1962
JOURNAI, OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
'
AUGUST,1930
science than have been offered a t any previous period of the world's history. The problems outlined will require intense thinking and hard work. I t takes a clear mind back of hard work to bring success. Let the vounr . .scientist keen his mind clear and his conduct above reproach. R.M. P. A Suggestion for a Method of Quoting Periodicals. M. S ~ s r s n . Chem.-Zlg., 54, 309 (Apr. 19, 1930).-The abbreviations by means of which the various periodicals are designated in the American, British, and German abstract journals differ widely. This causes a good deal of trouble and misunderstanding. Furthermore, many socalled abbreviations are quite long, e. g., Abridged Scient. Publicat. Rer. Lab. Eadman Kodak Co. for the Abridged Publications from the Research Laboratories of the Eastmen Kodok Co. The author suggests that each periodical shall be designated by a number instead of an abbreviation of its name. For example, if the number of the last journal is 1200 and another journal is added, the new journal would be number 1201 and would be listed in its proper alphabetical and numerical place. L. S. The Pedagogue and Industrial Chemical Research. See this title an page 1960.
Alchemists Flourished in Ancient China. Europe was not the only region of the earth where alchemists plied their secretive trade and marketed their often spurious dismveries. I n Chma, too, this half-disreputable ancestor of chemistry reared its head, so long before European alchemy came into heing that Chinese alchemy may well he the ancestor of all the Occidental alchemies. So the Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society was told recently by Prof. Tenny L. Davis and Lu-Ch'iang Wu a t the Atlanta meeting. Alchemy seems t o have arisen spontaneously in China, where i t was certainly in existence as early as the second century B.C. The Chinese alchemists attempted to transmute base metals into gold and to prepare the elixir of immortality. They worked with the s a a e materials that were used by-the later Greek, Arab, and European alchemists -S~hnce Sewice Fastidious Colors in Gold Produced by Basewetals. Four comparatively common milady's desire for precious gold in varymetal-silver, copper, nickel, and zin-fulfil ing blends and shades of yellow, green, and white. Allaying gold not only makes for hardness and produces different karat values but, artistically done, it reveals the precious metal in color schemes, according to Edward A. Capillon, a metallurgist of Attlehoro, Mass. "The gold-silver-copper alloys vary in color from light greenish white through green, yellow, and red, depending on the relative amounts of the three metals. Green or yellowish green golds are also obtained by combining relatively large amounts of zinc with gold, capper, and small amounts of silver. The bluish uhite color of "white golds" depends on the presence in the alloy of both nickel and zinc."-Science Seruice Distillation Known to Ancient Alchemists. Distillation, one of the most universally discussed of topics since some of its products have been put on the "verboten" list, is no new thing under the sun. Some of its principles were known in ancient times, and in the heydey of the alchemists, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these old ancestors of the modern chemist knew almost all of the tricks in the Jr., of Chicago, pointed out before the trade. So Gustav Egloff and C. D. Lo-, Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society meeting recently a t Atlanta. The alchemists did not waste all of their time hunting for such fabulous things as the philosopher's stone. They rere a practical lot of artists, though their scientific knowledge mas sketchy in some departments, and they used apparatus that often had a decidedly modern look for the distilling of all manner of objects, including wood, ores, aqueous and spirituous liquids, flou-ers, and herbs.-Science Service
