where a Norwegian company had a concession for the utilisation of papyrus. He carried out experiments with that papyrus, treating it by the sulphate process; and then made experiments with wattle wood and crushed wattle bark by the sulphate process. Recently he had made experiments with bamboo. The author proposed to carry out his digesting process in steps, first taking away the starchy matter and pectoses by boiling water and very diluted caustic soda. The author claimed that the action of the sodium hydroxide on the lignins did not take place before 130° C. That was right, and then most of the sodium hydroxide was already used up in dissciving the starch and the pectoses, but by the sulphate process there were two actual solvents on the lignine compounds, i.e., sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphide. Sodium sulphide was a very strong resolvent for lignin, especially at high temperatures, and he believed that sulphide acted more strongly on lignin than sodium hydroxide, over 130° and 140° C. In treating bamboo, the sodium hydroxide would first dissolve the starch and the pectoses. That process would be completed at about 130° C., and then the sulphide would begin to act and would completely dissolve all the lignins in the bamboo. Another point about the sulphide was that it did not act upon the cellulose fibres, and, therefore, higher yields were always obtained when the sulphate process was used, about 5 per cent more yield on the material being obtained by using the sulphate process than by using the other process. When treating coniferous woods with sodium hydroxide, a brownish-coloured pulp was always obtained, owing to the fact that during the boiling the iron in the wood and the iron in the apparatus were dissolved by the sodium hydroxide and precipitated into the fibres. When the sulphate process was used, sodium sulphide dissolved all those iron precipitates, and a light greyish pulp was obtained instead of the brown pulp. In all his experiments he had only used bamboo chips, as he considered the crushing of the complete culms was not economical from a practical point of view; it required more power and he believed it was not good for the fibre. With regard to the yields, with the soda process, by a proportion of 19 to 20 per cent he had obtained 42 per cent of unbleached pulp, requiring from 16 to 18 per cent of bleaching powder on the pulp, and an average bleached yield of 37 to 39. With the sulphate process he obtained yields of from 43 to 45 per cent, with a consumption of bleaching powder of 12 to 14 per cent, the proportion of actual alkali (NaOH Na2S) being 18 to 20 per cent. When bamboo was cooked and made into a well-boiled pulp it was very easy to treat. The washing process was very easily carried out, as the water penetrated through the pulp very readily, and the washing time was reduced to about one-quarter of the time required on coniferous woods. Chipping the bamboo without considering the nodes was not good; there were too many nodes in the material and there would be a loss during boiling of about 5 to 6 per cent. The culms could be pressed in pressing rollers and then the pressed culms allowed to pass crushing rollers, which opened up the nodes and did not crush the internodes. The flat pressed culms with the crushed nodes could be chipped into chips of in. to in. in

length. By that process a loss of only about to 1 per cent of the material would be obtained, and at the same time the actual capacity of the digester could be utilised to deal with about double the amount of material that could be treated if crushed bamboo were employed.

Mr. Heyerdahl exhibited to the meeting some samples of bamboo pulps.

Mr. HAMEL SMITH remarked that, having always been very keen on the utilisation of bamboo for paper making, he would like the author to say what sort of gospel it would be safe to preach to the tropics in the time to come. It was very easy tobe too sanguine on such points as had been outlined that afternoon, but after hearing a paper such as that which had been read, one realised the many technical difficulties which arose. Any one who had been used to sugar plantations could not help feeling that bamboos should be able to be cultivated on the same lines. One grew the cane within a certain area of the factory, taking good care to have the factory rather low down, if possible, because then the loads could be run down hill and the empty trucks up hill with greater facility. Also in regard to the question of transport, one should centralise the roadways or waterways so as to remove the finished product with greater facility. The experience on one estate, it seemed to him, might help on the other. Whether the production of paper from bamboo would ever become a private enterprise seemed a little doubtful. It was one of the queries he had often been asked, and he had never been able to give any satisfactory reply. Probably those who had been in the tropics would know that bamboo had been rather in bad odour on account of mosquitoes. The last estate he was on used to have the most beautiful bamboos surrounding it, but he believed that the medical authorities ordered them to be destroyed as they collected water after the rains, thus making a breeding place for mosquitoes. Would that sort of trouble rise in connection with large areas of cultivated bamboo for a factory? The sanitary authorities might raise the difficulty that the bamboos were inclined to encourage the presence of mosquitoes to a dangerous degree, and thus lessen the chances of final success.

Mr. ARTHUR BAKER (Chairman of the Technical Section of the Paper Makers' Association) said the paper was the outcome of long and painstaking research in bamboo by Mr. Raitt, and showed what a great industry the paper trade was. In Canada and the United States the consumption of paper for newspapers alone was two million tons a year. Taking the question of bamboo and grasses, and considering it from the point of view of an industry which might be started in India, one had to look at the position of that country as a market. India was not a very big market for paper. He supposed that in pre-war days it used probably about 80,000 tons of paper a year, of which the Indian paper mills, some nine in number, produced about 32,000 tons. India had imported about 10 or 12 thousand tons of pulp, more than one-quarter of which had come from Germany and Austria. So that industry could not be started on any considerable scale. He agreed with the author as to treatment; he thought the sulphate process was undoubtedly the best, and that crushing was the correct method of dealing

Government. Where his gifts justify it, he will be provided with the best education which the country can offer. In the advanced classes of certain Lycées as many as 75 per cent of the pupils hold bourses. The Government maintains schools of university grade for genius. Entrance to these schools is by competitive examination, and the number to be admitted each year is limited. Such schools are the Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Ecole Polytechnique. In the Ecole Normale literary and scientific studies are both provided for. On the literary side the nmber admitted annually is limited to 30; on the scientific side to 22. The number of candidates for admission in science is normally about 150, all young men of exceptional ability. Of these then about 85 per cent are rejected. It is to be noted also that of those accepted, many will have made the attempt more than once. Conditions are pretty much the same in regard to the literary candidates. The students at the Ecole Normale follow the lectures at the Sorbonne. They also have special courses of their own, which are sometimes supplementary to those of the Sorbonne. They live in residence, study under direction, have a library at their disposition, and work in their own laboratories. After three years in residence, the students are again sifted by examination. The most gifted are directed toward the career of the university professoriate. The others supply a brilliant nucleus for the teaching staffs of the Lycées. Those students whose way has been paid by the Government are under obligation to take service with it for ten years, and it in turn is under obligation to furnish them with employment. Half the students at the Ecole Normale are under these conditions.

The number admitted annually to the Ecole Polytechnique is in the neighbourhood of 200. These would normally constitute about 20 per cent of those who write on the examination for entrance. The course at this great engineering school lasts for two years, after which the student is sent on to the Ecole des Mines, the Ecole Centrale, the Ecole d'Artillerie, or some other school for a practical course. Of this school Joffre, Foch, Pétain, Nivelle, and others of the more notable French generals in the war just past are graduates. It was with a certain satisfaction that one learned that a Frenchman had been appointed General-in-Chief of the Allied Armies; for it was practically certain that he would be a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique. This would be a sure guarantee of his intellectual calibre, for he would be select among the select. One could rest assured, too, that on top of his course at the Ecole Polytechnique he would have received an advanced technical training proportioned to his natural ability.

There is a strong mathematical trend to the training given in the Ecole Polytechnique and it is quite remarkable what a number of famous mathematicians have been turned out by this school. It is hardly necessary to add that graduates of the school whose way has been paid by the Government are under obligation to take service with the Government. The Government, too, finds good use for their services, not alone as officers, but also in important civil capacities.

The candidate who fails to obtain entrance to the Ecole Normale or the Ecole Polytechnique

may have better success with the Ecole des Mines, or the Ecole Centrale, schools also with limited admission. In any case there will be nothing to prevent him hearing lectures at the Sorbonne, for attendance on the courses given there is not limited as at the other schools I have mentioned.

In England it will shortly be as in France that the boy of exceptional ability will be able to pursue his studies as far as he will, however indigent the circumstances of his parents may be. At present there is nothing to prevent him completing his course in the secondary school, for plenty of scholarships to that end are offered by the county councils. There are also more than enough scholarships in classics for entrance to the universities. In science and moderns, however, such scholarships are lacking. The funds to redress the balance here have been promised, so I am told, and it will not be long until arrangements have been made which will provide for carrying the boy of outstanding ability right through the secondary school and the university, or higher technical institution of university grade, and training him for research if his tastes incline that

way.

The experience of the Naval Dockyard Schools in England furnishes an interesting commentary on the amount of brain waste there must be in classes of the community where better educational opportunities are not available. The schools here referred to are conducted for the benefit of shipwright apprentices who work in the Dockyards. The apprentices who distinguish themselves in their studies are transferred to the Engineering College at Keyham for a year, and if their showing justifies it, they are then sent on to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich for the three years' course at that Institution.

at

The majority of the present Constructive Staff the Admiralty Dockyards were formerly students at the Dockyard Schools. These same schools have furnished a succession of distinguished Directors of Naval Construction at the Admiralty. Among these one might mention Sir William White, the designer of the pre-Dreadnoughts, and Sir Philip Watts, designer of the first Dreadnought; others are Sir E. Reed, and Sir N. Barnaby. Sir J. Marshall, who started as an apprentice in a Dockyard school, became, later on, Director of the Dockyard. Sir J. Biles, Professor of Naval Architecture at Glasgow, had the same start, and this was the case also with Mr. S. J.

P. Thearle, formerly Chief Surveyor of Lloyd's. Others could be named who have occupied or who are at present occupying commanding positions with some of the largest private shipbuilding concerns in Great Britain.

What a pity it would have been had such precious material been lost to great Britain. What a pity it is that so much material of like character has been lost and is being lost to Great Britain and the Empire. What a pity it is, too, that in Canada no adequate effort has been made to salvage equally good material.

The indications are that Great Britain will, in the near future, realise more largely on her latent intellectual resources than she has done in the past. To compete with Germany in technically trained men, however, she will have to increase the flow of students from the secondary schools to the universities and higher technical institu

that of the plant which was being utilised for war purposes, and the factories so erected were all held in readiness to begin operations as soon as the war was over. The expectation was, of course, that these new plants would be paid for by the Allies, and no expense, therefore, was spared in their preparation. It is hardly necessary then to remark that Germany, so far as the chemical industry is concerned, is in splendid condition to resume competition with the other nations of the world.

It evidently behoves the Allies to increase not only their university attendance, but more particularly also their output of research workers. This would be advisable under any circumstances. It becomes doubly urgent in the face of a German competition backed by an ample supply of scientifically trained workers. Nowhere is it more necessary to take stock of one's scientific position than it is in Canada.

The figures already given for university attendance do not appear to place Canada in an unfavourable light as compared with countries other than Germany. Gauged by the second set of figures, however, Canada as a whole, and even Ontario, show to disadvantage in comparison with Germany. The actual diadvantage, too, is greater than that implied in the ratio of 8 to 14. For the 8 Ontario students would, on the average, be less mature than the 14 German students, and would include among them a smaller proportion who are engaged on more advanced work, and preparing to do research. If we limit ourselves to the upper ranges of University work, that is to say, to the preparation of research workers, Canada hardly compares with the United States, and Ontario itself is quite outclassed by certain States of the Union. It may be remarked, however, that we in Ontario are getting under way.

I have referred to the assistance in the form of scholarships and bourses extended to the poor boys in England and France. We have nothing. that corresponds to this in America. Our idea of a scholarship is a comparatively small prize not at all proportionate to the keep of a boy for a year, let alone several years in succession. Our nearest approach to the English conception of a scholarship is what we call a fellowship. This, however, is only available to a graduate student. The attached stipend is usually a meagre one, and the fellowship may or may not be renewable for ' a second or third year. It is often utilised, too. as a pretext for securing a certain amount of cheap teaching.

(To be continued).

THE REVISION OF THE ATOMIC WEIGHT OF LANTHANUM.

PRELIMINARY PAPER-THE ANALYSIS OF

LANTHANUM CHLORIDE.

By GREGORY PAUL BAXTER, MUNEO TANI, and HAROLD CANNING CHAPIN

IN line with the recent determinations of the atomic weights of neodymium (Baxter and Chapin, Journ. Am. Chem. Soc., 1911, xxxiii., 16; Baxter, Whitcomb, Stewart and Chapin, ibid., 1916, xxxviii., 302), and praseodymium (Baxter and Stewart, ibid., 1915, xxxvii., 516), the atomic

weight of the closely related element, lanthanum, has been subjected to investigation by a method essentially identical with that used for the other two elements. This investigation was begun independently by Chapin, who purified by fractional crystallisation a considerable quantity of lanthanum material and began the analysis of the chloride. A second sample of impure lanthanum salt was fractionated in a similar way by Tani. Although it has not been possible to complete the analysis of a sufficient number of fractions of material to fix the atomic weight of lanthanum beyond question, yet since the work has been interrupted for an indefinite period, the preliminary results are presented in a brief fashion.

The Purification of Lanthanum Salt. The purification of the lanthanum material was effected by fractional crystallisation of the double ammonium nitrate. The original material used by Chapin was very kindly furnished by Dr. H. C. Miner, of the Welsbach Light Company. The material fractionated by Tani consisted of the less soluble portions resulting from the fractionation of crude praseodymium ammonium nitrate (Baxter and Stewart, loc. cit.), which also had been furnished by Dr. Miner for the previous investigation on praseodymium.

According to Auer von Welsbach, in the crystallisation of the double ammonium nitrates, the bases separate in the order, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, terbium, and ytterbium earths (A. von Welsbach, Sitzungsb. Acad. Wiss. Wien, 1903, cxii., 1043). Because the lanthanum separates at the head of a series of fractions the purification of lanthanum is simpler than that of any other rare earth. It is also economical of material, because rejection of fractions containing impurities is necessary at only one end of the series. The fractionation was carried out by dissolving the double nitrate in a very dilute solution of nitric acid and allowing the salt to crystallise. The crystals were then dissolved and recrystallised; the mother liquor was evaporated to crystallisation. The mother liquor of the less soluble fraction was now combined with the crystals of the more soluble and the process continued until the number of fractions was 12 or more. The mother liquor of the most soluble fraction was frequently rejected. The crystals from the least soluble fraction, as soon as it became small, were, in the case of Chapin's fractionation, separated and preserved to be united later with similar fractions, but the mixture was never returned to the fractionation series. In Tani's fractionation, as soon as the least soluble fraction became very small, it was set aside, and later added to the extreme fraction of a later series of crystals, so that no material was removed from the less soluble end of the fractionation series.

In Chapin's fractionation, 96 series of crystallisation were made, involving over 2300 fractions. In Tani's fractionation, although the number of series of crystallisations was the same, the total number of fractions was only somewhat over 1100, owing to the more frequent rejection of the most soluble fraction. The final series contained 39 fractions in Chapin's, 12 in Tani's fractionation.

The crystallisation was continued in both cases until the most soluble fraction, when its absorption spectrum was examined, seemed to be free