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Ira Remsen, the founder of the JHU Department of Chemistry, whose lab
discovered saccarin, and who brought the "German"
model of graduate studies to the United States, left these specimens, sodium metal (left), potassium metal (right), and the eutectic
mixture of the two (center) in the Department. All three react violently with water and are sensitive to exposure to air; the eutectic
especially so since it is liquid at room temperature. They are more than 100 years old, and will hopefully be on display in the near future.
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