VOL.9, NO. 1
WILLIAM FRANCIS HILLEBRAND
83
vestigators, and they are said to have been adopted by all the important geological surveys of the world. In his election to membership in the most important learned societies in America, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and in his elevation to the presidency of the American Chemical Society, his contemporaries expressed their judgment of his achievements. He was a reci~ientof the Chandler medal from Columbia University. A recognition peculiarly appropriate to his work was the degree of Doctor of Natural Philosophy conferred upon him by the University of Heidelberg in 1925, just fifty years after his graduation from that venerable institution. Such was the verdict of his times. And when we consider the enormous superstructure of chemical science which rests upon analjrtical foundations, we feel confident that so long as present trends in the science continue, his work will not cease to have significance.
New process saves fruit by detecting minute scratches. Oranges and other fruits that su5er heavy spoilage from blue mold and other fungi can be saved from this loss by a new method for detecting mold-susceptible specimens, the invention of Rev. Hugh T. O'Neill, and Dr. Arthur J. Harriman, both of the faculty of the Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C. The inventors discovered t h a t mold infection always takes place through breaks in the skin, such as may be made by clipper cuts, the fingernails of the workers, box splinters, projecting nails, etc. A whole-skioned orange nevey. spoils. They were able t o demonstrate this point hy keeping more than 400 sound oranges in a damp, dark cellar a period of three months (May 1t o July 30) without losing one of them through moldiness, though moldy oranges were kept among them to provide abundant sources of passible infection. Knowine thus that funaus can start trouble only if the skin is snatched or . spores . hroken, the inventon next attncked the problcm of making visihle the microwopic nicks and scratches that escape detrctivn in the grading ns pracriccd hitherto. They hit upon the scheme of using some substance that would enter these matches and make a streak of contrasting color axainst the yellow skin. Of such substances, the most practicable is a metallic salt that will react with the tannin in the tissues just under the skin and form a dark, conspicuous substance. A salt.of iron, preferably ferric chloride, is especially recommended. Any minute abrasion in the peel of the fruit is immediately madc visible as a black line. Sound fruit is left entirely unmarked. All fruit, sound or utlsound, is then washed in clear water so that all ferric salt is removed. The fruit then reaches the consumer without any substances that are poisonous or antiseptic. This obviates the use of borax, a substance much used t o prevent blue mold infection but open to grave objection where such fruit is used t o make marmalade or might be sucked upon by children. Fruit found mold-susceptible hy the new process would be culled out and sold for immediate use, or else used in canning or preserve-making or treated with a preservative. Father O'Neill, together with Dr. Harriman, has taken out patents on the process. S e w a l of the leading fruit-packing firmshave become interested in its commercial application.-Science Sc& ~
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