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years. My other three daughters arc still single and are very likely to remain so. A few days ago our botanist Bartling died, 77 years old. Farewell. Greetings from me to your dear wife, of whom at least I possess a photograph, and kindly remember, Your truly devoted, WOHLER
G6ttillgCIl, 25 February, 1876 Dear Colleague Gossmann,A thousand thanks for your exhaustive, interesting letter, the extraordinarily beautiful photograph~. and the money for the Kornrumpfs. While I was reading in the first the sketch of your varied life in America, I thought of the remarkable occurrences in this world, how I could not foresee 55 years ago, when I began my studies at Marburg, that my fellow-student GOSSlllann from Fritzlar, who played the flute so well and serenaded the belles of Marburg so often, while I held the lantern, should one day have a son, who would become one of my dearest pupils, and that the latter would now be living in America, for 19 years, in full activity and laying the foundation for a most happy existence. You can imagine how interesting it was to me to have such a vivid picture of your family. The same is true of the picture of Clark, to whom please express my hearty thanks. I consider him also as one of my most lovable pupils, especially since he and poor Manrosz were the first Americans who worked under me here. Only one had been here earlier, Me. Booth, now in Philadelphia; but at that time I was still at Cassel. One of the half dozen Americans, who are working again in the laboratory this winter, says he heard of Clark's going to Japan.... Now I have been interrupted by visitors waiting to see me, and it is high time for this letter to be posted, so that it shall arrive in due season to·morrow for the steamer at Bremen. Farewell.
OILED yeast contains nearly three times as much assimilable thiamin as does ordinary yeast. The Caucasians in the U. S. A. have a health and vigor index of 93 compared to that of New Zealand at 100. Early models of Diesel engines weighed as much as 100 pounds per horsepower, whereas one of the newest models weighs only 1.8 pounds per horsepower. One hundred pounds of scrap fats and oils will yield enough glycerin to make enough dynamite to blast 1500 tons of soft coal. The annual production of TNT ill the United States is of the order of 3,000,000,000 pounds. Supersonic waves are used to detect flaws in tires by transmitting them through water against the sides of a tire which is rolled slowly along a trough of water. Workers at the University of Oklahoma have succeeded in isolating a natural dye from the root bark of the sassafras tree. Colors obtained from it are grays, browns, and tans. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company has developed a process for the production of synthetic sponge rubber. Sponge rubber made from Koroseal is also available from B. F. Goodrich Company. It is reported that nine factories in Germany in 1939 were producing over 100,000 tons of rau' sugar from wood. Numerous
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Remember me to your wife and greet all who remember me, in· eluding Professor Shepard. In best friendship, Your WOHLER
Perhaps an opportunity will occur to you to have a translation I of the enclosed announcement printed in an American mathem&.; tical journal or newspaper. If not, then send it to the leading bookseller in New York.
The author gratefully acknowledges his indebtedneS! for valuable information received, to Drs. E. K. Bacon, C. A. Browne, Chas. W. Dabney, James Lewis Howe, Brainerd Mears, Mrs. Margaret R. Emerson, and, last but not least, to Miss Eva V. Armstrong without whose untiring efforts to secure source material this article could not have been written. LITERATURE CITED
(1) SHUMWAY, German-American Annals, 8, 17l (1910). (2) SMITH, J. CHEM. EDUC., 20, 315 (1943). (3) DUNNINGTON, ibid., 5, 1&3 (1928). (4) "Liebig-Wohler Briefwechsel," F. Vieweg. Braunschweig, 1888, Vol. II, p. 323. (fj) "Goessmann Memorial Volume," Mass. Agric. Coli., Amherst, 1917. «() Columbia Alumni News, 17,301 (1926). (7) BROWNE, J. CHEM. EDuc., 7, 499 (1930). (8) Ref. (5), p. 173. (9) MAGEE, "An American Student Abroad," The Magee Press, Philadelphia, 1932. (10) BROWNE, J. CHEM. Enuc., 17,457 (1940). (11) GETMAN, ibid., 16,353 (1939). (12) BROWNE, ibid., 5, 656 (1928). (13) MCPHERSON, ibid., 5, 1554 (1928).
plants have been built since then in Germany and itt the occupied territories. Hundreds of millions of cubic feet of lumber are treated annually by chemical processes to combat the destructive forces of nature. This is the chemist's method of reforestation. D. F. G. Swann has calculated that the positive and negative charges in a cubic inch of iron, if separated and placed at points one inch apart, would exert a force of more than one hundred million million million tons. As a consequence of the tremendous aluminum production, the postwar automobiles may be as much as 1500 pounds lighter than at present, which reminds the writer of a prediction by De Palma, the race magnate, some 12 years ago, that the next major advance in automotive engineering would be a marked re· duction in the weight of the car. Colloidal silver sulfonamides, \yhich arc effective aud non· irritating in treating diseases of the eye, nose, and throat, have been produced from sulfanilamide, sulfathiazole, and sulfadia· zine by Dr. Milton Wruble of the Upjohn Laboratories. Deficiency of folic acid, a newcomer to the B-complex group, may be the cause of white blood cell anemia, which is frequently an aftermath of the use of sulfa drugs. ED.
F. DEGERl1'iG
