NEWS
186
Today the exhibits of the chemical industries are predominantly American, and show our great advance in this field in vivid fashion. A high point in the meeting at the Chicago World's Fair this year will be a banquet to honor those who attended the chemical meeting in 1893. This will be a unique occasion. Few, indeed, are those whose span of active participation in chemistry totals forty years. And it is particularly notable that those whose careers began at an AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY meeting a t a
World's Fair forty years ago, when chemistry was but meagerly represented, can again gather at a world's fair where science is the keynote, and where the gains of forty years in chemical science and in chemical appreciation are so unmistakably shown by the character of the exhibits and by the place of honor given this branch of knowledge. The following men now living are known to have attended the meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY in 1893: W . D . Bigelow A. W . Bur well Pontius Conradson F . B . Dains Moses Gomberg G. H . Goodell C. H . Herty William Hoskins
H. H . H u s t o n Lewis Kahlenberg J. B . Lindsay K. P . McElroy C. E . Munroe W. A. Noyes C. L. Parsons C. L. Reese
Vol. 11, No. 12
EDITION George W. Rolfe Ludwig Saarbech A. H . Sabin F . T. Shutt
H . E . Smith Alfred Springer J u l i u s Stieglitz A. L . Winton
Undoubtedly there are others who attended t h e 1893 meeting, who have been inadvertently overlooked- That the record may be complete, and that the committee m a y know who will attend the commemoration dinner, it is requested that they advise Gustav Egloff, 2120 Straus Building, Chicago. The veterans of 1893 will be the guests of the Chicago Section on this occasion. In urging the chemists of America to come to Chicago this year, may we quote from t h e words of the invitation t o the 1893 meeting, which are as true today a s they were forty years ago: The lake breezes do much t o render the c l i m a t e moderate. N o one need be d e t e r r e d from attending the conference o n account of fear of severe heat. I n view of t h e large number of eminent chemists, h o m e a n d foreign, who h a v e already signified an intention t o attend, a n d the valuable character of the papers t h a t will b e presented, t h i s meeting w i l l doubtless b e the m o s t im portant gathering ever held by chemists in t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s . T h e t i m e and place are therefore particularly auspicious, a n d t h e promise of a most success ful and enjoyable occasion very great.
Foreign Chemists t o Attend Chicago Meeting of the A . C. S.
GEORGE
BARGER
PAUL
KARRER
J. N . BRONSTED
RICHARD
WILLSTATTER
having to do with the theory of acids a n d bases, and acid and basic catalysis, as well as the general theory of solutions. September 10 t o 15, 1933. The following paragraphs give brief PAUL, KARRER, of Zurich, Switzerland, has confined his re sketches of these men and direct attention to their principal search during recent years chiefly to the pigments of plants interests and achievements: and the vitamins. H e started with the anthocyanins and after GEORGE BARGER is fifty-five years of age and is the first occu- these came the important group of the carotinoids. In collabo ant of a chair of medical chemistry in the University of Edin- ration with H. von Euler, he discovered t h a t t h e a- and βurgh. This chair was founded in 1919. He is an organic chemist carotene have a vitamin A effect, whereas the other carotinoids who has devoted himself especially to the study of substances of are without biological efficiency. The constitution of the most biological and pharmacological interest. He prefers clear-cut important carotinoids (lycopene, carotene, xanthophyll, zearesults to speculation, and is most interested in the determination xanthin, crocetin, bixin) could be well established by means of the constitution of natural substances, and its confirmation by of degradation, as well as with the help of synthesis. synthesis (of late years thyroxine, methionine, various alkaloids). In connection with his work on the carotinoids he took u p Residence in various countries during his youth, and numerous the question of the purification and constitution of vitamin A, subsequent visits, have made Professor Barger well acquainted and succeeded in preparing i t in a highly purified state and also with the Continent of Europe. He speaks half a dozen languages in elucidating its chemical constitution t o a considerable extent. and during the last twelve years has devoted much effort to He has recently started some investigations on vitamin C. promoting international relations among men of science. In RICHARD WILLSTATTER, of Munich, Germany, formerly pro 1928 he was Baker lecturer at Cornell and Dohme lecturer a t fessor of chemistry a t the University of Munich, is now carry Johns Hopkins, and traveled from coast to coast; in 1931 he ing on private research in the laboratories of the Bayerische lectured a t Heidelberg throughout the summer semester; he Akademie der Wissenschaften at Munich. Doctor Willstatter has also given many single lectures in Europe and America. was Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry i n 1925. H e cele His publications include several monographs: ''Simpler Natural brated his sixtieth birthday in 1932. Bases," 1914; "Some Applications of Organic Chemistry t o From 1893 to 1910 Doctor Willstatter worked upon alkaloids, Biology and Medicine," 1930 (Baker Lectures); "Ergot and from 1904 to 1910 on quinones, later on t h e benzene theory, Ergotism," 1931 (Dohme Lectures); and also an elementary catalytic hydrogenation using platinum, experiments to convert textbook "Organic Chemistry for Medical Students," 1932. cellulose into sugar, investigations on chlorophyll, and t h e isola In his exhaustive ergot monograph he has shown a distinct tion of a series of pigments from flowers. Since 1918 be has been penchant towards historical investigation. conducting investigations on enzymes, using the method of Professor Barger is a corresponding member of various Euro selective absorption based on the work of A. Danilewski, and in pean academies, chemical and biological societies, and has re studies on efficient adsorbing substances, such as t h e different ceived several honorary degrees including an M. D. degree from hydrates of aluminum. He is the author of numerous publica the University of Heidelberg. tions. J. N. BR0NSTED, professor of physical chemistry at the PhysicalDoctor Willstatter has been selected by t h e Chicago Section Chemical Institute of t h e University of Copenhagen, Copen of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY to receive the Willard hagen, Denmark, is particularly interested a t present in problems Gibbs Medal September 13. FOUR DISTINGUISHED FOREIGN CHEMISTS will be guests of the
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY during its meeting in Chicago,
p
R o o m s h e l d b y t h e h e a d q u a r t e r s h o t e l , t h e S t e v e n s , f o r r e s e r v a t i o n b y m e m b e r s o f t h e AMERICAN m e n t s m u s t b e made w i t h o u t d e l a y t o i n
