THE IDENTIFICATION OF NICOTINIC ACID AND ITS' ESTERS 63 also been located. R F values for these esters using this solvent, however, are very close together, and work continues in search of a suitable solvent for their wider separation. Tl•e RF values for nicotinic acid and tetrahydro- furfuryl nicotinate obtained by this method are compared below with those obtained by the cyanogen bromide/benzidine method of Huebrier. Huebner Method. Present Method. Nicotinic Acid 0.19 0.23 Tetrahydrofurfuryl Nicotinate 0-95 0.94 It may be noted that such chromatograms of nicotinic acid continue to exhibit fluorescence in ultra-violet light even 20 days after their preparation. The author wishes to thank Dr. R. H. Marriott for his interest in the work and the directors of County Laboratories Ltd. for permission to publish this paper. REFERENCES • K6nig, W., f. prak. Chem., ii, •19, 105 (1904). a Huebrier, C. F., Nature, l•I?, 119 (1951). a Melzer, H., Zeitschr. Anal. Chem., 87, 345 (1898).

TOWARD A UNITED NATIONS OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS * By S. J. STRIANSE, Preqident I• THE year 1945, the American cosmetic chemists took a great step forward when they formed the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. The twelve alert and far-sighted founders of •his Society had one common objective, and that was to increase the professional stature of the cosmetic chemist through technical advances and dissemination of the Scientific information so fundamental to the growth of this industry. In the twelve years that have passed since that historic conception in 1945, the cosmetic chemists, through this Society, have made tremendous strides. Let us review very briefly some of these accomplishments: 1. The Society has been built into an organisation of more than 600 members, taking in chemists from almost all of the major companies in the industry. 2. We have published regularly a journal whose material is abstracted in scientific publications, kept in important technical libraries, reprinted widely, and referred to in all serious work. 3. We have held meetings and seminars at which major papers have been presented, not only by chemists but by dermatologists, physicists, and other scientists. 4. We have sponsored special awards and medals through which out- standing workers have been honoured. Three years ago a Briton, William Poucher, received the U.S. Society's most distinguished honour, the Medal Award. 5. We have, in short, gained recognition for the cosmetic chemist as a man of science, who takes his place in the world of science. 6. Shortly after the Society in the U.S., the British Society of Cosmetic Chemists came into being. Its membership (some 300 in all) comes not only from the United Kingdom but from the far reaches of the Commonwealth. It, too, publishes a journal, which all of you and many others read. The Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists is the only scientific publication published by two independent societies, with consecutive pagination, in two different countries--a most distinguished venture in international relations in itself. These are all real accomplishments. I am sure we all agree that the cosmetic chemist has gone far along the road of co-operation and progress. * Presented on November 12th and 20th, 1957, respectively, in Chicago and New York. 64