Van Nieuwenburg Discusses International Cooperation M A X Y who attended the K o r l d Conclave of Chemistry i n S e w York City this month had the pleasure and privilege of meeting for the first time colleagues from other lands. The well-attended analytical sessions took o n this international color t o a marked degree because of many visiting speakers. T h e high point for analytical chemistry mas the division dinner. Hans Lieb presented the scroll and medal awarded t o Professor Feigl in absentia a t the international microchemical meeting held in Graz last year, for his outstanding contributions to spot test analysis. Earlier in the meek Professor Mellon was announced as the 1952 Fisher medalist. Our congratulations to hini in this well-deserved honor for his contributions t o analytical chemistry over many years. C. J. v a n Nieuwenburg gave the address a t the analytical division banquet and &-e quote parts of his speech, which continued the international thinking of all those who were fortunate enough t o attend these two memorable weeks of scientific stimulation.
I dare say that I should never have been invited to address you at this festive banquet if I hadn’t happened to fill, for the time being, the post of president of the Analytical Section within the International Union of Pure and .4pplied Chemistry. So I take it for granted that you expect me to give you my personal views on the possibilities of international cooperation in the domain of analytical chemistry, as indeed I am very happy to do. During the second world war and some years after, from 1938 to 1947, the Union had an excellent U. S. president, Professor Marston T. Bogert. Under his guidance, and certainly no less thanks to the initiative of his successor, Professor Kruyt, a number of reforms of the Union have been considered, aiming both a t an increase of its efficiency and a t assuring a closer cooperation with American chemists, which up to some years ago indeed left very much to be desired. I t is here not the proper place to enter into details about this reservedness. I prefer to look into the future. By far the most important reform is the creation of the six sections, on Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Analytical Chemistry, and A4ppliedChemistry. From now on the activities of the Union will he spread over these sections. The task of provisionallv starting the Analytical Section was allotted to me, so that is M hv I felt it my very special duty to consider what is internationally desirable and possible in this domain. Before all I want to emphasize that Scientific cooperation, either national or international, muPt be completely voluntary. Any form of coercion is utterly unthinkable. Compulsory teamn-ork is extremely efficient for special purposes, and desirable in its right place, but not in the front line of scientific creation. T h e speaker dealt a t some length with the changes which have produced the new broad concepts of analysis and referring t o the manner of future developments, said: Formerly the stimulus of essential analytical progress came from the universities and from these only. I t still does, but money is more readily given for a w?ll defined industrial purpose
than for spiritual ends like university teaching and the developmpnt of science, the more so if the commercial directors can be made to believe that it saves more on wages, which indeed in some cases it does. In my opinion it is no use crying over it. Let us rather try to make a virtue of necessity by building up an organized cordial cooperation between the big industrial research institutes ~ i t htheir unlimited supply of means, and the university laboratories, these latter as a rule poorer but as often aa not with a better supply of brains, .4nd this also requires international guidance. So I am glad that from the very beginning taking initiative for international meetings has been set forth as one of the foremost tasks of the section committees. But there is so much more to do, JVe are all badly in need of trustworthy data of a physicochemical nature, redox potentiah, complex constants, and PO many more. One committee of our section, under the presidency of your fellow countryman, Professor Kolthoff, hopes to see to that part of our task. Last year, during the first international gathering of microanalysts in Graz, Austria, the birthplace of quantitative microanalysis, a special Committee on Microchemistry within our section was created, We cannot be content so long as we see that there are in use a t least ten different ways of determining organic nitrogen, all according to the principle laid down by Dumas. One of them must be the best, or perhaps two or three of them according to circumstances. Let us hope that the committee under the leadership of Professor Zackerl from Vienna will be able to find them. A third Committee on S e w Reagents, under the presidency of Professor Gillis from Belgium, laid down its studies in four reports, giving a comprehensive bibliographic survey as well as a choice of the most comniendable reagents according to the best opinion, A fifth report on colorimetric reagents is ready for printing. And finally, the section is organizing a committee undex Professor Forbes, on terminology and nomenclature, both subjects which undeniably require international unification. Incidentally, it can be pointed out that industrial analysis in the proper sense does not come under our section but under the Section of Applied Chemistry. Besides all these concrete and fairly simple problems there are of course a great many more questions of general policy on which some central stimulation might be useful. Among these I would like to point out to you two which have always been very near my heart. One is the neglect of the so-called rare, or less common elements. And the other point is our detestable habit of first of all pulverizing and irreparably meseing up and destroying the structure of every sample which happens to fall into our hands. Isn’t it about time that a t least in qualitative analysis, we paid more attention to the possibility of showing the presence of the elements “in situ,” or “in loco,” in the original sample itself? I should like to express the sincere hope that in the years to come the Section may enjoy the full interest of American analysts. Let us forget the past and build together for a better future always keeping in mind Goethe’s wise words: “Let us turn our faces towards the sun, so that the shadows will fall behind us.”
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