THE ANALYST. 59 ADDRESS OF THE RETIRING PRESIDENT. (Delivered at the Meeting, Pebruary Ist, 1899. IN addressing you at the close of 1897, I had the melancholy duty of recording the deaths of an illustrious honorary member of the Society and of three ordinary members. This year, I regret to say, we have again to record the death of an illustrious honorary member, Lord Playfair, whose chemical career is sufficiently well known to chemists to render it unnecessary for me now to do more than call attention to the fact that it was in recognition of his interest in the question of food adulteration, and of his successful exertions in the House of Commons for the improvement of the Bill passed in 1875, that he was elected an honorary member of this Society. During the past year also we have again lost hy death three ordinary members.One was our late lamented Vice-president, John A. R. Newlands, a, chemist of remarkable ability, whose name will long live in connection with the history of the development of chemical thought during our time, on account of his early enunciation of what has since become known as the Periodic Law of Newlands and Mendelejeff. He was a very old and universally beloved member of this Society, and the rooms of the Chemical Society and other haunts of London chemists have been sadder and duller during the present session by reason of the disappearance froni among us of his bright face and genial voice. Mr. J. Napier and Mr. F. P. Perkins, whom we have also lost during the year, were both old members of the Society, though they had not been in the habit for many years of attending its meetings. Mr.Napier was well known as Public Analyst for the borough of Ipswich and for the county of Suffolk, while Mr, Perkins had for many years occupied the position of Public Analyst for the city of Exeter. Seven members of the Society resigned their membership during the year, and four associates were elected to the full membership of the Society. I n addition to these, we elected five other new members and five associates. The net consequence of these changes is that we numerically lost one honorary member and one ordinary member, gaining one associate. The following figures show the numerical condition of the Society for the last four years : January, 1896. January, 1897. January, 1898.January, 1899. Honorary members . . . 10 11 11 10 Members ... ... ... 210 218 223 222 Associates ... ... 26 29 31 32 246 258 265 264 _- - - This is perhaps a fitting place for congratulating the Society upon having recently adopted, on the advice of the Council, a considerably modified scheme of constitution and rules. The changes which have been made had been for a long time under the consideration of the Council and officers of the Society, and I hope and believe that they will result in a gain on the part of the Society, in efficiency as well as in numerical strength. It is scarcely necessary t o remind you, except for historical purposes, of the60 THE ANALYST. principal change which has been made. I told you that at the close of 1898 we had thirty-one associates ; now we have no associates.It was formerly our rule that only the practising analyst, or the analyst having such control of a laboratory as to render him virtually a practising analyst, as distinct from an assistant, was eligible for election to our membership. The consequence was that many of our associates were well qualified chemists approaching middle age, and the position of some of them was becoming every year more and more anomalous; and we had also reason to believe that a number of chemists who could not technically qualify for membership without unduly straining our old rules, had remained outside of the Society rather than join the junior ranks of the associates. In this way, we considered that, if the Society had not actually suffered, it had at all events unnecessarily limited its strength.The range of our work has gradually grown wider, and the very large variety of analytical questions now dealt with in the pages of the ANALYST, and the always increasing circulation of that now indispensable journal, have attracted many friends and sympathizers at home and abroad, to whom we have felt that it would be graceful to open the doors of the Society, should they care to enter into closer and more friendly intercourse with us than existed in merely studying the literature which we placed beEore them month by month'in our journal. We have therefore repealed our old enactment as to the qualifications for membership, substituting a simpler require- ment, so that anyone not less than twenty-one years of age, engaged in the profession of analytical chemistry, shall be eligible for proposal for the full membership of the Society, under the conditions laid down in the rules, which will shortly be distributed among you.Additional copies of these you may obtain from the honorary secretaries, in case any of your chemical friends express to you a desire to become acquainted with them. That the change is not generally distasteful to our old associates may be gathered from the fairly long list of those whose names have been proposed this evening for transference to the rank of members, This has been already ably placed before you by our honorary treasurer. The thoroughness with which he discharges his duties is evidenced on the one side of the account by his success in gathering in our subscriptions, while on the other side, despite the iiiany calls on his purse, he is able to show a sufficient saving to increase, even though not to a very large extent, the Society's funded property.The ANALYST is necessarily an expensive undertaking, and, in addition to our other normal or necessary expendi- ture, we have during the past year expended a great deal of money in printing and postage, in connection with the distribution among members of Parliament, county councils, borough corporations, and other local authorities, of the views of the Society, as represented by its Council, on matters connected with proposed new legislation on the question of adulteration. The ANALYST, with its present large circulation, is, even from a purely business point of view, no light undertaking ; and, with the exception of those who have served on the Council-or rather on the Editorial Committee-few of you probably fully realize the labour necessarily spent, both by our editor, Dr.Sykes, and by our honorary treasurer, Mr. Voelcker, on the mere accounts of the journal," and matters incidentally relating thereto. The I need not detain you by much reference to our financial condition.THE ANALYST. 61 treasurership of the Society in early days was a very light task, but it has now grown to very serious proportions, and is really a very formidable consumer of the time that is so faithfully and ungrudgingly given to it by the present occupant of what I now regard as the most important office on the Council.Although I have thus ventured to crave your recognition of the care given to your business affairs by our treasurer and by our editor, it would seem hardly necessary that I should mention, as a self-evident subject for our gratitude, the literary labour spent by the latter on our monthly journal. We have an editorial committee, and that committee works loyally, and works hard, in the duties alIotted to i t ; and we have an industrious and able staB of abstractors. But the success of such a journal must always necessarily depend mainly upon the constant daily work of its editor-. work which, in the case of Dr. Sykes, may be almost said to be gratuitous; for, although we give him an honorarium for his services, it is an honorarium which has no relation whatever to the work that he does.Happily, he is a, man of leisure, and still more happily, he is willing to devote that leisure to the good cause of editing and managing this journal. Our editor has had still more to do during the past year than heretofore in the editing of abstracts. I cannot help wishing, however, that we had given him more original papers to edit, During the past year only twenty-one original ,papers have been read before the Society. Most of these have been published in the ANALYST, together with three other original papers. Of abstracts of papers of interest to the analytical profession, published abroad, or elsewhere than in the ANALYST, we have during the year published 296, as against 283 in 1897, and 246 in 1896. The following table shows the respective numbers of abstracts in each of these years, published under the various headings of Food and Drugs Analysis, Toxicological Analysis, Organic and Inorganic Analysis, and Apparatus.ABSTRACTS PUBLISHED IN THE ANALYST. 1896. 1897. 1898. Food and Drugs Analysis ... . . ... 55 86 72 Toxicological Analysis . . . ... ... 9 5 3 Organic ?, ... ... ... 86 87 109 Inorganic 7 7 ... ,.. ... 86 91 89 Apparatus ... ... ... ... 9 14 23 245 283 296 - The following were the papers read before the Society during the year : “ Copper ‘ Pure for Analysis.’ ” “ Note on the Tests for Distinguishing Boiled from Unboiled Milk.” ‘( The Composition of Milk and Milk Products.’’ ‘‘ The Calculation of Added Water in Adulterated Milk.” By H. Droop Richmond. (‘Japanese Wood Oil.” ‘‘ A Typical North-East Lancashire River.’’ By F.R. O’Shaughnessy. The Analysis of Marmalade.” (‘ A New Form of Condenser.” By J. W. Westmoreland. By Hanry Leffmann, M.D. By H. Droop Richmond. By John H. B. Jenkins. By L, Kidgell Boseley. By Cecil H. Cribb.62 THE ANALYST. “Water Supply in Relation to the Maidstone Epidemic.” ‘( Note on Some Apparatus.” “ Sewage Analysis, and Standards of Purity for Effluents.” By C. G. Moor, M.A. “ Note on Certain Resins.” By Rowland Williams. “The Proportion of Oxygen Present in Linseed Oil, both before and after Oxidation.” By Rowland Williams. “ Chicory, and Variations in its Composition.” ‘‘ The Sulphuric Acid in Portland Cement.” “ A Curious Meat Preservative.” ‘‘ A Method €or the Quantitative Separation of Acetic and Valeric Acids.” By “ Contributions to the Chemistry of Drying Oils, with a Method for the Exami- ‘‘ Automatic Pipettes and Burettes.” ‘‘ The Effects of Recent Drought on the Quality of Milk.” “ On the Use of the Micro-Spectroscope, and the Methods of Detecting Blood The following original papers were also published in the ANALYST.“ Note on the Volume Concentration of Condensed Milk.” ‘‘ Note on the Examination of Liniment of Camphor.” By Norman Leonard, B.Sc., “ The Relation between the Specific Gravity and the Insoluble Fatty Acids of By Matthew A. Adams, F.R.C. S. By H. Droop Richmond. By Bernard Dyer, D.Sc. By Eug. Ackermann. By Alfred C. Chapman. Alfred C. Chapman. nation of Linseed Oil.” By Otto Hehner and C. A. Mitchell, M.A. By A. W. Stokes. By A. W. Stokes. in Chemico-Legal Investigations.” (Lecture.) By Alfred H.Allen. By A. McGill. and H. Metcalfe Smith. Butter and other Fats.” By Norman Leonard, B.Sc. I ventured last year to point out that many chemists read before other societies, or published elsewhere, papers which I thought ought properly to be read and discussed at the meetings of this Society, which alone of the many chemical societies is the one which is mainly and essentially devoted to the study of chemical analysis. I still think that this is in some sense due to the fact that many suppose that we do not care to discuss here papers dealing with subjects other than those cognate to matters coming before public analysts in connection with their statutory duties under the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. I t has been at various times urged by many members, that we should attract more papers to our Society were we to drop the word “Public” from our title.While much is to be said for, as well as against, such a change in our title, and as the suggestion has been again made quite recently, I would repeat what I think I said at our recent Extraordinary General Meeting, viz., that the proposition to change our name has been long and seriously discussed by your Council, with the result that we have thought it better for the Society to advise you to retain the old colours under which you have now sailed well for five-and-twenty years. I hope, however, that the change recently made in the wording of our rules may induce some who are-not to use the word offensively- guilty of reading elsewhere analytical papers which ought to be read here, to at once seek to become enrolled as members of this Society, and to henceforth read their contributions to the literature of analytical chemistry at our meetings, where theyTHE ANALYST. 63 may surely expect to meet with a fairer appreciation than is often possible in other societies, which deal only occasionally and incidentally with analytical matters.I ventured last year to express satisfaction that the Institute of Chemistry, under the able presidency of our own late President, Dr. Stevenson, was about to see its way to granting a special diploma in pharmacology and therapeutics, such as would enable candidates for public analystships to produce the evidence of qualifica- tion required by the Local Government Board in these subjects as well as in chemistry.The arrangements then in contemplation have been completed, and the Council of the Institute now holds a special examination in these subjects, for such members of the Institute as may care to present themselves. The Institute of Chemistry is now, therefore, able to furnish the full evidence of qualification required by the Local Government Board, without a candidate being obliged to have recourse to any other Society or corporation, whether medical or pharmaceutical, or to merely individual or personal testimony as to therapeutical knowledge, which was always vague and unsatisfactory, and the acceptance of which by the Local Government Board was always a matter of uncertainty and difficulty.Whether the Local Government Board is technically right in demanding therapeutical and pharmacological qualifica- tion from the candidate for a public analystship before confirming his appointment is a somewhat vexed question which I do not propose to discuss. The fact exists that the demand is made, and it appears to be satisfactory that we can now meet it from our own recognised chemical diploma-granting body, via,, the Institute of Chemistry. Certainly no public analyst can be the worse for a fair knowledge of crude drugs, even though their examination may not come within the scope of his normal duties ; and it certainly appears to be educationally healthy and desirable that a, student who is taking, as his final examination for the associateship of the Institute, the section which relates more especially to the analysis of food and drugs, should learn sufficient practical materia medica to enable him to pass this examination.Not the least interesting to analysts among the chemical events of the year has been the completion, by the issue of its last volume, of the great work of our esteemed Past President, Mr. Allen, “ Commercial Organic Analysis,” a work which, whatever modification or extension it may have to undergo in the future, as our science develops, must necessarily live as one of the classical achievements of chemical literature, preserving the name of Allen side by side with the names of Gmelin, Watts, and Fresenius. The undertaking has been almost a stupendous one, having regard to the rapid daily growth of the subjects of which it treats.I n 1875 the most comprehensive treatise of the kind, then fairly up to date, was Prescott’s little manual on “Proximate Organic Analysis,” a book of only about 180 small octavo pages. A glance through that little book, to the eye now familiarized to the use of Allen’s splendid manual, perhaps brings home to one more cogently and more concentratedly than anything else the vast progress made by analytical chemistry during the last five-and-twenty years. Allen has not been merely the chronicler of this progress. He has largely been a contributor to it, not merely by the contribu- tions emanating from his own laboratory, which have been many and valuable, but by the educational and stimulating influence of the publication of his book.I like64 THE ANALYST. to think that, if not actually responsible for the birth of Allen’s book, the Society of Public Analysts has nevertheless had no small share in indirectly encouraging and influencing its progress and development. Although, as it appeared volume by volume, it has appealed to a world-wide circle of readers, yet I venture to think that the appreciation and personal encouragement which he has found in the little brother- hood of chemical friends banded together in this Society, have done not a little towards enabling its author to persevere unflinchingly in the heavy task to which he has devoted the best years of his life ; and I like to think, when reviewing the great progress made in proximate organic analysis during the last quarter of a century, that, in many directions, the lines of investigation, abroad as well as at home, were first marked out by the early work of inembers of this Society.The question which has engaged the attention of the Society now for some years still remains unsettled-I mean, the question of reformed legislation with regard to food adulteration. A year ago the only progress to be chronicled was that a Bill had been introduced into Parliament by the President of the Local Govern- ment Board, at the very end of the session of 1897, and simultaneously withdrawn. The Bill was a fragmentary and incomplete one, which failed to deal with the most important of the recommendations contained in the report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Food Products Adulteration, and was admittedly only put forward as a tentative measure. Your Council deemed it wise to criticise this Bill somewhat severely ; and the Bill met with so much severe criticism from so many other directions that it was not reintroduced.The President of the Local Govern- ment Board appears to have then come to the conclusion that the subject was too knotty a one to be dealt with as a whole, and he accordingly, after another session’s reflection, proposed-and, as before, simultaneously withdrew -another tentative measure, based on quite different lines, in which he proposed to deal only with agricultural products, to the exclusion of food articles of general manufacture. Such a Bill necessarily left undealt with a great proportion of the recommendations of the Food Products Adulteration Committee, though it partially embodied the spirit of the recommendation with regard to a standing authority to lay down standards or limits of composition.The Bill contained the following clause : The Board of Agriculture may, after such inq, they deem necessary, make regulations for determining the extent to 3h any deficiency in any of the normal constituents of milk or butter, or the presence of any foreign matter in any sample of milk or butter, shall raise a presumption, until the contrary is proved, that the milk or butter is adulterated or impoverished. I take it that the intention was that the Board of Agriculture should from time to time, as it deemed advisable or necessary, itself appoint a committee to talke evidence and make recommendations ; and it is quite possible, if the only articles to be dealt with were milk and butter, that the Board of Agriculture, acting with the assistance of a departmental committee appointed by itself, might satisfactorily take the place of the comprehensive standing committee of reference recommended in the report of the Select Committee.But, in the Bill of 1898, no machinery was provided for discharging the many other functions, connected with food generally,THE ANALYST. 65 which it was proposed should be assigned to the committee of reference contem- plated in the Select Committee’s report, It has been recently announced, on Government quthority, that the President of the Local Government Board has handed over the charge of the Bill to the President of the Board of Agriculture.Mr. Walter Long, in a recent speech, announced his intention of introducing during the coming session a Bill which he hoped would reduce adulteration, though from his speech it is to be feared that it will again be a Bill dealing only with food products produced by farmers. Mr. Long, however, stated, in effect, that he had been much struck by the general unanimity of the demand for fresh legislation, and that he had been approached by traders of all kinds, and by various commercial associations, far more than by agricultural interests. He was assured that there was wholesale adulteration going on in the country, and believed there was truth in the statement. He further said that it was a remarkable fact that all the statements which were made were on one side, and that no one had suggested that there was another side to the question, every assertion being to the effect that there was a great deal of frmd being perpetrated.He was satisfied that it was not a state of things that ought to be allowed to continue, and it was the intention of the Government to introduce, through himself, in the coming session, a Bill which he hoped would enable them to deal satisfactorily with the question, Perhaps it is not too late to hope that Mr. Long will yet find himself able to enlarge Mr. Chaplin’s Bill in such a way as to deal comprehensively with the question. Such a, Bill we all believe must ultimately come, and to deal with the whole question piecemeal is only to prolong the unsettled condition of affairs which has been so long causing concern to so many sections of the public.The mere question of the regulation of the use of dangerous preservatives and colouring matters is at the present time so vexed a one and so pressing a one that it would be anomalous if any Bill were introduced which did not hold out some satisfactory means of dealing with it.* The Council of this Society has more than once had its attention directed to the action of certain County Councils in undertaking to make, for the general public, in their own laboratories and at the hands of their own exclusively-engaged public analysts or medical officers, at the expense of the county rates, analyses of water and other articles at merely nominal charges, thus entering into competition with the ordinary practitioner of analytical chemistry.The Council has obtained from the Local Government Board a distinct expression of opinion to the effect that County Councils, in applying the county rates for such purposes, are exceeding their statutory powers. It is sincerely to be hoped that the effect of this declaration will be to put an end to so unfair and so unwarrantable a form of competition. I cannot close this somewhat random dissertation without referring to the very pleasant summer meeting, in which so many of us joined, at Woburn, where Dr. J. A. Voelcker was good enough to show us over the experimental farm which has been under the charge successively of his late father and of himself for over twenty years. I n historical interest the Woburn farm has now become second only to the older station at Rothamsted, and many of our members were pleased to J[. Since this address was delivered Mr.Long has introduced his Bill (February 23) into the House of The scope of the Bill is wider than that of the Agricultural Bill introduced last year. Commons.66 THE ANALYST. have the opportunity of visiting it. The recently established pot-culture station, established for the purpose of carrying out investigations on the influences of various chemical substances on plant growth, under the bequest of the late Mr. Hills, was very interesting to most of us ; and the kindness of the Duke of Bedford in throwing open to our inspection the art treasures of Woburn Abbey added pleasantly to the attractions of a most enjoyable meeting. I close this evening an official connection with the Society extending over sixteen years, fourteen years as one of your secretaries, and two years as your President. And I feel that it would be unbecoming did I not now, in taking my official farewell of you, say how much of the happiness of my life has been due to friendships formed in this Society, and did I not also make some formal acknowledgment of the much kindness-and often, I fear, much for- bearance-which you have extended to me in the face of many shortcomings, some of them conscious, and some of them (and usually these are the worst) not conscious. Not to make blunders, however, is a gift proverbially reserved for those who make nothing. Mine you have been good enough year after year to overlook, and my best consolation is thcx,t the Society has flourished in spite of them. My seat in this chair I now resign to an able and accomplished successor. My old secretarial chair, which during the last two years has been occupied by Mr. Cassal, will from this evening be occupied by a, gentleman who is not a very old member of the Society, but who is a, very loyal one. Mr. Chapman is a chemist of distinguished ability and a man of energy and industry, and he will have a good trainer in his new duties in my old colleague, Mr. Bevan, who still happily retains his post. Now a brief personal word.