CHEMICAL BOOKS

The gift of the Association of Harvard Chemists to the Department of Chemistry which is announced in today's CRIMSON serves to bring to general notice an otherwise obscure group of Harvard men. Most Chemists have a habit of keeping pretty close to their laboratories and mingling with the immutable laws of nature rather than the variabilities of human social life. Any organization, however specialized, which brings these men together with others in their field is a step to helping them to a broader point of view. There are of course regular national and local Chemical societies, but an association purely of Harvard men has an advantage in that it supplies a common meeting ground exclusively of field interest.

Obviously the Association of Harvard Chemists is fully alive to the fact that it has a double responsibility and the present gift is a material witness of this consciousness. Money in any form always has a ready welcome, and it is difficult to imagine a better stipulated use than that of buying books. The Chemical library has found adequate and very handsome quarters in the Mallinckrodt Laboratory, which-bring with them the demand that proper books be forthcoming to fill the shelves. It is very fitting that one of the earliest steps taken to fill this need has been made by a graduate society and is the outcome of the common cooperation of many individuals.