herald the rain at R. Here the pointer, at S, actually gave up in despair and rested for a while on the stops; but it soon got free again and has not succumbed since, etc. The lag condition inside of the room as compared with those outside were well marked. At mid-day there is usually a slight rise of the pointer, owing to increased temperature and dryness.

So far as I can see there is no reason why such an apparatus should not be quite trustworthy. Without using mirrors, it could easily be made twenty times more sensitive. The gelatine film attached has been in the laboratory for at least twenty-five years under the same atmospheric conditions. The question is therefore pertinent whether we know as much about the continuity of thermodynamic equilibrium, or about colloids, as this simple instrument might answer. C. BARUS

BROWN UNIVERSITY, PROVIDENCE, R. I.

SOME ANALYSES OF THE URINE OF REPTILES

IT is generally stated that in the urine of the Sauropsida, birds and reptiles, the urea of the urine is replaced by uric acid, and that uric acid is the sole nitrogenous excretory product of importance. That uric acid is practically the sole nitrogenous constituent of the urine of a reptile of the arid regions, the horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) of southwestern United States has been recently shown by the analyses of Weese1 from this laboratory. Examination of the urines of some aquatic or semi-aquatic reptiles has indicated that uric. acid is of less importance quantitatively in the urine of reptiles of this type than is generally assumed.

The urine was removed from the urinary bladder immediately after the death of the animal by bleeding, and analyzed promptly. The use of the newer analytical methods (colorimetric determination of uric acid and creatinine (urease determination of urea) made possible the accurate analysis of small volumes of dilute urine. The specimen of alligator urine was obtained through the courtesy

1 Weese, A. O., SCIENCE, N. S., Vol. XLVI., No. 1195, p. 517, 1917.

It will be noted that in both of the turtle urines examined the amounts of urea and ammonia nitrogen exceed that of uric acid nitrogen, the latter constituting only 19.3 and 14.0 per cent. respectively of the total nitrogen. In the case of the alligator urine the uric acid content was somewhat higher. The relatively high elimination of ammonia nitrogen in comparison to the amount present in most other types of vertebrate urine is of interest in suggesting that the uric acid may occur in the form of ammonia salts. The occurrence of creatinine and creatine or substances that give similar color reactions is also noteworthy. The relatively high content of creatine (or substances which react similarly on hydrolysis and subsequent treatment with picric acid and alkali) was confirmed by determinations by both the Folin-micro and S. R. Benedict methods.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1918

THE AMERICAN CHEMIST IN

WARFARE1

IT was the fortune of the writer in the latter part of 1916, a few months before the United States entered the war, to be sent by the Ordnance Department to study in England, France, Italy, Norway and Sweden certain chemical processes, particularly those having to do with the fixation of nitrogen.

On this trip many chemical plants were visited. In all of them the same story was told of depleted chemical personnel owing to the loss of chemists in the trenches and the consequent handicap under which all these plants were laboring in their attempts to furnish the armies with the sinews of war. The whole munitions program had been retarded owing to lack of technical men, chiefly chemists, and the statement was everywhere made that the greatest mistake that the Entente countries had made had been in giving too little attention to brain power and too much to physical strength. On the other hand, it was pointed out that Germany had carefully conserved her chemists for the development of the new and terrible forms of warfare she was forcing on mankind. Science was being used as it had never been used before, to aid a relentless power, and the only means of combating the new form of warfare was with its own weap

ons.

Already France, England, Italy and Canada had withdrawn all chemists remaining in the service for chemical duty at home, but many had already been lost and their loss was seriously felt. France had drawn so far as possible on the chemists and engineers of Norway, and England drew on her colonies. Indeed, the chemist who perhaps more than any other in England is responsible for the success

1 Presented at the fifty-sixth meeting of the American Chemical Society, Cleveland, September 10, 1918.

of England's munitions program is an American; and several English chemists who were living in America returned to England for chemical duty.

With this example in mind, the director of the Bureau of Mines and the Secretary of the American Chemical Society called on the Director of the Council of National Defense, and after consulting with him, at his official request, undertook to obtain a census of American chemists for use in the war that was already imminent. This census was started in February 1917, and has been kept up uninterruptedly to the present time. By July, 1917, some 15,000 chemists had sent in full data as to their address, age, place of birth, lineage, citizenship, dependents, institutions from which graduated, chemical experience, experience in foreign countries, affiliations with technical societies, military training, publications, research work performed, and other data of importance. The list has been continually added to, questionnaires being sent to every new name of a chemist that could be obtained. While the list is not complete, owing to the fact that some chemists, no matter how carefully followed up, will not reply to letters, nevertheless, the data are comprehensive and as complete as they can be made.

The cooperation between the Bureau of Mines and the American Chemical Society was perfect. The bureau furnished its whole statistical force and the society put special clerks at work. The data obtained were indexed and cross-indexed on some 28,000 cards. When America entered the war every chemist was directed to keep the society informed as to his military status, and continual correspondence was carried on by the society direct with officers and privates in order that the chemists of the country might serve the country in the best possible manner. To-day the list consists of some 17,000 filled-out questionnaires, 12,020 membership cards of the American Chemical Society, and some 3,000 cards of bona fide chemists actually in war service, most of them in uniform. A card list is kept of officers and enlisted men who are graduate chemists in the United States Army in Amer

ica; another list of those in France, including both those in chemical service and in the Army and expeditionary forces not yet transferred to chemical service, and another list of those in the Navy. It is believed these lists are reasonably complete and up to date.

This work has involved an expenditure of many thousands of dollars, the writing of over 10,000 personal letters, and the sending of over 50,000 circular communications to the chemists of the country.

Already in the early part of February, 1917, the president of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Julius Stieglitz, had offered without reservation the services of the members of the American Chemical Society to President Wilson in any emergency that might arise and had received an appreciative reply. On February 15, 1917, a similar communication was addressed, by direction of the president, by the secretary of the society to the Secretary of War; and on April 11, 1917, at the Kansas City meeting of the American Chemical Society, the following resolutions were passed, which were widely circulated, and had a profound effect on the mental attitude of American chemists:

Resolved, That we reaffirm the tender to the President of the United States of the services of the members of our society in all the fields in which we are qualified to act.

That the security and welfare of the country demand the organization of all the men and facilities of the United States, so as to insure the greatest possible service and value for each.

The progress of the war thus far principally teaches us that modern warfare makes extraordinary demands upon science, food supply and finance.

For the protection and success of our men under arms we recommend the use, in their respective fields, of all trained chemists, physicists and medical men, including advanced students of these subjects.

To this end, in collaboration with the United States Bureau of Mines, we are preparing a census of chemists. With no desire to avoid field service for men of training in the professions named, we urge that those of special ability be held to the work they can best perform. Thus we may avoid

unnecessary loss from lack of control of the tools and requirements of war.

We hold that the use of platinum at this time in the production of articles of ornament is contrary to public welfare. Therefore, we recommend that an appeal be made to the women of the United States to discourage the use of platinum in jewelry and that all citizens be urged to avoid its use for jewelry, for photographic paper and for any purpose whatever save in scientific research and in the making of articles for industrial need.

66

A committee consisting of Dr. W. H. Nichols, Dr. M. T. Bogert, Dr. A. A. Noyes, Dr. Julius Stieglitz and Dr. C. L. Parsons had, in June, 1917, drawn up and presented a report on War Service of Chemists" and "A Plan for the Impressment of Chemists and for the Preservation of the Supply of Chemists." Several important editorials by Dr. Chas. H. Herty and communications to the chemists of the country advising them as to their procedure had appeared in The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.

That the wisdom of carefully listing the chemists of the country more than warranted the expenditure and effort has been apparent from the first. The war had scarcely begun when the growth of the ordnance and other departments developed a tremendous demand for chemists, first to obtain chemical information from the other side, and soon to develop information on this side. A large part of the chemists now in war work were obtained and classified from this list. The officers of the Bureau of Mines and of the American Chemical Society were the scene of continual conferences regarding chemical personnel and the development of chemical warfare. Practically all of the chemists who early entered the Ordnance Department in a commissioned capacity were either obtained through the American Chemical Society or passed upon by its officers. When the Bureau of Mines began its investigation on gas warfare the list was invaluable, and representatives from practically all of the bureaus and departments in Washington consulted it from time to time as their needs increased.

When the chemists were later drafted into the Army this census served as a basis for de

termining their qualifications, which later, through the far-sighted assistance of Assistant Secretary Crowell, resulted in chemists being withheld for chemical service.

From the first the chemical personnel of the Army and Navy and the civilian bureaus was partly civilian and partly military. As the war progressed the proportion of chemists in uniform naturally increased as the men were taken from the Army and assigned to chemical duty. The question is still a disputed oneto be settled probably only when the war is over-as to whether a chemist can serve best in a civilian or a military capacity. Certainly in both capacities the demand for chemists has been unprecedented and the development of chemistry in modern warfare to those in touch with the advancement made seems almost a fairy tale.

The first requirement for chemists in quantity in Washington was in connection with gas work organized by Director Van. H. Manning and carried on by the Bureau of Mines with its own funds until July, 1917, after which, steadily increasing funds were furnished to it by the Army and Navy. The gas research work was located at the Bureau of Mines Ex

periment Station some four miles from the center of the city of Washington.

A branch laboratory of the Bureau of Mines was also established at the Catholic University, Washington, and other branch laboratories and cooperative research work carried on at such institutions as Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Washington, Kansas, Michigan, Columbia, Cornell, California, Rice Institute, Iowa State College, Bryn Mawr, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Worcester Polytechnic, etc. Also special problems were undertaken by the National Carbon Company and the National Electric Lamp Association, as well as by chemists and laboratories of many of our other important chemical corporations.

One of the most interesting features of this work was the spirit shown by American chemists and the immediate response made by practically every chemist in America to the call to duty. The organization was rapidly built up

and contained the names of the most prominent chemists in the country, as well as those of hundreds of young chemists who will later become prominent.

When this organization was taken over by the Chemical Warfare Service in June, 1918, there were over 700 chemists at work on problems having to do with gas warfare, the design of gas masks, protection against toxic gases, development of new gases and the working out of processes for those already used, the details of incendiary bombs, smoke funnels, smoke screens, smoke grenades, colored rockets, gas projectors and flame throwers, thermal methods for combating gas poison, gases for balloons and other materials directly or indirectly connected with gas warfare.

This body of chemists reporting to Colonel G. A. Burrell had nearly 1,100 helpers in the way of clerical force, electricians, glass blowers, engineers, mechanics, photographers and laborers, so that when it became a part of the Chemical Warfare Service some 1,800 persons were transferred, of whom over 700 were chemists among them the leaders of the profession. At the same time the gas defense operations of the Medical Department under Colonel Bradley Dewey, consisting chiefly of the large scale manufacture of gas masks and gas mask chemicals, the gas offense proving grounds under Major William S. Bacon, and the gas defense training under Major J. H. Walton were also transferred to the new Chemical Warfare Service. The story has been told in detail in the September number of The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry and need not be repeated here.

Shortly after this work of the Bureau of Mines was begun the development of the Ordnance and Medical Department created an additional demand for chemists. The chief of the Trench Warfare Section, Lieutenant Colonel E. J. W. Ragsdale, early called for chemists to go to England and France in a commissioned capacity to obtain necessary information. Soon other chemists were required for the planning and building of gas plants and the manufacture of chemicals. The Trench Warfare Section continued this

work in greatly increasing personnel until the early part of 1918, when the chief of the newly formed Chemical Service Section was transferred to the Ordnance Department and given charge of the production of chemicals for gas warfare. A new arsenal known as Edgewood Arsenal was established for this purpose. Hundreds of chemists and engineers were employed, and the arsenal had become almost a city in size, with enormous plants ready for operation, when it too was transferred from Ordnance to the newly organized Chemical Warfare Service, in June, 1918.

It was a real epoch in the history of chemistry in warfare when, as a result of conferences held at the Bureau of Mines with officers from the Medical Corps, War College, General Staff, Navy and civilian chemists, the Chemical Service Section was established as a unit of the National Army, with Lieutenant Colonel Wm. H. Walker, formerly of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as chief of the American branch reporting to Colonel Potter of the Gas Warfare Division, and Lieutenant Colonel R. F. Bacon as chief of the Chemical Service Section in France reporting to Colonel A. A. Fries, head of the Gas Warfare Division

overseas.

This was the first recognition of chemistry as a separate branch of the military service in any country or any war.

Later, Colonel Walker, as before stated, was transferred to the Ordnance Department, and was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel M. T. Bogert. The latter was in charge of the American branch of the Chemical Service Section at the time this section, together with all of the gas research laboratories and personnel of the Bureau of Mines, and the plant and field operations of the Ordnance and Medical Department pertaining to gas warfare, were united under Major General William Sibert, under the new title of Chemical Warfare Service.

It can not be brought out too strongly that the Chemical Service Section of the National Army was the first organized military body established for the sole purpose of relating chemistry to warfare. It took as an insignia