Our time controlling devices are essentially the catalyzing enzymes and the investigations of their mode of action, of their production and

control in the body belong to the most important ones in medicine. Such diseases of nutrition as gout and diabetes are most likely the result of abnormalities of enzyme supply. How rapidly a discovery in physical chemistry may find its application in the study of life activities is well illustrated by this instance: Professor Wilder D. Bancroft at Cornell University a few years ago made some extremely interesting observations connecting emulsions of oil in an aqueous medium with the presence of sodium and calcium oleates in the medium of the emulsion. By varying the ratios he could produce at will an emulsion of oil in the aqueous liquid or an emulsion of the water fluid in the oil. These genial observations were hardly published when Dr. Clowes, of Buffalo, applied their principles successfully to such problems as the clotting of blood, the coagulation of milk, the chemical fertilization of eggs, à la Loeb, and to anesthesia! This work is a brilliant instance of the rôle played by colloid chemistry, the chemistry of colloid dispersions, in life phenomena. Since the major part of our bodies is a complex aggregation of colloid systems and since every particle of protoplasm is itself a colloid, the importance of this side of chemistry for the study of life can not be overestimated.

It is evident, therefore, that all phases of physical chemistry as well as the analytical and synthetical sides of pure chemistry are finding vast fields of investigation for chemists in the domain of medicine and its fundamental sciences, fields drawing to themselves ever increasing numbers of ardent workers. The friend and collaborator whose memory we are cherishing to-night was himself an indefatigable worker in this great cause, whose ultimate goal is a complete and masterful knowledge of the science of living matter. We can in no way pay greater tribute to his memory and devoted career than to pledge ourselves anew to continue our own modest efforts toward the upbuilding of this monumental undertaking of man's courage and genius, although we well know that only fu

ture generations will see the glories of the completed monument!

JULIUS STIEGLITZ

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO,

CHICAGO,

November 22, 1918

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS

BIOLOGICAL SURVEYS OF STATES BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF

AGRICULTURE

NATURAL history surveys, dealing with the geographical distribution, habits and relations to environment of birds and mammals, with particular reference to the utility of the information gathered to the proper solution of problems in game protection, public health, forestry, grazing and agricultural practise, were carried forward in several states by the United States Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture, and cooperating institutions during the field season of 1918.

In Wisconsin the work of the Biological Survey was conducted, as since the beginning of investigations in that state, with the cooperation of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, of which Dr. E. A. Birge is director. The personnel of the field party operating during the season included Dr. Hartley H. T. Jackson, Biological Survey, in personal charge; Mr. A. J. Poole, U. S. National Museum, as his temporary assistant, for the Wisconsin Survey, and Mr. A. I. Ortenburger, temporary assistant Professor George Wagner, of the University of Wisconsin, administers the interests of the Wisconsin Survey in the undertaking. Investigations were made in the distribution and habits of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, the greater portion of the season being devoted to the upper Wisconsin River valley.

In central Montana Mr. M. A. Hanna, temporary field assistant, prosecuted the work under the direction of Mr. Edward A. Preble. This is the third consecutive season of field work in Montana, during which the southern half of the state east of the mountains has been covered.

A biological survey of Florida was under

taken by Mr. Arthur H. Howell, with Mr. Charles H. M. Barrett as field assistant for a part of the time. Investigations were made chiefly in the southern part of the state from Lake Okeechobee to Cape Sable and on the west coast from Sarasota Bay northward to Homosassa. Special attention was given to the fauna of the Royal Palm State Park, in the southern Everglades near Homestead.

Field investigations in Arizona in general charge of Mr. E. A. Goldman, now in France as a major in the Sanitary Corps, have been conducted over several seasons, being carried forward during the past summer in extreme southwestern Arizona by Mr. A. Brazier Howell, of California. There is left still unworked the southeastern portion only of the state.

Surveys of New Mexico, North Dakota and Oregon have recently been completed under the general direction of Mr. Vernon Bailey. Reports on the mammals, birds and life zones of these states are completed or in various stages of preparation.

Work in Washington was performed in informal cooperation with the State College of Washington, Pullman, and the State Normal School, Cheney. The personnel of the field parties operating included: Biological Survey, Dr. Walter P. Taylor, in charge, assisted by Mr. George G. Cantwell, reservation inspector, and for a short time by Mr. Stanley G. Jewett, predatory animal inspector; State College of Washington, Professor William T. Shaw, in charge, assisted by Mr. O. H. Homme, temporary field assistant; State Normal School, Cheney, Professor J. W. Hungate. During the two consecutive seasons involved investigations have been carried forward in the southern Cascades, along the Columbia River, in a broad belt across the state from Spokane to Puget Sound, and in southwestern Washington. Mr. Cantwell is continuing the work through the fall and winter months.

THE CENSUS BUREAU

ACCORDING to the annual report of Director Rogers, of the Bureau of the Census, the

Census Bureau during 1918 directed a part of its energies to the compilation of war statistics. The increase in this class of work was so large that the number of employees engaged on it rose from 92 on July 1, 1918, to 231 on September 1.

The war work done by the bureau covers a wide range. Its more important phases include canvasses of manufacturers and dealers to ascertain the consumption and stocks on hand of certain raw materials used in war industries, and the production and stocks on hand of commodities made therefrom; the classification of occupations of military registrants, an undertaking that necessitated the handling and rehandling of more than 8,000,000 cards; estimates of population for use as a basis in the apportionment of the first draft; the allocation of enlistments; and the determination of registrants' ages from census records. In addition to carrying on these and other specific lines of work at the request of the war agencies of the government, the bureau has complied with many requests for information which had a bearing on the problems arising in connection with the war.

During the fiscal year the bureau carried on 13 regular and 7 special lines of work, in addition to the war work and the preparations for the Fourteenth Census. The regular inquiries included canvasses of water transportation and shipbuilding, of electrical industries, of religious bodies, of births and deaths, of state and municipal finance of cotton and cotton seed, and of stocks of leaf tobacco in the hands of manufacturers and dealers.

The work on birth and death statistics has been considerably expanded during recent years. These statistics are gathered only from those states and municipalities which maintain adequate registration systems.

The special work done by the bureau included a census of the Virgin Islands recently purchased from Denmark. These islands have a total area of 132 square miles, and the total population on November 1, 1917, was 20,051.

Another special line of work undertaken

by the bureau was the tabulation of data covering the disputed areas of Europe and Africa-that is, those areas whose final disposition will be determined by the outcome of the war.

The force of the Census Bureau in Washington comprises 684 officials and employees, and in addition there are employed throughout the cotton belt approximately 700 local special agents who make periodical collections of cotton and cottonseed statistics.

In order to avoid waste and delay in the conduct of the next decennial inventory of the country's population, agriculture and industries, to be made in 1920, the bureau is carrying on such preparatory work as can be done prior to the enactment of the pending bill to provide for the Fourteenth Census. Under this bill, if it is enacted into law, all the clerical and subclerical force of the bureau will be appointed through open competitive examinations, held by the United States Civil Service Commission, as at the census of 1910.

The Fourteenth Census will cover the subjects of population; agriculture, including irrigation and drainage; manufactures; and mines, quarries and oil and gas wells. The undertaking will require the services of a field force of about 85,000 or 90,000, chiefly enum

erators.

THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS

THE annual report for 1918 of Dr. Samuel W. Stratton, director of the Bureau of Standards, reports that the regular work of the bureau has yielded important results. Apart from new researches, a large volume of testing was completed, more than 300,000 separate tests being made. The construction of the new industrial laboratory, the completion of the metallurgical laboratory, and the building of a number of emergency war laboratories for airplane investigations were events of interest, and will be of great value in the development of the several branches of technology within the bureau's field.

When the United States entered the war, the bureau already possessed exceptional facilities, equipment, and personnel, chemistry and engi

neering. This enabled it to take up promptly many important military researches. The laboratories, so useful during peace, proved of especial importance in war. The specialized equipment of instruments, materials and supplies were on hand which were then almost unobtainable elsewhere. The bureau promptly extended its service to all lines of scientific work which would assist in the war. Practically every section of its regular organization has had military problems of the most pressing nature submitted to it, and invaluable service has been rendered.

The recent expansion of the bureau has been on lines vital to the success of the war. It is interesting to note, however, that many of these lines are also of essential value to our industries in peace. The need for the national provision for master-gauge standardization was only realized by those in close touch with such work. The accurate dimensioning of the functioning parts of mechanisms will permit extending the American system of manufacturing interchangeable parts to its maximum usefulness. The importance of nation-wide standardization has long been known, but the practical working out of such standardization is best met by a national laboratory such as the Bureau of Standards. The same principle holds for all the technologies and special branches of physics.

The combination of pure science and technology has proved especially stimulating and effective. The close cooperation of physicists and engineers in practical as well as theoretical work has given an unusual breadth to such researches. In turn, the technologic facilities have proved of great value in the purely scientific work. Many cases might be cited where the elements of a research problem ramify into laboratories of practically every division of the bureau. The airplane is an example, and a problem apparently as simple as the spark plug has called for researches in many different technical sections of the bureau. The establishment of new industries in America, such as those of optical glass and chemical porcelain, and the scientific

remodeling of older industries are fruits of the more intimate cooperation of science and industry which it is the function of the bureau to promote.

A fine laboratory for industrial research is nearly completed and will be ready for use in a few months. This laboratory, when completely equipped, will be one of the most effective of its kind in the world. In no national institution in the world is the union between pure science and practical technology so intimate as in the work of the Bureau of Standards.

Apart from confidential reports the bureau published during the year about 50 new publications, including scientific and technologic circulars and bulletins. Thirty-six confidential circulars were printed on the subject of aviation instruments alone. The establishment of the work on metals in a suitable laboratory building was followed by the establishment of experimental foundry and other research work on a practical basis. An interesting branch of the bureau's work is found in the field of public utilities, especially recent developments in regard to telephone service standards, and the standards of safety practise for power service, elevator service, crane construction, building construction, and the

like.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS PROFESSOR EDWARD M. EAST was elected president of the American Society of Naturalists at the recent Baltimore meeting.

DR. C. M. CHILD, professor at the University of Chicago, has been elected president of the American Society of Zoologists.

MR. ROBERT T. JACKSON, of Peterborough, N. H., has been elected president of the Paleontological Society.

DR. F. E. WRIGHT, of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, has been elected president of the Optical Society of America.

THE Society of American Foresters have elected the following officers for 1919: President, F. E. Olmsted; Vice-president, W. W.

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