of these events. Under the present provisions, such a petition cannot be withdrawn because the deadline for withdrawal has passed. Council's time would be taken up unnecessarily for acting on a petition for which there is no longer substantial support. This amendment will make it possible for petitioners to withdraw petitions which have been recommitted or referred to a committee in the same way as those considered for the first time. In addition, by deleting "council" in the first sentence of Sec. 2(b), this section has been made consistent with the terminology of Sec. 2(a) by making provisions for the assignment of primary substantive responsibility to society committees as well as to council committees. Signed: Guenter R. Ackermann, John A. Bauer, George R. Brubaker, Hertsell S. Conway, Joseph A. Dixon, Edward H. Gruger Jr., G. E. Inglett, Truman S. Light, Ramon A. Mount, William A. Nevill, L. H. Princen, Jean'ne M. Shreeve, Seymour Siegel, Jack H. Stocker, R. T. Van Santen, J. Wade Van Valkenburg
(This petition was referred to the Council Policy Committee, the Committee on Committees, the Society Committee on Budget & Finance, and the Committee on Constitution & Bylaws.) Final financial impact statement
The Society Committee on Budget & Finance has reviewed this petition and finds that it will have no impact on the finances of the society.
Physics Briefs now on STN International Physics Briefs is now available on STN International, the on-line scientific and technical information network formed last year by the American Chemical Society and West Germany's Fachinformationszentrum Energie, Physik, Mathematik GmbH. North American searchers can access this file, which had been offered exclusively by the INKA on-line service in West Germany, through the STN service center in Columbus, Ohio. The first non-ACS file to be offered on STN, Physics Briefs is produced by Fachinformationszentrum Energie, Physik, Mathematik in cooperation with the American Institute of Physics. The file contains Englishlanguage citations, abstracts, and index terms for more than 660,000 journal articles, books, theses, and reports on all aspects of physics published worldwide since 1979. It is searchable with the same command language used to search the CAS Online database on STN International. Fees for searching Physics Briefs are $50 per connect hour plus 10 cents for each answer displayed on-line and 17 cents for each answer printed off-line. STN International, a nonprofit information network, links on-line information centers in Columbus, Ohio, and Karlsruhe, West Germany, so that European and North Ameri-
PEOPLE Deaths
Final report of the Committee on Constitution & Bylaws
The Committee on Constitution & Bylaws, which originated this petition, has prepared a revised version to include minor editorial changes. The committee finds the petition to be legal and consistent with other provisions of the society's documents. The majority vote of council is required for adoption of an amendment to the constitution. If adopted, the amendment will become effective upon ratification by the membership. Arno Heyn, chairman
can searchers can access databases at either location through telephone connections to a service center on their own continent and search the databases with a single command language. Both the Columbus and the Karlsruhe centers produce offline prints locally to speed delivery and both operate help desks to provide local assistance to searchers. Discussions currently are under way between ACS and organizations in Japan to establish an STN service center in Tokyo. Databases currently available on the network are Physics Briefs and CAS Online, which provides searches of structure records for more than 6 million chemical substances and bibliographic and index terms for some 6 million chemical papers and patents abstracted in Chemical Abstracts since 1967. Other West German databases, including Mathematics Abstracts, the 13C NMR database of nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, and the Dechema chemical engineering file, will be added later this year and in 1985. For information about STN or to establish an STN account in North America write: STN-Columbus, 2540 Olentangy River Rd., P.O. Box 02228, Columbus, Ohio 43202. In Europe, contact: STN-Karlsruhe, Postfach 2465, D-7500 Karlsruhe 1, Bundesrepublik Deutschland. D
BATT, William G., 80, biochemist and director of Franklin Institute's Biochemical Research Foundation, Newark, Del., March 22. Batt came to the U.S. from England in 1918. He received his Ph.D. from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1938. Batt joined the staff at Biochemical Research Foundation in 1937, was named head of the microanalytical lab in 1940, and became its director in 1955. As the foundation's director, Batt oversaw cancer research and studies of aging in humans and animals. He also studied the biological applications of neutrons as part of the World War II atomic energy program. He served as director of the foundation from 1955 until retiring in 1966. During the 1950s, Batt was editor of The Catalyst, the Phila-
delphia Section's publication. Joined ACS in 1934; emeritus member. BECHTOLD, Ira C, 75, founder and president of Bechtold Satellite Technology Corp., La Habra Heights, Calif., April 14. Bechtold graduated from California Institute of Technology in 1930. He was a registered geologist, geophysicist, metallurgist, and chemical engineer. Bechtold worked as a technology utilization officer at Cal tech; for 10 years he was director of processing, engineering, and research at Fluor Corp.; he spent five years at Cyprus Mines Corp.; and acted as an independent consultant for 26 years. He was involved in diverse projects ranging from cement chemistry during construction of Boulder Dam to pipeline and processing systems installed by Fluor. His long interJuly 23, 1984 C&EN
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