mention the work of two of our graduates who have worked out methods for the synthetic preparation of important organic compounds. One has succeeded in making glycerine from sugar; another in preparing tartaric acid from starch. Both of these bodies are relatively expensive substances. Glycerine has heretofore been prepared from fats, tartaric acid from grapes. The synthetic methods produce them from relatively cheap materials, viz., starch and sugar. In as much as sugar can easily be made from starch, the importance of these processes is self-evident.

Another class of problems that are being investigated have to do with California petroleum. This is one of the most promising fields of research. The use of this material for the manufacture of gasoline, kerosene, lubricating oil, and asphaltum is familiar to every one, but the employment of petroleum as a source of the raw material for the manufacture of chemical products is not so apparent. It would be beyond the purpose of this paper to discuss this subject in detail. We may speak of one product, however, for its importance at the present time is very great. This is toluol, and the starting point of trinitrotoluol. The ordinary sources of toluol-coal and gas-will probably not yield the desired amount. California petroleum offers a source for making up the deficiency.

Other problems that have been worked on in connection with petroleum are methods for increasing the amount and quality of the gasoline and kerosene fractions and for improving the character of the lubricants. All are of great importance in the present issue.

Another problem of importance is the disposal of wood waste. But little use is made of this material in California. Most of it is burned in order to get rid of it. In a few cases potash is obtained from the ashes. At various times. wood distillation plants have been erected, usually on a small scale. Attempts have been made to convert this material into alcohol and other products. Some of these methods promise well. The character of the products vary

greatly with the variety of wood employed. California has various woods that are indigenous and give unusual products. One of our graduates has shown that the stumps of the redwood yield relatively large amounts of phenol, or carbolic acid, of an unusual degree of purity. It is from this substance that many of the high explosives are made; lyddite, melinite, ecrasite, shimosite are all derivatives of phenol. The importance of this discovery is selfevident. Various cresols are also formed which are also valuable chemical products.

Many experiments have been made in our laboratory on the numerous trees and shrubs indigenous to California, and we have extracted new chemical products of the most varied nature. Oils, waxes, tanning materials, substitutes for rubber, alkaloids and other drugs, coloring matters that can be used for dyes, and numerous other materials have been separated and their properties studied.

The manufacture of essential oils from native and cultivated plants offers a large field for research. Various investigations on this line have been carried out in our laboratory and some industries of this nature have been established under the direction of our graduates.

The subject of the utilization of wastes from industrial processes is one of the greatest possibilities, and here again our department has been of service, and our graduates have succeeded in overcoming many difficulties and creating new industries.

The above résumé indicates briefly the character of the problems that the Department of Chemistry has been endeavoring to solve. In addition, we have attempted to compile a list of the chemical industries of the state with a view to obtaining data for assisting the technical men in their problems. We conduct an extensive correspondence, answering questions of a chemical or general scientific nature. We give advice to inquiring visitors, asking for information or assistance. Some of these questions entail considerable research, but it is always the endeavor of the

department to be of assistance to the citizens of the state and to help them in every way possible.

The difficulties of our work has been increased by our inability to obtain necessary apparatus and supplies. Much of these materials were made in Germany, and it is only recently that the American manufacturers have been able to supply the demand. Added to this was the greatly increased cost of such supplies as were obtainable. The California State Council of Defense generously came to our assistance. Without their aid it would probably have been impossible for us to carry out our work. We were also greatly handicapped, as a large proportion of our staff was called into the national service, greatly increasing the burden on those that remained. The department has carried on its regular work in addition to these war problems. Its endeavor is to be of service to the state and to the nation. Each man has done his duty, has speeded up as much as possible, has worked longer hours, has done his work in the face of sometimes great difficulties, and has not become discouraged or apathetic. This has been the work of the Department of Chemistry in war time.

THE PASSION OF OUR BROTHER THE POILU

Translated from the French by A. W. RYDER

With an introduction by G. CHINARD

MARC LECLERC

[The following poem was composed in March, 1916, by a soldier of the army of Verdun between two trips to the trenches. This name and this date might of themselves serve as introduction. They would not suffice to explain the success enjoyed in France by "La Passion de Notre Frère le Poilu." In the trenches at Verdun, among the simple territorials of Anjou, the Angevin poet, Marc Leclerc, has caused the spring of medieval popular poetry to gush anew from the soil torn by German shells. The enemy may furiously destroy the monuments of past centuries; our brother the Poilu has preserved the vision of Paradise which his ancestors endeavored to depict on cathedral windows. Toward God and the saints he feels the familiar confidence which the simple of former days felt for the Being, infinitely good, whom they found very near to them and, as it were, a portion of their daily life. The poem of Marc Leclerc is simple and somewhat sly, without being disrespectful; it is picturesque and highly colored, while still remaining deeply religious; with no claim to depict the French soul entire, it will prove pleasing, in its American dress, to all those who love to find, in the France of today, certain of the abiding characteristics of France.-G. C.]

I

He was a poor beggar, a poor Poilu,
Who went to the war, as he had to do.

No doubt he would have found it right

To be somewhere else than in the fight;
But since 'twas duty sent the call,
Well, he just went, and that was all.

For to the Poilu it was plain

There was no reasoning with his pain;
In war-time, lads who plough must serve,
Even the broken-down reserve.

"Tis plain to see not all the mob Can hope to get a munition job;

'Tis clerks and workmen they must find For duty on the Front Behind.

Sure, it's worse in the fighting van,
If you're only a common soldier man;
Most shells you see are from a gun
That's being handled by a Hun.

Our gunners send some too, you bet;
And everyone says they're better yet.

II

The Poilu and his comrades made A night attack with hand grenade; 'Twas ugly weather for the raid.

Black night, and falling snow, and sleet,
And shell-holes made to catch your feet,
And drop you on your face-or seat.

There were quite enough big holes around; Farther you went and the more you found, As if they'd rained all over the ground.

III

Crack! And the burst of a five-point-nine

A couple of rods from the fighting line.

The Poilu cried, "My God, I'm hit!''
And slipped to his knees from the shock of it,

Then flat. And on the earth a tide

Of blood from the poor lad's broken side. "Pete," he said to the corporál,

"You must tell the wife at home, old pal.